One of my reading projects over the past year is to learn more about empires:how they are established, why they endure and why they crumble. To this end, I’ve recently read seven books on a wide variety of empires. The…
Let’s start our analysis of Venezuela’s economic plight with two exhibits: Exhibit A is a chart of the market (free) exchange rate of the Venezuelan Bolivar and the U.S. dollar (USD), and Exhibit B is a chart of the USD.…
The U.S. dollar (USD) has gained over 35% against major currencies since 2011. China’s government has pegged its currency, the yuan (renminbi) to the USD for many years. Until mid-2005, the yuan was pegged at about 8.3 to the dollar.…
Of the many economic policies that are accepted as true yet are absolute nonsense, perhaps none is more achingly nonsensical than the notion that weakening a nation’s currency will magically make that nation prosperous. Like the equally nonsensical Keynesian Cargo…
It is widely assumed that manufacturing (a.k.a. the world’s workshop) is the source of China’s wealth. But how can this be true, given that manufacturing profit margins are razor-thin in China, and have been since the early 2000s? Given that…
VICE is both a sin and a tool in the UK and Oz. In North America, the tool is VISE. I am using vice as both the tool and sin… When stagnation grabs exporting nations by the throat, the universal…