Monthly Archive: May 2025

Schumpeter on the Dangers of the “Tax State”

2025-05-12

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2025-05-12

The modern state, unlike the medieval monarchy, does not merely tax to sustain itself or to defend the nation. It taxes to reshape society and to manage an increasingly restive population.

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Stealth QE Or Routine QT? Unpacking Recent Fed Activity

2025-05-12

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2025-05-12

Tweets like the one we share below allude that the Fed is doing stealth QE, despite the fact that they publicly claim to be conducting QT. Given the importance of the Fed balance sheet, let's dive into the stealth QE accusation and uncover the facts.

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A Bear Market Rally? Or, Just A Correction?

2025-05-12

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2025-05-12

Assessing a bear market rally proves challenging when you experience it firsthand. It is only in hindsight that the complete picture reveals itself to investors. Of course, after a bear market rally, investors tend to review their investments and speculate on what they should have done differently.

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Swiss chemical firm Clariant sued by Dow over price fixing

2025-05-12

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2025-05-12

Ethylene: Clariant sued by Dow Europe Keystone-SDA Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector...

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US taxpayers are tiring of paying for the State of Israel

2025-05-12

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2025-05-12

A Gallup survey taken in March this year found only 46% of Americans expressed support for Israel (the lowest level in 25 years of Gallup's annual tracking).

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The Top Twenty Federal Business Subsidy Receivers

2025-05-12

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2025-05-12

These subsidies exemplify crony capitalism. The Austrian School of economics defines any subsidy as government intervention in the functioning of the economy.

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Weekly Market Pulse: On The Road Again

2025-05-12

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2025-05-12

“Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy.

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The Political Business Cycle 50 Years Later

2025-05-10

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2025-05-10

William Nordhaus coined the term “Political Business Cycle” a half-century ago. The idea was that government authorities, particularly the central bank, would manipulate the economy to correspond with election cycles, a practice that continues to this day.

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Why Elon Musk Is Right: The Case Against Subsidizing Amtrak

2025-05-10

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2025-05-10

Amtrak is always on the verge of reviving intercity rail traffic in the US, or at least that is what politicians want us to believe. The truth is that the case for defunding Amtrak has never been stronger.

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Week Ahead: Reaction to Sino-American Trade Talks, US CPI, Japan and UK Q1 GDP, and Banxico to Cut 50 bp Featured

2025-05-10

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2025-05-10

Many seemed optimistic that the weekend trade talks between the US and China will de-escalate the tension. We are less sanguine. Even if the tariffs on both sides were halved, there would still be an effective bilateral embargo. In the larger picture we are concerned that blocking PRC's  exports and denying it a direct investment …

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Earnings Revision Shows Sharp Decline

2025-05-10

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2025-05-10

The #RealInvestmentReport is our weekly newsletter which covers our thoughts on the current market environment, the risk to capital relative to the market, and how we are positioned currently. It includes our MacroView, analysis on markets and sectors, and our 401k plan manager tool. The post Earnings Revision Shows Sharp Decline appeared first on RIA.

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The Gold-Silver Ratio

2025-05-10

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2025-05-10

Mark Thornton digs into the gold-silver ratio—its wild swings, its history, and what it might mean for investors and the world at large.

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P.T. Bauer’s Reminders on Foreign Aid

2025-05-09

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2025-05-09

The late P.T. Bauer provided much insight into the issue of the so-called First World sending aid to Third World nations in the name of “development.” Bauer demonstrated conclusively that such donations actually impede economic growth in poor nations.

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The Spanish Blackout Is a Warning to the World

2025-05-09

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2025-05-09

The blackout in Spain was not caused by a cyberattack but by the worst possible attack—that of politicians against their own citizens.

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Enslavement of Native Americans in the Caribbean

2025-05-09

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2025-05-09

The transatlantic slave trade from Africa is a well-known chapter in the history of slavery in the Western Hemisphere, but much lesser known is the enslavement of Native Americans. Many of them were shipped to plantations in the Caribbean where they were worked to death.

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Truth or Consequences

2025-05-09

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2025-05-09

This week on Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon reviews The Price of Our Values by Augustin Landier and David Thesmar. While the authors claim that economists often substitute utilitarianism for moral values, they dismiss any idea of objective standards for morality.

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China Replaced US Demand. Will the US Replace Chinese Supply? Investors Hopeful of Sino-American De-Escalation

2025-05-09

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2025-05-09

Overview: After recovering impressively yesterday, the US dollar saw some follow-through buying initially but has reversed lower and is paring yesterday's gains against the G10 and most emerging market currencies. East Asian emerging market currencies that had surged have now traded lower for the past three sessions. The main talking point today is tomorrow's trade …

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Smart Money Or Dumb Money? Who Will Be Right

2025-05-09

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2025-05-09

The concepts of “smart money” versus “dumb money” refer to the level of investors’ information and experience. Smart money, typically institutional investors and often seasoned professionals, has extensive research and is more adept at data analysis. Therefore, they tend to […] The post Smart Money Or Dumb Money? Who Will Be Right appeared first on …

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Employment Data Confirms Economy Is Slowing

2025-05-09

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2025-05-09

While coming in much stronger than expected, the latest employment data confirmed what we already suspected: the economy is slowing. The reason the employment data is so important is that without employment growth, the economy stalls. It takes, on average, […] The post Employment Data Confirms Economy Is Slowing appeared first on RIA.

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Only Congress, Not the President, Can Initiate War

2025-05-09

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2025-05-09

Edwin S. Corwin in The President: Office and Powers, 1878-1957 has argued that the Constitution is a tussle for control between the executive and legislature. It is, he claims, “an invitation to struggle for the privilege of directing American foreign policy.”

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