Post 320

• The producers of alcoholic beverages say that the health concerns related to alcohol consumption are exaggerated.
  • I hope so.
• Shoppers continue to flock to Costco.
  • And investors to its common stock.
• Target, not so much.
  • Home furnishings sales are down over 8%.
• In Financial Ructions:
  • We look at a speech that John F. Kennedy made to the Economic Club of New York in 1962.
    • Income taxes were finally being cut.
  • A look at how money is created in the US.
    • And no, the government does not spend it into existence.
  • If the US does not increase the debt ceiling it is not at risk of defaulting on its debt obligations.
    • The only thing at risk is deficit spending.
  • The great Thomas Sowell reminds us that it was FDR’s New Deals that extended the Great Depression.
• Book Review
  • I’m excited to start reviewing the first of two books on supply side economics.
    • This one by Jude Wanniski called The Way the Economy Works: How Economies Fail – and Succeed.
      • I review the Preface, but before getting into that we review the Bretton Woods system.