Paving the way for a 2008 déjà vu
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Paving the way for a 2008 déjà vu

It would appear that the central planners of the Bank of England have very short or very selective memories. After adopting unprecedented easing measures during the covid crisis and after supporting the government in its efforts to flood the economy with fresh cash during that same period, the central bank…

“Whatever it takes” – Part II of II
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“Whatever it takes” – Part II of II

The Fascist Boogeyman awakes again The threat of a far-right takeover has been around for at least three decades in Europe and Italy has been one of the best “candidates” for the “beginning of the end” since the last European crisis ten years ago. Back then it was the Lega,…

Parity hysterics: What it means and what it doesn’t  – Part II
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Parity hysterics: What it means and what it doesn’t – Part II

Part II of II, by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland “Reverse currency wars”? Although the parity event may have captured the attention of the mainstream financial press and most western citizens, there’s a much bigger shift that has been going on in the background, which received much less coverage. We…

Parity hysterics: What it means and what it doesn’t
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Parity hysterics: What it means and what it doesn’t

Part I of II, by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland There’s been a flurry of articles, news stories and headlines lately over the developments in the FOREX market, specifically over the moves of the EUR/USD currency pair. As headwinds on all levels, economic, geopolitical and social, got a lot worse…

Private property rights under siege – Part II
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Private property rights under siege – Part II

Part II of II, by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg, Switzerland An astonishing acceleration Even though the downhill trajectory we saw over the last decades in terms of property rights was bad enough, nothing could have ever prepared us for what the covid crisis would bring. Even those of us who have…

Private property rights under siege – Part I
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Private property rights under siege – Part I

Part I of II, by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg, Switzerland It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to argue that private property rights, as understood by classic liberal thinkers, by those who embrace Austrian economic theory and by all member of an enlightened society, are not only the cornerstone, but also the last…

Unheeded warnings: Václav Klaus at the Marmara Forum
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Unheeded warnings: Václav Klaus at the Marmara Forum

This not the first time that Václav Klaus’ astute observations and experience-based predictions turn out to be shockingly accurate years later, and I’m pretty confident it will not be the last. Even before the examples that follow and that he clearly laid out in his address at the Marmara Forum,…

A crack-up boom in the making
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A crack-up boom in the making

The great Ludwig von Mises first described the concept of a crack-up boom as part of the Austrian business cycle theory, based on real life events that to an unsuspecting bystander might have appeared unconnected, or perhaps even quite bizarre and counterintuitive. Indeed, such a bystander might think the same…

Inflation outlook – A battle lost before it started
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Inflation outlook – A battle lost before it started

After months of consumer price increases and after countless working households found themselves in dire financial straits struggling to make ends meet, in the late May, President Biden finally revealed his grand plan to fight inflation in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. The much-anticipated response to the cost…