According to new data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, price inflation in November rose to the highest level recorded in nearly forty years. According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November, year-over-year price inflation rose to 6.8 percent. It hasn't been that high since June 1982, when the growth rate was at 7.2 percent. November's increase was up from October's year-over-year increase of 6.2 percent. And it was well up from November 2020's year-over-year increase of 1.13 percent. This surge in price inflation comes only a week after Fed chairman Jerome Powell...
Salaries
Mikhail Gorbachev: If War is the Consequence of a Policy, Then Get Rid of the Policy!
Reading this great article by the last leader of the USSR is a stark reminder of just how unnecessary and dangerous the new Cold War with Russia is. Are you really ready to risk extinguishing your entire civilization in the name of some lousy Lockheed profits and think-tanker salaries? Me...
‘They Dumped Him Like Trash’: Palestinian With Suspected Coronavirus Symptoms Thrown Out of Israel
From Middle Easy Eye: It was like a scene straight out of a horror film. That's how 25-year-old Ibrahim Abu Safiya described the moment he saw someone lying on the ground near an Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of Beit Sira village, west of Ramallah. "We approached the man lying on the ground, and he looked terribly ill," Abu Safiya told Middle East Eye. "He had an extremely high fever. He could barely move his body and he was struggling to breathe," Abu Safiya said. The man lying on the ground was a Palestinian labourer who works in Israel. He told Abu Safiya that he had been showing...
I Think I Finally “Get” The Economy
So more big Fed cash floods into the market? Back during QE2 you had partisan hack Krugman rationalizing it all (though QE had little to do with his Keynesian philosophy). Guys like Bob Murphy were saying, "Yep, this is it, get ready for the inflation." And then it didn't come. And yet, all this market interventionism, aren't there consequences. I mean, does money actually in fact grow on trees? It seems that by inflating three or four successive bubbles since the dawn of the fiat dollar, the Fed has created multiple classes of mutually-dependent over-inflated assets (housing,...
How Socialized Medicine Kills The Patient & Robs The Taxpayer
[Editor's Note: The following is excerpted from Thomas DiLorenzo's book The Problem with Socialism] When it comes to something as important as healthcare, the last thing anyone should want is for the entire system to become a government-run monopoly. [...] In fact, socialist healthcare is based almost entirely on deception. It works this way: patients usually pay nothing (or a minuscule fee) at the point of service, thereby forming the false impression that healthcare is “free.” Because it is “free,” consumer demand for healthcare skyrockets; doctors prescribe hordes of often unnecessary...
All Our High-tech Weapons May Not Help Win Wars but At Least They Are Creating Jobs
Or maybe not says Nia Harris and Cassandra Simpson at Lobelog. So where is all that additional taxpayer money actually going, if not job creation? At least part of the answer is contractor profits and soaring CEO salaries. In those six years, Lockheed’s stock price rose from $82 at the beginning of 2012 to $305 at the end of 2018, a nearly four-fold increase. In 2018, the company also reported a 9% ($590 million) rise in its profits, the best in the industry. And in those same years, the salary of its CEO increased by $1.4 million, again according to its SEC filings. It may cost a lot to...
Women’s Soccer is a Financial Loser
On July 29, 2019, U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro released an open letter and fact sheet addressed to “Friends, Colleagues and Supporters of U.S. Soccer.” Though he spends much of the letter emphasizing the organization’s commitment to “equal pay for equal work,” Mr. Cordeiro indicates that the disparity in pay between the U.S. Men’s National Team (MNT) and U.S. Women’s National Team (WNT) is not what it seems at first blush. Drawing on financial data from 2009 to 2019, “extensive analysis” reveals that from 2010 through 2018, MNT players were paid $26.4 million total, excluding...
Trump to Athletes: You Didn’t Build That
It might not be a race issue and it’s certainly not a free speech issue. An employer should have every right to negotiate the terms of employment with the employee, which may include not being allowed to protest at work. The NFL has made it against the rules for their players to express support for cancer awareness and opposition to domestic violence during games, so it’s not unrealistic to expect them to enact a rule that would forbid their players from other forms of expression like taking a knee during the anthem. However, it should be uncomfortable for libertarians to witness a...
Trump to Athletes: You Didn't Build That
It might not be a race issue and it’s certainly not a free speech issue. An employer should have every right to negotiate the terms of employment with the employee, which may include not being allowed to protest at work. The NFL has made it against the rules for their players to express support for cancer awareness and opposition to domestic violence during games, so it’s not unrealistic to expect them to enact a rule that would forbid their players from other forms of expression like taking a knee during the anthem. However, it should be uncomfortable for libertarians to witness a...
Illinois Overwhelmingly Approves Bill to Protect the Innocent from Civil Forfeiture
Today, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill that bolsters transparency for civil forfeiture and strengthens due process protections for innocent property owners. Under civil forfeiture, law enforcement agencies can seize and then take title to cash, cars and other valuables without charging anyone with—let alone convicting them of—a crime. “Through its comprehensive disclosure requirements, this law will play a vital role in keeping both the public and legislators well-informed about civil forfeiture in Illinois,” said Institute for Justice Senior Legislative Counsel Lee...