Next on my reading list.....

Back of the seat bus art 😁

"I still believe that, in the long run, the aggregate of the decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is likely to do less harm than the centralized decisions of a Government; and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster. As I said earlier in this debate, our economic medicine may be painful but it is fast and powerful because it can act freely." Sir John James Cowperthwaite, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong 1961-1971

Word of the day SQUINCH

Some thoughtful thoughts for those who like to read 🫡

Compact

When Liberals Fought Free Trade

One of the more pervasive habits of mainstream commentary is to mystify the origins of economic populism.

Stealing my own artwork and re-posting it 😎

For those that like to read....... An interesting paper exploring the nuances of what are called "sanctions" and what examples from history might teach us. I hope this extract from the conclusion isn't a spoiler! 😬 "By way of conclusion, it may serve to explain what motivated this project, and what is yet to be done. This Article’s research into the Chinese boycotts began with the recognition that most of the literature on “sanctions” in international law and politics is focused on programs by Western countries and major international organizations. This focus is not unwarranted, given the size and scope of U.S. sanctions in particular, and the millions of people who are subject to them. Nevertheless, the hypothesis was that we miss important aspects of the story by focusing only on the Western cases, to the exclusion of acts of force and resistance by smaller states or other actors. This investigation of the Chinese boycotts, it is submitted, validates this hypothesis by showing the importance of that story to the development of international law and to broadening the horizons for descriptive and normative inquiry." The paper can be accessed here..... https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4531489

The recent Bitcoin "strategic reserve" seems to have gathered a momentum. While I do foresee this being something we will see state players doing in time, I wonder if the framing of the argument, especially in the USA, has been co-opted and what we are seeing is more to do with politics and votes in the coming US election. The demographic who are100% convinced without nuance or, it seems, awareness of the subtleties of state propaganda, that "China and Russia are dumping US Treasurys and hoovering up gold to undermine dollar dominance.", perhaps are a large enough group to warrant courting for their support.

The first part of what is likely to be a number of articles on the "status" of the US dollar. If it's to be a Trump/Vance team from November what might they be thinking in terms of their plans re the dollar. https://moneyinsideout.exantedata.com/p/how-to-manage-the-dollar-part-i?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Interesting to me to see how the surveyed view perceived causes of and solutions to the effects of inflation. There's a thing with a big B that kept popping into my mind as I read this paper....maybe more should study it and hodl it 😜 First 29 pages for the reading, the rest is the data/graphs/charts. https://socialeconomicslab.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Understanding_Inflation_BNS.pdf

Some lookie lookie things for American friends

Just started reading this book

It's that time of the month again

Sunday morning vibe