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- Unsurprisingly, the Vietnamese government has tried to bring all of that gold out of the underground economy. But as is generally the case, that’s easier said than done. http://bit.ly/2mFTYXC
- Against Public Policy
- From CNBC. http://bit.ly/25CwpB2
- When Obama was running these big deficits, the Fed was monetizing them with trillion dollars a year of QE's. Now, they’re not doing any. So, that means we’re going to have a massive increase in interest rates. That means stocks collapse. http://bit.ly/2BTx6Mr
- Earlier this week, the New York Fed released the latest data on US household debt, revealing it has grown to a record $13 trillion. Americans have been spending, but they’ve been putting a lot of it on plastic. http://bit.ly/2EGkudw
- #Republicans are about to run larger deficits when the economy is supposedly booming, than #Democrats ran into 2009 when we were in the Great Recession. Can you imagine the size of the Republican deficits when the economy slips back into recession?
- The combination of high levels of debt and dropping retail sales should send up a big warning sign. It could be a sign that Americans are maxed out. They’ve hit those credit card limits and spending is slowing down. http://bit.ly/2EGkudw
- #Bullard is on #CNBC claiming that technology is keeping inflation low. He is wrong. Technological improvements are masking the inflation the Fed creates. Without that inflation, consumers would benefit from even lower prices.
- Hedonic adjustments for technological advances overstate the benefits to consumers, and allow the government to understate CPI increases. Just because a computer is twice as fast does not mean it delivers twice the value to consumers.
- Conventional wisdom tells us gold should be way down. Since gold doesn’t pay dividends or interest payments, investors typically shed non-yielding assets like gold. It isn’t. People are buying gold. http://bit.ly/2EIPDJB
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Monkey's Paw Economics --- steal this book title
I was [thinking](http://ift.tt/1SmfqL3) about Mises's values-free approach to policy and economic-advocacy, ie: suitability analysis, which he undertook so successfully in Austria as a policy analyst in his various capacities, and there occurred to me a good popular-analogy to explain this approach. Suitability analysis of Austrian economics shows the disconnect between means and ends, and is very similar to the popular trope of the [Monkey's Paw](http://ift.tt/1SmfqL5), or another way to put it is [Be Careful What You Wish For](http://ift.tt/1AOGqXu). It is through suitability analysis that we can show two things, both how and why the means of the mainstream cannot achieve their policy ends, and secondarily what ends a policy is in fact likely to achieve and thus often make the very problem worse that was aimed at being improved or solved. I think with this analogy we have a good hook into the mind and interest of the average reader, and this theme could be developed strongly for a popular audience with the kinds of examples that Austrian economists have long developed over the years. But, as I am not credentialed and otherwise busy, I hope one of you will be inspired by this and take it up. Cheers :)