
Markets


All other things being equal
A paradox is an apparent absurdity or contradiction that, on close investigation, is found to be true. What’s happening in government right now is hardly paradoxical – it certainly appears to be both absurd and [more…]

Is Switzerland still a safe jurisdiction for precious metals investors?
Over the last two years, we’ve all witnessed state abuses of power and extreme overreaches the likes of which many average citizens had never imagined they’d see in their own lifetimes. This caused a great [more…]

Russia’s “gold peg”: Lessons for Western investors
It is undeniable that the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has polarized Western societies to an extent unseen in decades in any other foreign conflict. For over a month, we have been bombarded unceasingly by all [more…]

Cantillon effect: Who’s paying the highest price?
Every time we hear government officials announce their big spending plans, their new welfare programs and their ambitious “job creating” schemes, they always present them as being in defense of the poorest and the most marginalized [more…]

How Bad Is Currency Debasement of the Dollar?
Well, currency debasement is pretty bad, as a few key statistics will reveal, but first some background. At the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 the US agreed that it would redeem dollars for gold at [more…]

A Very Short Primer on What Causes Inflation
What almost everyone calls “inflation” is really a rise in the general price level. OK. But the real definition of “inflation” is inflation of the money supply. A rise in the general price level is [more…]

Gizza job. I could do that
As regular non-readers of the comments will know, I spent a large part of 2020 (and some of 2019) looking for a job. Looking back at my spreadsheet I made approaching 60 applications, albeit quite [more…]

Economic Idiocy Repeated, Part 2
In Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass” Humpty Dumpty tells Alice: “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Humpty’s subjective approach to verbal meanings is of [more…]