Monthly Archive: March 2025

What is a tariff? A quick guide

2025-03-12

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2025-03-12

Tariffs play a key role in US President Donald Trump’s economic strategy and diplomatic moves. But who truly benefits, and who pays the price? This video offers a quick overview of various tariffs and their impact on prices. This content was published on March 12, 2025 - 09:00 What is a tariff? Tariffs are taxes governments impose on imported goods and servicesExternal link, rendering foreign...

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Who Gets the Blame for the Upcoming Recession?

2025-03-12

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2025-03-12

What is the Mises Institute? The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property...

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State to State Secession Movements

2025-03-12

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2025-03-12

Episode 2604 of The Tom Woods Show released on February 8, 2025, entitled, “Is the U.S. Headed for Breakup (in the Long Run)?” interviewed Ryan McMaken, Senior Editor of The Mises Institute. The main topic was the breakup of the United States in the long run, also called secession.One type of secession active in 2025 is when one or more rural counties seek to secede from the current state to join a neighboring state. Many residents of the seceding...

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Are Economic Progress and Cultural Values Mutually Exclusive?

2025-03-11

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2025-03-11

Economic progress is sometimes seen as inimical to the bonds of “family, faith, and flag” that many people value. Many place such a high priority on their way of life within their own neighborhoods or communities, that losing their traditional cultural values in exchange for economic progress may not be a price they would wish to pay. This is poignantly expressed by John Slaughter, in his article “How Does it Profit the South,” as “a tinge of...

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Spending Cuts Won’t Weaken the US Economy. They Will Strengthen It.

2025-03-11

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2025-03-11

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model projection for real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2025 (Q1 2025) is now showing a slump to -1.5 percent. This marks a significant downward revision from the previous estimate of 2.3 percent on February 19, 2025.Such an enormous decline is strange. How did we go from +2.3 percent to -1.5 percent in less than a month? That kind of collapse in an economy as large as the United States is...

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Landlocked Switzerland becomes world’s largest container ship nation

2025-03-11

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2025-03-11

Switzerland now the largest container shipping nation in the world Keystone-SDA Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector...

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Swiss customs intercepted over 200 tonnes of smuggled meat in 2024

2025-03-11

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2025-03-11

Swiss customs investigates over 200 tons of smuggled meat Keystone-SDA Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector...

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Foreign Aid, Reparations, and Economic Growth

2025-03-11

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2025-03-11

David Lammy, the UK’s Foreign Secretary, has lent his voice to the growing call for reparations for former colonies in the British West Indies. Advocates argue that financial compensation would provide a much-needed economic boost to these nations, helping them overcome the burden of low economic growth. However, this view is fundamentally flawed. Akin to foreign aid, reparations are unlikely to catalyze genuine economic development. Decades of...

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German Political Consensus is Emerging, Helping to Extend the Euro’s Gains, While Japanese Data Disappointed

2025-03-11

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2025-03-11

Overview: After stabilizing yesterday, and into today, news of political developments in Germany suggest movement toward an agreement on defense spending and sent the dollar lower. The euro unwound its losses since the election. The US interest rate premium over the eurozone continues to trend lower. Japan disappointed with weak real household spending and Q4 GDP was revised lower. While most G10 currencies are firmer against the dollar, the yen...

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Why the Government’s Gold Reserve Is a Bad Thing

2025-03-11

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2025-03-11

What is the Mises Institute? The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property...

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Five Years Later, We Remember How Politicians Unleashed Covid Tyranny

2025-03-11

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2025-03-11

Five years ago, politicians and bureaucrats went berserk and pointlessly ravaged Americans’ freedom. The Covid-19 pandemic provided the pretext to destroy hundreds of thousands of businesses, padlock churches, close down schools, and effectively place hundreds of millions of Americans under house arrest. Despite all the forced sacrifices, most Americans contracted covid and more than a million were listed as dying from the virus.“Pandemic Security...

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Fragile Consolidation for Greenback to Start the New Week

2025-03-10

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2025-03-10

Overview:  The on-again off-again US tariffs have raised the level of uncertainty and lack of visibility that itself has become a market factor. The dollar has begun the new week, which could see US steel and aluminum tariffs announced Wednesday, softer, but mostly consolidating within the pre-weekend range. Most of the G10 currencies are firmer, though we note the potential downside reversal in sterling. Norway's higher than expected CPI has...

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Week Ahead: US Growth Worries and Europe’s Fiscal Initiative Weaken American Exceptionalism’s Bull Case

2025-03-08

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2025-03-08

The combination of continued growth concerns in the US and the fiscal/defense initiatives in Europe saw the dollar fall every day last week. The Atlanta Fed's GDP tracker says the US economy is contracting at an annualized rate of 2.4%, which seems exaggerated. After falling by about 50 bp in a seven-week slump, the US 10-year yield rose by about 15 basis points last week. Eurozone 10-year benchmark yields rose around 35 bp. The US premium on...

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The Swiss houses that must be demolished

2025-03-07

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2025-03-07

Switzerland has strict zoning and construction laws. Federal land use planning laws (LAT) were first proposed in 1979. Since becoming law they have been through a number of modifications. A successful vote in 2013 tightened zoning rules further. This week, SRF reported on two houses that ended up on the demolition list. Photo by Minsu B on Pexels.com Despite municipal construction approval, certain homes are on the hit list. One in...

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Swiss rent cuts possible following fall in reference rate

2025-03-07

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2025-03-07

Every three months the Federal Housing Office (FHO) adjusts the reference rate used to set rents in many rental contracts. If it goes down some renters have the right to request a decrease in rent. This time it dropped 0.25% to 1.50%.

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Pressure on the Greenback Remains Ahead of the Jobs Report and Powell, while European bonds Stabilize

2025-03-07

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2025-03-07

Overview: The greenback's drop has been extended today against most of the G10 currencies, but not the growth-sensitive dollar bloc, which is underperforming today. Still, ahead of the US jobs report and Fed Chair Powell's speech on the economic outlook, all the G10 currencies have appreciated by at least 1% this week. The Swedish krona's 6.7% rise tops the board, but the euro's 4.7% rally is its best weekly performance since 2009. The Turkish lira...

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European Bond Rout Continues Ahead of ECB Meeting

2025-03-06

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2025-03-06

Overview:  The run on the dollar has been extended today but it has stalled in the European morning. As North American traders return to their posts, the Australian and Canadian dollars, along with sterling are lower on the day. Higher than expected Swedish inflation has helped put the krona on the top of the G10 with more than a 1% gain. It is at its best level against the euro in a couple of years. Most emerging market currencies are lower, led...

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The Case Against Fordism

2025-03-05

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2025-03-05

It’s hard to imagine where we would be today in terms of economic progress, industrial production capacity and labour dynamics if Henry Ford never existed. The revolutionary system he pioneered in the early 20th century, largely known for implementing the concept of the “assembly line” (which, notably, was actually invented by Ransom Eli Olds, and merely popularized by Ford), forever changed the way companies thought about production processes. ...

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The Case Against Fordism

2025-03-05

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2025-03-05

Share this article It’s hard to imagine where we would be today in terms of economic progress, industrial production capacity and labour dynamics if Henry Ford never existed. The revolutionary system he pioneered in the early 20th century, largely known for implementing the concept of the “assembly line” (which, notably, was actually invented by Ransom Eli Olds, and merely popularized by Ford), forever changed the way companies thought about...

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Dollar Slumps while European Rates Surge

2025-03-05

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2025-03-05

Overview:  Talk emerged yesterday that the dramatic losses US equities amid recession fears in light of the rash of tariff announcements and threats would draw the new administration's attention. Commerce Secretary Lutnick suggested yesterday that President Trump may consider a compromise on Mexico and Canadian tariffs announced yesterday. There was no sign of that in the president's address to the joint session of Congress yesterday. US index...

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