The Lowdown on Debasement

Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman

“I’ve never considered the price of gold an important economic indicator. After all, gold isn’t money — that is, it is neither a medium of exchange, which can be used to make purchases, nor a unit of account, in which prices are quoted. It just sits there in vaults. And I mocked right-wing commentators who hyperventilated about rising gold prices during the Obama years, claiming that those rising prices were a harbinger of soaring inflation and a plunging dollar. They weren’t. Still, gold remains an important asset. At current prices the value of the world’s above-ground gold reserves is around $36 trillion, more than a dozen times the combined value of all cryptocurrencies.” (01/30/26)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-lowdown-on-debasement

Thomas L. Knapp

Don’t Cap Credit Cards

Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson

“Donald Trump, who once crowned himself the ‘king of debt,’ wants credit card interest rates capped at 10 percent. He has urged the industry to adopt that cap voluntarily — which is not going to happen — but also has suggested to Congress that it should impose such a cap through law. The effect of doing this would not be to save Americans money on interest payments. The effect would be to deprive many Americans of access to ordinary consumer credit, beginning with those who have lower incomes and lower credit scores.” (01/30/26)

https://thedispatch.com/article/credit-card-cap-debt-trump-catastrophe/

Thomas L. Knapp

Mass evictions in Lagos displace thousands including baby twins now living in a canoe

Source: SFGate

“Victor Ahansu was barely awake with his wife and baby twins before the grinding sound of bulldozers woke them. It was all the warning the family had, he said, before fleeing mass evictions in their historic community of Makoko in Lagos. Their house was demolished on Jan. 11, one of thousands taken down by the ongoing operation. Now the 5-month-old twins and their parents live in a wooden canoe, with a woven plastic sack for shelter from the rain. The thump of hammers fills the air as other residents of Nigeria ’s largest city break down homes and salvage what they can. … For decades, tens of thousands of people have lived in homes on stilts above the lagoon in Makoko, one of Africa’s oldest and largest waterfront communities.” (02/01/25)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/mass-evictions-in-lagos-displace-thousands-21327252.php

Steve Trinward

Why Zero-Sum Thinking Creates a Negative-Sum World

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Tom G Palmer

“Governments around the world have recently begun imposing massive sales taxes on their citizens and claiming that in doing so they are ‘protecting’ them. The additional taxes their citizens must pay are called ‘tariffs.’ At the end of the Second World War, there began a long trend toward removing extra taxes on trade, which helped to create waves of unprecedented prosperity. Lifespans and living standards rose across the globe. How easily we now take for granted what only a few generations ago seemed miraculous; how easily we fail to remember what made those seeming miracles possible: free enterprise, freedom to innovate, and freedom to trade. All of those are under serious attack around the world today.” (01/30/26)

https://fee.org/articles/why-zero-sum-thinking-creates-a-negative-sum-world/

Thomas L. Knapp

Venezuela: Rodriguez announces prisoner amnest

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

“Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez has announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, her latest major reform since the US military abducted the country’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife earlier this month. ‘We have decided to push ahead with a general amnesty law that covers the whole period of political violence from 1999 to the present day,’ Rodriguez said on Friday. Speaking at a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military officials and other government leaders, the acting president said the National Assembly would take up the amnesty bill with urgency. … Rodriguez also announced the shutdown of El Helicoide, a notorious secret service prison in Caracas, where torture and other human rights abuses have been documented by independent organisations. El Helicoide, she said, will be transformed into a sports, social and cultural centre for the surrounding neighbourhoods.” (01/31/26)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/31/venezuelas-acting-president-delcy-rodriguez-announces-prisoner-amnesty

Thomas L. Knapp