Short and pithy is the theme this week.
- Anthony de Jasay compares Pope Francis to Che Guevara: H/t to Alberto Mingardi on this one. This pope has made a lot of great stands, but his understanding of markets and economics seems to be woefully backwards.
“If there is a constant leitmotif in the papal discourse, it is the notion of the dangers of ‘unbridled capitalism’ and the demand that it should serve ‘men and not profit.'”
- Miles Kimball posts an excerpt from Henry George: and reminds us of the following:
What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.
As an aside, this is one reason why I am not nearly as hard on the UK for the Brexit vote as most of the economists whose views I agree with. From a fundamental point of view, either an independent UK and EU will come to trade terms which are mutually beneficial, in which case it is hard to see big long-term losses to the UK, or the EU is simply a bigger vehicle for protectionism and the UK didn’t make a big mistake by jumping ship. Obviously there are other factors and middle grounds at play.
- Jason Zweig reminds us of what gold is with the title of his latest column:
Gold: It’s Still a Pet Rock
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