After more than a decade of chained stimulus packages and extremely low rates, with trillions of dollars of monetary stimulus fueling elevated asset valuations and incentivizing an enormous leveraged bet on risk, the idea of a controlled explosion or a “soft landing” is impossible. In an interview with Marketplace, the Federal Reserve chairman admitted that “a soft landing is really just getting back to 2 percent inflation while keeping the labor market strong. And it’s quite challenging to accomplish that right now.” He went on to say that “nonetheless, we think there are pathways…for us...
spending
The Fed’s Rate Hike Is a Shot in the Dark
The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) today announced an increase of 75 basis points to the target federal funds rate, raising the rate to 1.75% from 1%. June’s meeting today was the third meeting this year at which the FOMC has raised rates. Coming into the March meeting this year, however, the FOMC had not raised the target rate since March of 2020, even though price inflation began to accelerate during the second half of 2021. Today’s 75-basis-point increase is the largest increase since late 1994 when the FOMC raised the target rate from 4.75% to 5.5%. Notably,...
News Roundup 6/3/2022
Assange A Spanish court summons former CIA Director Mike Pompeo to testify about the agency’s plan to kidnap and assassinate Julian Assange. [Link] Germany Germany will buy 60 Boeing Chinook heavy-lift helicopters from Germany for $4 billion. [Link] Russia The US announces a new round of sanctions on Russia. [Link] The US is carrying out offensive cyber operations against Russia in support of Ukraine. [Link] NATO will push its members to meet the 2% minimum requirement of spending 2% of GDP on defense. [Link] Zelensky says Russia controls 20% of Ukraine. [Link] Russia holds war games in...
The Need to Act
It’s hard not to fall into patterns. While some routines may be for the better, habits develop because they may be easier, comfortable. After weeks, months, or perhaps decades of neglect and self destructive behavior, a cycle can develop because of these bad practices. A promise is made that they will fix and recover, improve from their circumstances and rise from the ashes, ascending to heights of utopian glory...only to return to the habits that first inspired such a declaration (though each time it will be different). Ignoring the reality of accident and injury, for the purpose of the...
80+ Senators ‘Fully Committed’ to NATO Membership for Sweden & Finland, Demand Shortened Process
A significant majority of the US Senate has signed a letter welcoming Finland and Sweden into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with the group of 82 senators urging for expedited membership for the two Nordic states.
Sen. Cruz, Gen. Milley, Zelensky Say Ukraine Is Vital to National Security
As the costs of supporting Ukraine’s war effort soar well beyond $50 billion, high-level officials are seeking to sell Americans on even more military spending, with senators, generals and the Ukrainian president himself each insisting aid to Kiev is vital to American interests, amid rampant inflation, mounting shortages and monumental public debt in the US.
Press Release: Survivors of Israel’s Strike on USS Liberty Commemorate 55th Year
Survivors and of the brutal Israeli military attack against the American communications vessel U.S.S. Liberty will gather at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. on June 8 to commemorate the memories of 34 Americans who were killed and host a 55 year reunion at the Holiday Inn Arlington, Virginia on June 6-9. While patrolling in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, the USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was savagely attacked without warning or justification by air and naval forces of the State of Israel. Of a crew of 294 officers and men, including three civilians, 34 crew...
This Is Who Will Build the Roads
A common counter-argument to many libertarian principles goes something along the lines of, “Without the government, who will build to roads?" Almost everyone who has tried to debate libertarian ideology will encounter this argument at some point. In the minds of many statists, economic services that are almost ubiquitously provided by the government in the United States and elsewhere could not possibly be provided by the private sector, lest they be riddled with market failures and corruption. More often than not, they only make these arguments because they simply have never lived in a...
PayPal Releases Funds Seized From Independent Media Orgs
PayPal has reversed course after freezing thousands of dollars belonging to alternative media outlets Consortium News and MintPress News, agreeing to return money to both sites after seizing it without explanation last week.
For 12 Years and Tens of Thousands of Dollars, Is Schooling Worth It?
The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money by Bryan Caplan (Princeton University Press, 2018, 395 pages). Almost every book on education policy (and I have read a great many of them) springs from the set of assumptions that education “experts” embrace: that schooling builds our stock of knowledge and skill, that it needs to be done mainly by government, that it makes us better human beings, and that we owe our prosperity to our great “investment” in education, kindergarten through college. Among the tiny number of books that challenge the...