Peter's Blog

American households are plummeting to razor-thin financial margins as the personal savings rate falls to numbers last seen before COVID.  Personal savings fell from around 4.3% of disposable income in January to just over 2.5% in April, all as the cost of living continues to climb. Americans are drawing down reserves to cover groceries, housing, […]

In popular culture, entrepreneurs are often praised and speculators are to be shamed. They are seen as fundamentally different classes of individuals. An entrepreneur is described as someone who creates something and actually cares about their mission. A speculator seen as someone who shifts around between different industries for only the goal of financial reward. […]

One of the central ideas of Austrian economics is that local knowledge cannot be encapsulated and transported into a different situation; however, relevant information can be transported within the price system. This insight suggests that only individuals will have the best information regarding their lives, and that only towns will have the best information regarding […]

Whether one is a fan or a foe of AI, almost everyone believes in its incredible world changing power. What I’m about to tell you might be a shock, but AI will not fundamentally change the way the world works. While it does have some unique capabilities, it is far from the panacea that most […]

Although most stablecoins are touted as the next step for currency and a needed player in financial innovation, they have several fundamental flaws that make them even less suitable than the American dollar. Stablecoins are electronic currencies tied to USD, and in most situations, stay within a few percent of the dollar’s value. While historically […]

For decades, the military and industrial complex has stood as a reminder of Federal power and waste, with a system of contracts and research methods that seem almost inherently expensive and slow. While the defense industry increased spending, and used funding inefficiently, most people in the latter half of the 20th century still accepted the […]

Modern payments technology simultaneously shows the beauty of technology as well as its fragility. Through compression of information and allowing for lower data use when transactions are being made, they are able to allow transactions to occur more fluidly and they let the underlying currency fulfill its role as a medium of exchange more effectively. […]

Can Japan just keep propping up the yen forever?  At a certain point, Japan won’t be able to just keep dumping dollars and Treasuries to prevent its currency from imploding.  With an economy so sensitive to rate hikes after decades of zero-interest rate policy, the Bank of Japan can’t endlessly jack up the cost of […]

Before the upcoming midterm elections, a record number of incumbent House Republicans are set to retire. Historical data suggests that this is going to make it extremely difficult for Republicans to hold onto the House. When a large number of incumbents retire or do not seek office, it is very difficult to gain lost ground […]

Life is infinitely divisible. It is impossible to break a situation down to its most fundamental level. The infinite complexity of the world means that we only run out of information when we stop asking questions. Physically, we proceed from molecules to atoms to quarks and particles, and finally to the intersection of energy and […]