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imho a lot of good stuff there, tho I do take issue w/ say, "banking should be totally free". It was the inability of totally free banking to perform it's function in the beginning of the last century that made the 1913 Fed law necessary. We have to have a bank lender of last resort. The constitution requires that the value of the dollar be regulated. Talk about your inconvenient truths....

An excellent primer in ideal free-market economics.

Without a doubt the most ethical and productive way to run an economy.

And utterly unsellable to all but a small minority of voters.

A very good morning to all and HAPPY FOMC DAY!!! Stocks took a bit of a hit yesterday in mixed volume and this morning things are 'iffy'. We'll see how it makes it thru all this:

7:00 AM MBA Mortgage Index
8:30 AM PPI
8:30 AM Core PPI
8:30 AM Empire Manufacturing
9:15 AM Capacity Utilization
9:15 AM Industrial Production
9:15 AM Capacity Utilization
10:30 AM Crude Inventories
2:00 PM FOMC Rate Decision
4:00 PM Net Long-Term TIC Flows

OK, so we can always run to gold but just look where it's going: nowhere. Then again these days there's a lot to be said for not going any where...

Elsewhere:

Adam Smith Has the Solutions to Our Stagnation - James R. Otteson, RCM
How Breaking Up Banks Could Cause a Recession - Lucinda Shen, Fortune
Overspending Is Holding Back Growth - Richard Rahn, Washington Times
What 'Lower Longer' Means for Investments - Simon Constable, U.S. News
For Clinton, a Risk of Excessive Economic Caution - Eduardo Porter, NYT
Trump's Smoot-Hawley Redux Is About Special Interests - Jay Cost, TWS
Corporate Spending Flows to the Politicians - Walter Williams, Investor's
Is the Brexit Camp Soon to Triumph? - Robert Samuelson, Washington Post
The Really Dirty Part of Clean Energy - Richard Finger, The Huffington Post

Specifically it states: “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;”

Notice very few talk about the regulation of the value of foreign coins? It also says nothing about establishing a federal bank only that they can coin money and regulate the value.

In my opinion, there is no need for a lender of last choice - if the market will not lend then there is such a risk that reason indicates no lending should occur. This is directly what led to the housing crisis where lending was regulated to the point of mandating loans to those who should not have them.

In the case of government, the federal reserve is making loans to a government that is cash poor and should not be getting it without high interest rates. The only reason those rates aren’t in place is that they are attempting to prop up a currency which has been devalued due to their lack of concern of it’s value because they think they can continue to kick the can down the road forever.