Readers of the Mises Wire are most likely familiar with the Volcker moment. This was when former Fed chair Paul Volcker, in the face of steep price inflation, skyrocketed rates to nearly 20 percent. While critics of the Volcker moment complain that such a move also skyrocketed unemployment to almost 11 percent, it cannot be […]

Inflation is a mechanism that government people use to fund wars, tyrannical governments, and favors to cronies. Inflation takes away significant fractions of the real value of savings. Savings are accumulated slowly. Inflation depletes savings’ real value quickly. Inflation most greatly hurts the people who earn less income and retirees, whose income doesn’t inflate as much […]

There’s a ton of focus in financial media about how high energy prices will go, or how low they will fall. However, I think a lesser-understood aspect of this current energy and inflation problem relates to time. The Integral of Energy Prices One reason I’ve been structurally bullish on energy stocks is that […]

Faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, Sri Lanka called off an ill-conceived national experiment in organic agriculture this winter. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised in his 2019 election campaign to transition the country’s farmers to organic agriculture over a period of 10 years. Last April, Rajapaksa’s government made good on that […]

«Germany’s social peace is in great danger». Unfortunately, as tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine escalate, officials fear the situation could get worse. On Monday, as we reported last week, Russia is shutting down its main pipeline to Germany, Nord Stream 1, for 10 days of scheduled maintenance. Many in Berlin fear it will never reopen. «The situation on […]