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Embracing Deflation

Embracing Deflation

by | Apr 16, 2024 | ,

In recent years, the specter of inflation has loomed large over the global economy, fueled by unprecedented monetary stimulus measures and supply chain disruptions. As prices have surged, concerns about the erosion of purchasing power and the threat of runaway inflation have dominated headlines. However, amidst this backdrop, an alternative perspective emerges—one that challenges orthodox opinion and suggests that deflation may, in fact, offer a path to economic stability and prosperity. Over the past four years, the United States has witnessed a staggering 20% increase in the general price...

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Embracing Hayek’s Wisdom: The Paramountcy of Choice in Currency

Embracing Hayek’s Wisdom: The Paramountcy of Choice in Currency

by | Apr 9, 2024 | ,

In an era marked by economic uncertainty and inflation, the insights of Friedrich Hayek, the renowned Austrian economist, resonate more strongly than ever. Hayek's essay, "Choice in Currency: A Way to Stop Inflation," offers a compelling argument for the denationalization of money, advocating a system that allows individuals the freedom to choose their own currencies. This concept, rooted in Hayek's broader philosophy of spontaneous order, holds significant relevance in addressing contemporary inflationary challenges. Hayek's advocacy for choice in currency stemmed from his recognition of...

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The Fed and the Fight for 2%

The Fed and the Fight for 2%

by | Mar 26, 2024 | ,

Last week, Jerome Powell & Co. met to issue an immediate decision regarding the status of the federal funds rate for March, and to provide some insight into the trajectory of monetary policy for the rest of 2024 and into 2025. As with the past few inflation readings, with January, February, and March showing inflation ticking up and underlying inflationary pressures remaining strong, talk continues to surround the Fed’s “level of confidence” whether the time is right to start cutting rates. That the Fed will cut rates is still taken to be a given, but Powell held off again last week,...

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Biden’s Myth of ‘Price Gouging’

Biden’s Myth of ‘Price Gouging’

by | Mar 12, 2024 | ,

In recent times, accusations of "price gouging" have become prevalent, often targeting producers utilizing strategies like dynamic pricing and “shrinkflation.” Such accusations, echoed by political figures including President Joe Biden, overlook the intricate dynamics of supply and demand in a market economy. Dynamic pricing, a hallmark of modern market economies, reflects the dynamic interplay of supply and demand in real-time, ensuring the most efficient allocation of resources. For, unlike static pricing, which remains fixed regardless of changing market conditions, dynamic pricing...

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Best of the Best, Worst of the Worst

Best of the Best, Worst of the Worst

by | Mar 4, 2024 | ,

The past few weeks have seen a predictable reaction to the release of (yet another) survey of “experts” regarding the proper ranking of United States presidents. Apart from the inherent problems any such attempted ranking poses, problems my colleague Hunter DeRensis aptly outlined in a previous article, is the utter awfulness these surveys regularly churn out: FDR (#2), Truman (#6), Obama (#7) and Joe Biden (#14)… Seriously? Boasting that their respondents included “current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association” as...

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And the Winner Is…Not You

And the Winner Is…Not You

by | Feb 22, 2024 | ,

Of all the government or quasi-government institutions, there is perhaps none as openly opaque in its operations and unaccountable for its failures as the Federal Reserve. For, unlike its top rivals for this most dubious of distinctions, like the CIA, NSA, or DOD, which do their law bending and money wasting largely of sight and out of mind, the nation’s money supply is so ubiquitous, so ever-present in the lives of the ordinary person that its activities must of necessity take place before the public eye. Hence, the gradual development of Fed Speak; that is, the art of speaking so...

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The China Lobby Now (Where is it?)

The China Lobby Now (Where is it?)

by | Feb 13, 2024 |

*Author’s note: while the term “China Lobby” has historically been associated with the coalition of interest groups, primarily in the business community, that grew up around support for the Republic of China in the 1920s and 1930s and which came to be closely allied with anti-communists in the United States following the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek by Mao and the communists, this article is concerned with those groups who, by contrast, favored closer ties to the succeeding People’s Republic of China. While the intensive, if often opaque, lobbying efforts of the Taiwanese government’s...

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Rate Cuts Are Coming, Ready or Not

Rate Cuts Are Coming, Ready or Not

by | Feb 5, 2024 | ,

According to the Fed’s “preferred” inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index (PCE)—you know, the one that excepts those extraneous things you never buy, things like food and gas—well, according to recent PCE readings the Fed has been doing a terrific job, justifying the formal shifting of its interest rate outlook. That is, while not promising to cut rates it is in effect laying the necessary groundwork, providing itself the flexibility to do so if, in its words, “the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals [continue] moving into better balance.” For...

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Joseph Solis-Mullen

Author of The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Danger, Joseph Solis-Mullen is a political scientist and economist at the Libertarian Institute. A graduate of Spring Arbor University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Missouri, his work can be found at the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Libertarian Institute, Journal of Libertarian Studies, Journal of the American Revolution, and Antiwar.com. You can contact him via joseph@libertarianinstitute.org or find him on Twitter @solis_mullen.



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Israel Winner of the 2003 Iraq Oil War

Israel Winner of the 2003 Iraq Oil War

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From the Foreword by Lawrence B. Wilkerson: “[T]he debate over whether oil was a principal reason for the 2003 invasion has waxed and waned, with one camp arguing that it absolutely was, while the other argues the precise opposite.” “Mr. Vogler, himself a former...

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