1. Trump institutes tariffs.
2. Foreigners cash out of their US securities and stop buying treasuries.
3. Stock markets fall, 10-year rates climb.
4. Pension funds and retirement accounts are threatened, interest expense grows.
5. Fed prints boatloads of money to pick up the slack.
6. New liquidity flows into scarce assets.
7. Bitcoin moons.
What am I missing?
Upon the tariff news, the intellectually curious went back to their Mises/Rothbard/Hazlitt books to see what the greatest minds in economics have to say about the topic.
But that’s too much work for most people. Instead, they turned on their TV to see what the “authorities” are saying.
A no-coiner buddy of mine was telling me this week that bitcoin couldn’t work because humans can’t help but corrupt everything. I told him “I think you’ll learn otherwise over the next decade”.
I was wrong. He might learn otherwise over the next few weeks.
As long as taxation/inflation is the norm, people are going to fight about what the proceeds should fund. But the answer to that question can’t be given by any one person.
When people are free to spend money as they choose, they necessarily spend money towards the things they value most. Therefore, the only way to know what people value most is to let them spend their own money as they see fit rather than taking it from them via taxation/inflation.
#AustrianEconomics