Are Supply Chains and Oil Shocks Driving Zimbabwe’s Inflation? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 24, 2023 According to an article in the New York Times, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says that current rapid price growth in the economy is due to such factors as “snarled supply chains, an oil shock following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a shift among American consumers from spending money on services like travel and dining out ...
Bailing Out Uninsured Deposits Encourages Bank Runs by Jacob G. Hornberger March 23, 2023 In the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, U.S. officials decided to cover all the uninsured deposits in both banks — that is, deposits that exceeded the $250,000 insurance coverage of the FDIC. The belief was that failing to cover those uninsured deposits ran the risk that bank runs could spread to more banks. Covering those ...
Let’s Not Forget the Pre-Invasion War Against Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger March 22, 2023 The mainstream press and the Internet are filled with commentators who are expressing deep regret and remorse for having supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. That’s a good sign. But we shouldn’t forget that the U.S. government was waging war against the Iraqi people for ten years prior to its deadly and destructive invasion and war ...
The Prescience of FFF’s 2022 Monetary Conference by Jacob G. Hornberger March 21, 2023 Little did we know when we held our online conference last fall how prescient it would be. The conference was entitled “End Inflation and the Fed.” It featured some of the most competent libertarian and Austrian economics speakers giving their perspectives on the monetary, banking, and fiscal difficulties facing our nation. As most everyone knows, our ...
The Pledge of Allegiance and Government Schools by Jacob G. Hornberger March 20, 2023 The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article today by Nicholas Goldberg about the Pledge of Allegiance. Goldberg praises those independent-minded students and parents who have challenged its enforcement in public (i.e., government) schools. The Pledge of Allegiance has been used as a symbol of patriotism for more than 100 years. Today, it is recited ...
Separate Money and the State by Jacob G. Hornberger March 17, 2023 The United States once had the finest monetary system in history. It was a system that the U.S. Constitution established. It was a system in which the official money of the United States consisted of gold coins and silver coins. We often hear that the “gold standard” was a system in which paper money was “backed by gold.” ...
The U.S. War of Aggression Against Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger March 16, 2023 The U.S. invasion of Iraq, whose 20th anniversary occurs this month, provides a perfect demonstration of why so many people around the world believe that the U.S. government suffers from a very grave case of hypocrisy. While U.S. officials decry Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with great vehemence, they somehow block out of their minds their own deadly and ...
The Federal Reserve Is the Root Cause of the Banking Crisis by Jacob G. Hornberger March 15, 2023 The Justice Department has announced it is investigating the banking crisis. It will undoubtedly charge that banking officials are responsible for the crisis. One thing is for sure: It will not indict the Federal Reserve System, which is the root cause of the crisis. In fact, in its search for scapegoats, it will not even acknowledge the Fed’s ...
Why Not Let Banks Fail? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 14, 2023 Imagine that for the last 100 years, the federal government’s policy was to bail out every business that was in danger of going under. The policy would consist of shoveling large amounts of subsidies into the business in order to help it remain in business. If, however, the business failed anyway, the federal government would pay a large ...
A Cruddy and Dangerous Monetary System by Jacob G. Hornberger March 13, 2023 For a long time now, I have been maintaining that America’s cruddy monetary system was headed toward a crack-up. Of course, it’s always impossible to predict the exact timing of such a crack-up but it’s not difficult to predict that at some point in time, the crack-up will occur. For a long time now, we have seen out-of-control ...
Killing Communists with Impunity by Jacob G. Hornberger March 10, 2023 The New York Times recently carried an interesting article about the death in 1973 of Pablo Neruda, one of the most renowned poets in the world. Neruda was a Chilean citizen. He was also a strong supporter of Chilean president Salvador Allende, who the Chilean national-security establishment, with the encouragement of the U.S. national-security state, ousted ...
Drug-War Blindness Among Drug-War Proponents by Jacob G. Hornberger March 9, 2023 Yesterday, I wrote about two American tourists who were kidnapped and killed by a drug cartel in Matamoros, Mexico. I pointed out that if it hadn’t been for the drug war, those two people would be alive today. That’s because drug prohibition gives rise to violent drug cartels. No drug war would mean no drug cartels, ...
