Greggs sausage rolls, XL bullies, “cheeky” Tesco runs and a holibob to Magaluf: welcome to Keir Starmer’s miserable meal-deal Britain. This summer’s collective swoon over “Britishcore” — a wry celebration of the groaningly mundane aspects of British culture, which reached …
Starmer’s relaunch was cursed
It is a rare curse for a government to be forced to relaunch so soon after entering power. Yet with the Labour Party and its leader currently exploring new depths of unpopularity, the explicit aim of Starmer’s speech to conference …
Grocery Rationing within Four Years
There is a lack of public comment and debate about Kamala Harris’s call for price controls on groceries and rents, the most stunning and frightening policy proposal made in my lifetime.
Immediately, of course, people will reply that she is …
Victoria’s Covid Lockdown Debt Bomb
A leading credit rating agency has blamed the Andrews Government’s prolonged lockdowns for Victoria’s ballooning debt, as the state stares down the prospect of a credit rating downgrade within the next year.
Victoria’s capital, Melbourne, had the longest lockdowns in the …
Housing Versus “Housing” in Fed Data
The housing price data has screamed out, “What inflation cooling?” The Case-Schiller index for June came in at an all-time record high and was up by +6.5% over last year.
So if you happen to be a wage worker you’re …
How BlackRock ditched the Democrats
A year into the Biden Administration, the asset management group BlackRock appeared to recognise what other financial institutions had missed: the shift to a “new investment order”. Covid-era fiscal stimulus, wrote a panel of the firm’s executives, was here to …
Fifty Shades of Central Bank Tyranny
The United States has had a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) since the late 1990s—or possibly even as far back as the 1970s, depending on how you define it. Definitions matter. Just as the bestselling novel 50 Shades of Gray …
This Is Not Capitalism
The word capitalism has no stable definition and should probably be permanently retired. That won’t happen, however, because too many people are invested in its use and abuse.
I’m long over trying to push my definition over someone else’s understanding, …
What Is Really Going on at Federal Agencies?
Years ago as an intern in D.C., and long before the agencies all locked their doors to visitors, I had the occasion to putter around the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
These were obviously …
Rate Cuts Will Achieve Nothing
Here is the result of the Fed’s misbegotten pro-inflation policy since it officially adopted its 2.00% target in January 2012. According to our trusty 16% trimmed mean CPI, the price level is up by +41% since then, and was still …
The Trajectory of Emergency Lands on Price Controls
The US’s serious bout of inflation – mirrored in many countries in the world – was set in motion in the first week of March 2020, like much of the rest of our ongoing emergency. This was a fortnight before …
You Might Own Nothing Sooner Than You Think
Imagine a world where ownership is a distant memory, replaced by an eerie semblance of joy in dispossession. In 2016, Klaus Schwab, the enigmatic architect of the World Economic Forum, foretold a future whereby, in 2024, humanity would be stripped …
What Did $6.5 Trillion in Money Printing Achieve?
Here we go again. The Fed has spent the last 16 years fueling the mother of all financial bubbles on Wall Street. And by way of spillover effects on the mortgage market, it has also fostered parallel bubbles in commercial …
Throne and Altar: Delusional Messianic Expectations
Poorly formed expectations are premeditated resentments.
This piece of wisdom occurred to me recently while reflecting on the beginning of the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. Our Lord performs the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish as …
China’s plan to defeat the West
In the five-year political cycle of the Chinese Communist Party, the Central Committee’s Third Plenum is often considered the most important for the setting out of transformational and strategic economic goals. In reality, there have only been a couple of …