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2 months ago | 
horrorworld.org | Andrew Byers
BogganmorMark N. DrakeAethos Publications (February 4, 2025)Reviewed by Andrew ByersMark N. Drake returns to the foreboding and wonderfully atmospheric Darkisle in Bogganmor, the fifth installment in the Glennison Darkisle Cases series. Once again, Jack Glennison, Drake’s hardboiled 1920s-era private investigator, takes center stage as he delves into the island’s increasingly entangled mysteries of the occult, cosmic horror—specifically the Cthulhu Mythos—and human frailty.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Andrew Byers
Consider the fictional little country of Dynamia. Although, strictly speaking, this place is a product of my imagination, my imagination here sticks closely to essential facts of reality. Dynamia is very much like a real-world country in a modern market-oriented society.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Andrew Byers
Early on in my introductory economics course I warn my students always to beware of various logical fallacies, none of which is more prone to sow confusion than the fallacy of composition. This fallacy is committed whenever someone concludes that that which is true for a part of the group is necessarily true for all of the group. The classic example is standing up in a stadium to get a better view of the game. If one or a small number of people stand up, these folks do indeed enjoy a better view.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Andrew Byers
For a hot minute in 2022 and 2023, MMT or Modern Monetary Theory rose to prominence in the lexicon of the mainstream media reporting on monetary policy and inflation. If you recall talk about a trillion-dollar coin, that was related to MMT. Although it’s been largely dismissed after our recent bout of inflation, MMT had one intriguing idea (missed by some folks) beneath all the nonsense: the fact that the money supply and overall spending can fluctuate independent of Federal Reserve policy.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Andrew Byers
As beltway watchers intently debate the incoming administration’s cabinet picks and White House appointments, the more jaded observers of our economic condition have good cause to wonder: what difference does it make? The political order is dominated by high-dollar special-interest lobbyists and power-hungry bureaucrats, and lacks the incentives to reduce intervention and return decisions to the people.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Andrew Byers
In 2016, near the conclusion of his second term, President Barack Obama was asked by Chris Wallace about his greatest mistake as president. Obama didn’t hesitate to respond. He said his “worst mistake” was “probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya.”Five years earlier, a coalition of NATO members, led by France, Britain, and the United States, intervened in the Libyan civil war and overthrew the government of Muammar Gaddafi.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Andrew Byers
As we enter 2025, inflation remains a primary concern, frustrating consumers and confounding policymakers and Economists alike. From 2019 to 2023, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 25.7 percent, reflecting a broad increase in the cost of goods and services. Grocery prices (not included in CPI) also rose by more than 25 percent and put additional strain on household budgets.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
smallwarsjournal.com | Andrew Byers |Kelsey Warner
In July 2024, three Palestinians and a Turk, all with possible connections to terrorist organizations, were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while attempting to illegally cross the Southwest border from Mexico into the San Diego area. One of the two Jordanians who attempted to breach the USMC Marine Corps Base at Quantico in May 2024 was confirmed to have crossed the Southwest border illegally before being detained and then released into the United States.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Andrew Byers
Some years ago, I found myself in a debate with the former editor-in-chief of one of Canada’s largest newspapers, who had since recycled himself to chair of a provincial Liberal party. In Canada, the term “liberal” occupies a space between “European liberals” (closer to classical liberalism) and “American liberals,” though it aligns more with the latter. I argued that the party should drop the label, as it no longer carried any liberal values.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Andrew Byers
At my blog, Café Hayek, I identified some errors that appear in a new piece, in the Atlantic, by Oren Cass. Cass’s essay is titled “Trump’s Most Misunderstood Policy Proposal” – that proposal being Trump’s call for higher tariffs. Key to Cass’s case for tariffs is his insistence that people who are free to buy imports impose what economists call “negative externalities” on their fellow citizens.
