Falling Interest Causes Falling Wages

Interest rates have been falling for over three decades. Conventional economics has two things to say about this. One, inflation expectations are falling. Monetarists believe that the interest rate is set based on bond traders’ predictions of future price increases. … Read More

Incentives Trump Intentions

Milton Friedman told us to assess a public program by its results, not its intentions.  Similarly, Thomas Sowell advised us to think with our heads, not our hearts.  If you do as they suggest, it changes everything.

If you assess … Read More

Shoot for Perfection Over Profit to Get More Profit: Why Managing for Means Beats Managing for Money

It’s a journey.  H. Thomas Johnson’s seminal book on the lean enterprise, Profit Beyond Measure,[1] remains not only one of my favorites and most recommended, but also perhaps the most insightful book written on this subject to this day.  Dr. … Read More

Gold and Silver Price Predictions

We’re still at the start of a new year. The question on everyone’s mind is whither the prices of gold and silver? This Brief presents our answer (and the full Monetary Metals Outlook 2015 report gives our reasoning).

One approach … Read More

The Dollar is Debt, Not Money

I wrote what I thought was a fairly simple article for Forbes recently. I noticed that some people really got it, and they were very excited. However, others were skeptical or asking questions that went into the weeds. The former … Read More

From Middle Earth to Renewed Earth

Perhaps J. R. R. Tolkien’s most salient contribution to theology is the doctrine he called the principle of “sub-creation.”  By it, he meant that we make according to the principle by which we are made.  That is, like all things … Read More

How Digital Gold Will Make You Anti-Fragile

Banking is the business of borrowing from the public on demand, and lending those demand deposits to the public at term.

“On demand” means payable immediately.  “At term” means not payable until some point in the future.

Therefore banking is … Read More

Netanyahu Challenges the World to Take the Israel Test

I spent the day listening to Benjamin Netanyahu and George Gilder — Netanyahu in his brilliant speech before Congress and Gilder in his equally brilliant The Israel Test.

Here’s the takeaway:

If the poor of Palestine set aside their compulsive … Read More

Yellen’s Testimony Suggests Rates Will Rise This Year

In her recent testimony to the Senate and House, Janet Yellen ruled out an interest rate increase in the immediate future. However, she hinted that a rate increase would occur this year. This was largely in line with the thinking … Read More

Christians in Myanmar: Give Back Our Land

“This IS our family land.” L.N., an energetic pastor and a community activist, expressed his mind through his thick-accented English. With a wave of his hand, he directed our eyes to nearly 20+ acres of open land featuring mature trees, … Read More

For Some, Ebola a Most Profitable Venture

In the Andy Hardy movies Mickey Rooney’s idea for raising money was always “Hey, gang! Let’s put on a show!” Nowadays it seems you put on an epidemic.

That’s not saying West Africa planned to have an Ebola outbreak. But … Read More

The Swiss Franc Will Collapse

I have worked to keep this piece readable, and as brief as possible. My grave diagnosis demands the evidence and reasoning to support it. One cannot explain the collapse of this currency with the conventional view. “They will print money … Read More

Government Should Thank Apple

Just a few years ago, Tim Cook and other Apple executives were dragged into Congress to explain why they were minimizing taxes. Huh? Isn’t that what all companies should do? Apple wasn’t doing anything illegal. It was legally dodging corporate … Read More

Central Bank Follies

On January 15, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) sent shockwaves through world financial markets when it abruptly abandoned the “peg” under which it has kept the exchange rate between the Swiss franc and the euro at 1.20 SWF/EUR since … Read More

Lower Energy Prices Could Be Inflationary

I read a short article Friday morning about when the Federal Reserve might increase interest rates. One money manager interviewed argued that the drop in oil prices means that the Fed will raise rates later than initially thought. This argument is … Read More

Norway: Proof Socialism Works?

The Nordic “socialist” countries have received an unusual amount of attention in international news lately. While Sweden, Denmark, and Finland have received attention for a political crisis, a formal claim on the North Pole, and a complicated relationship with NATO respectively, Norway has … Read More

How Japan Beat the U.S. By Imitating It

The Ford Motor Company’s Highland Park Plant is today’s Model. Early Ford engineers and production managers’ relentless pursuit of productivity improvements and efficiencies through the development and implementation of flow significantly dropped prices while also driving up wages and … Read More

Too Big to Succeed: Why America Should Swap Smarts for Scale

Take a standard in industry for over 50 years and chuck it. British economists George Maxcy and Aubrey Silberston in 1959 developed and published a cost curve which describes the relationship between the total cost per unit and annual production … Read More

Would You Quit Your Job?

“Take this job and shove it. I ain’t working here no more.” These are the lyrics of an old country song sung by Johnny Paycheck. That was his stage name. Maybe he should have called himself Johnny No-Paycheck. After … Read More

No Christmas for Hong Kong‘s Umbrella Revolution

The “Occupy Central” protests in Hong Kong, also called the Umbrella Revolution (Chinese: 雨傘革命), are a civil disobedience campaign for universal suffrage and to democratize the nominating process of political candidates.  On 28 September, protesters blocked both of the east–west … Read More

Once Again, the Fed Drives Stocks Higher

What a difference a week makes. Friday before last, gloom and doom ruled the markets. The S&P 500 had plunged 3.5% in just one week. Investors were dumping stocks apparently because they had somehow become convinced that low oil prices … Read More

Is God a Libertarian?
Ancient Israel Was A Nation Without a Congress

The only branch of modern or ancient government that God included in Israel was the court system. The courts of ancient Israel settled disputes between citizens. Families and tribes enforced the decisions of the judges. The lower courts judged … Read More

Establishment Survey Stronger Than Household Survey

Friday’s Employment Situation report, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, gave the market a lift in the morning; but stocks gave back some of the gains by the end of the trading day. The headlines, which the media focused … Read More

Move Over Jack Ma, Hu Was on First

It was the American playwright, Eugene O’Neil, who wrote: “There is no present or future – only the past, happening over and over again – now.” Coincidentally, the biography of Hu Shiue Yan (胡雪巖/胡雪岩), a Chinese business tycoon, also conveyed … Read More