Guido Hülsmann’s Abundance, Generosity, and the State provides readers with an explanation of the nature and causes of gratuitous goods. Hülsmann demonstrates how free markets are infused with both intentional and unintentional gratuity, and how the repressive and permissive interventions of the modern state lead to their destruction.

One hears little today of the US “twin deficits,” a phrase familiar during the 1980s when the US had consistently run both federal budget deficits and international trade deficits. Economists hypothesized at that time that there was a theoretical and/or empirical relationship assuring the two deficits’ increasing or decreasing together.

From time to time, similarities are pointed out between two heterodox schools of economic thought: the Austrian and the feminist. Among the common characteristics are critiques of neoclassical assumptions about the mathematization of economics and a focus solely on economic issues to the exclusion of social and cultural ones. However, it seems that these commonalities are only superficial, and in reality, these schools are more divided than united.

In early September 2023 we reported on the Producer Price Index, the PPI. This price statistic takes a back seat to the Consumer Price Index in media reporting and the policy-setting agenda. Back then we explained what it was and what it was telling us about the economy.

The weak GDP figure for the first quarter came with a double negative: poor consumer spending and exports, plus a rise in core inflation. The US administration’s enormous fiscal stimulus underscores the importance of considering the weaker-than-expected data.

A deceleration in consumer spending, a decline in the personal savings ratio to 3.6%, and poor exports added to a set of figures for investment that were also negative when we looked at the details.