FBI Foils Teen's Bomb And Mass Shooting Plot At Oregon Mall

Last month, the FBI foiled a planned mass shooting and bombing at Three Rivers Mall in Kelso, Washington, about 50 miles north of Portland off I-5, according to MyNorthwest.com.

On May 22, Columbia County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a teenager—whose name is withheld due to his age—after the FBI received a tip about the planned attack on May 19.

“This plot was as serious as it gets,” said FBI Portland Special Agent in Charge Doug Olson. “We, along with our partners, moved swiftly to interrupt this violent plan and to protect our community.”

The MyNorthwest.com report says that the suspect, a Columbia County resident, embraced a nihilistic, violent ideology and shared his plans online. Authorities placed him under surveillance.

“The suspect demonstrated the intent and means to carry out their plan, which included precise details such as a map of the mall, a route the shooter would follow, a plan to use an improvised explosive device commonly known as a chlorine bomb to incite panic, and then to shoot mall patrons as they were exiting the movie theatre before ultimately committing suicide at a pre-determined location in the mall,” the FBI said.

During a search, investigators found annotated schematics, weapons, and clothing he planned to wear, along with three handguns, ammunition, four knives, and five digital devices, according to The Oregonian.

The Columbia County District Attorney’s office is prosecuting the case.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 16:55

When Ideas Become Too Dangerous To Platform

Authored by Maryanne Demasi via The Brownstone Institute,

Economist Professor Gigi Foster delivered a TEDx talk titled The Manipulators’ Playbook at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in October 2024.

It was a bold examination of how, in times of crisis, fear and conformity can be deliberately harnessed by those in power to manipulate public behaviour and silence dissent.

Her message was a call to defend the freedom to question, to challenge authority, and to think independently.

The local TEDxUNSW team, who had worked closely with Foster to ensure her talk met TEDx standards, described it as “insightful and important.”

But when the video was submitted to TED’s US headquarters for publication on the organisation’s official YouTube channel, it was rejected.

The reason? The talk “did not adhere to the TEDx content guidelines.”

A Defence of Dissent—Silenced

Foster’s talk drew on the Covid-19 experience, arguing that during the pandemic, the space for critical thought collapsed. Dissenters were vilified, and dialogue gave way to dogma.

She described how critics of mainstream Covid responses were smeared with labels—“a danger to public health…a tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorist…probably a prepper or a cooker…almost surely a far-right extremist and probably racist to boot.”

Drawing comparisons with the Cultural Revolution and the rise of Nazi Germany, she warned that the marginalisation of dissent has deep historical roots—where enemies of the state are manufactured to maintain social control.

Foster recalled being labelled a “granny killer,” defamed online (despite never having a Twitter account), and receiving death threats for questioning lockdown policies.

“Well, I didn’t shut up,” she said. “And today, more than four years on… hundreds of books, academic papers, and tragic personal stories confirm I was right.”

“The lockdowns didn’t save lives. They were rather a massive human sacrifice induced by fear, politics, and money,” she added.

A Bureaucracy That Cannot Handle Dissent

By December 2024, with the video still unpublished, TEDxUNSW informed Foster that the US team had flagged her talk for further review.

She was asked to submit additional evidence to substantiate her claims—particularly those relating to lockdowns, mass vaccination, and censorship.

Foster complied, providing a detailed annotation backed by peer-reviewed studies, public health data, and academic commentary. But it wasn’t enough.

On 22 December, the local team relayed a list of statements TED deemed “potentially contentious,” including her description of lockdowns as a “massive human sacrifice,” her comparisons to authoritarian regimes, and her criticisms of public health leaders.

Despite acknowledging that her arguments were “compelling,” TEDx informed Foster on 21 March 2025 that the talk had been formally rejected—and could not be published on any platform.

“We were truly disappointed that TEDx did not approve your talk,” the organisers wrote to Foster, “especially given how insightful and important your message is.”

Surprised—particularly after months of collaboration—Foster asked for an official explanation. TED’s US office responded:

Supporting open dialogue, thoughtful debate, and critical thinking about issues affecting local communities is an important part of TED and TEDx’s mission…[However] talks should not attack political and public health leaders, promote their own initiatives or business endeavours, denigrate those who don’t share the speaker’s own beliefs, use polarising ‘us vs. them’ language and divisive rhetoric, or broadly dismiss peer-reviewed research around science and health. Upon further review of the associated materials and talk content, we therefore determined that Foster’s talk did not adhere to the TEDx content guidelines and will not be added to our YouTube channel.”

Foster pushed back, arguing that her talk aligned with TED’s stated mission to “spread ideas that spark conversation, deepen understanding, and drive meaningful change.”

She said the rejection misrepresented her content and stressed that her statements were “backed by studies of high intellectual and scientific rigour.”

She provided citations covering everything from censorship and vaccine mandates to excess deaths and lockdown impacts.

But TED never responded—and still refuses to publish the talk on its platform.

TED Abandons Its Own Mission

The implications extend far beyond one speaker or one talk.

TED, a platform that built its reputation on hosting challenging, uncomfortable—even radical—ideas, now appears unwilling to engage with narratives that challenge institutional power.

Foster’s talk was not incendiary. It was measured, historically grounded, and supported by evidence. But it questioned the public health consensus—and that, it seems, is now off-limits.

This isn’t just ironic; it’s an abandonment of TED’s own mission.

TED has previously published talks on alien intelligence, psychic phenomena, and utopian futures. Yet a sober, data-driven critique of pandemic policies by a respected economist? That, apparently, was too dangerous to air.

And TED is not alone. Across the digital landscape, we’re witnessing a broader pattern. Platforms once celebrated for fostering open dialogue are quietly narrowing the boundaries of acceptable thought.

Foster’s message was a warning—about how powerful institutions can manipulate public perception, weaponise fear, and suppress dissent, all while cloaking themselves in the language of public good.

She urged audiences to stay alert to manipulation disguised as altruism and to “celebrate forums at which people are allowed and encouraged to think, discuss, critically analyse, and ponder aloud.”

Instead, TED became the very thing she warned against: a gatekeeper of permissible opinion, enforcing orthodoxy behind the smokescreen of “community guidelines.”

For a platform that once prided itself on promoting bold thinking, TED’s censorship of Foster’s talk is a moment of institutional retreat—and intellectual cowardice.

Read the entire talk here

Republished from the author’s Substack

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 16:20

Russian Military Accuses Ukraine Of Halting Agreed-To Prisoner Swap

The only bright spot or mutually agreed-upon deal to come out of two rounds of Istanbul peace talks between Russia and Ukraine has been the large-scale prisoner swaps. An initial one-thousand total POWs were returned during a record first swap following the phase one Istanbul talks.

But even this single area of agreement is now under threat, as the Russian government is currently accusing Ukraine of halting a previously agreed prisoner swap.

Via AFP

The second round of face-to-face negotiations in Istanbul on June 2 resulted in agreement for another 1,000 total POW swap, to also include the repatriation of over 6,000 bodies of deceased Ukrainian soldiers. 

But on Saturday, Russian defense ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Alexander Zorin, has complained, "Russia handed over to the Ukrainian side a list of 640 names, but the latter is so far refraining from setting a date for the return of these individuals," according to state media translation. 

"We confirm our full readiness to implement the Istanbul agreements. We are prepared to transfer all bodies and proceed with the prisoner exchange as agreed," Zorin emphasized.

Negotiators and backers of the process in Istanbul hoped that these so far successful prisoner swaps could be the basis for an expanded ceasefire. 

Russia has been pressing Kiev to agree to a two or three day truce in order to allow for the swap process to go smoother, but Ukraine has instead demanded a 30-day ceasefire without conditions.

The Kremlin has alleged that a fuller 'temporary' ceasefire would only be used by Ukraine forces to rearm and regroup along the front line positions in the Donbass.

According to the latest on the prisoner swap progress (or lack thereof) via RT:

According to Zorin, Moscow began the repatriation on Friday, with a convoy containing 1,212 bodies reaching the exchange point. He added that four other convoys, each carrying 1,200 sets of remains, are ready for transfer.

Russia decided to return the remains of over 6,000 slain Ukrainian soldiers in a unilateral humanitarian gesture during the talks in Istanbul on Monday. Both sides also agreed to exchange 1,200 prisoners each.

But Ukraine has rejected these latest Russian allegations as wartime propaganda: "Unfortunately, instead of a constructive dialogue, we are once again faced with manipulation and attempts to use sensitive humanitarian topics for informational purposes," a statement from Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said.

Russian media previously hailed the swaps as a main tangible result of engagement in peace talks, but neither side has offered much else in the way of compromise:

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to conduct the biggest prisoner exchange since start of conflict, Vladimir Medinsky has told RT in Istanbul.

Exchange will be conducted on parity terms and will include up to 1,200 people from both sides.

Priority to the wounded, sick and soldiers… pic.twitter.com/ptoCec4bXh

— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) June 2, 2025

President Zelensky has of late characterized the Istanbul talks thus far as largely fruitless and meaningless, saying that the Kremlin is using it as cover to buy more time for major aerial strikes on Ukrainian cities, also in order to pacify President Trump.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 15:45

Walmart's Drone Delivery Coming To 5 More US Cities

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Walmart is set to launch its drone delivery service in five more U.S. cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa, the company said in a June 5 statement.

An undated photograph shows a Walmart drone delivering a package. Courtesy of Walmart

The retailer already operates drone delivery services in the Dallas–Fort Worth area and northwest Arkansas. With the addition of the new cities, Walmart said it will become “the first retailer to scale drone delivery across five states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.”

The expansion will cover 100 stores across the five cities, with millions of customers receiving their orders in minutes, the company said.

“We’re pushing the boundaries of convenience to better serve our customers, making shopping faster and easier than ever before,” said Greg Cathey, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. Transformation and Innovation.

The service is being offered through an agreement with Wing, a drone company owned by Google’s parent, Alphabet.

When a customer places an order, Wing’s system automatically chooses a safe and efficient route to deliver the package while avoiding obstacles such as aircraft, according to the Wing website.

Drones are overseen by pilots from a central location who monitor air traffic and weather to ensure safety. The drones are “built to operate in a wide range of weather conditions, including windy days and moderate rain.”

When the drone reaches its destination, it initially checks for obstacles in the delivery zone, steers to avoid them, and eventually lands to deliver items.

The drone flies at 65 miles per hour and has a range of 6 miles one-way or 12 miles on a round trip.

Commenting on Walmart’s latest expansion, Wing CEO Adam Woodworth said this was “real drone delivery at scale.”

“People all around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex have made drone delivery part of their normal shopping habits over the past year,” he said. “Now we’re excited to share this ultra-fast delivery experience with millions more people across many more U.S. cities.”

In Dallas-Fort Worth, Walmart uses Wing drones to service customers from 18 of its facilities. More stores are expected to get drone delivery service, Wing said in a June 5 statement.

The company said Walmart’s announcement of adding more cities was the “world’s largest drone delivery expansion.” Wing and Walmart launched drone delivery in 2023.

According to Wing, Walmart currently completes thousands of deliveries each week using the drone system, with an average fulfillment time of less than 19 minutes.

“The popularity of drone delivery in [Dallas-Fort Worth] is a testament not just to its convenience, but to the way this technology quickly becomes a part of everyday life,” Woodworth said.

In addition to Walmart, Wing has partnered with other companies to deliver items via drones.

In March last year, online food ordering company DoorDash announced it was launching drone delivery in Christiansburg, Virginia, through Wing’s services.

On May 14, Wing said that its drone delivery for DoorDash was expanding into Charlotte, North Carolina.

Amazon also operates drone delivery. The service launched in 2022.

Amazon currently delivers products in the Phoenix Metro Area in Arizona and College Station in Texas.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 15:10

Iran Furious At 'Racist' US Travel Ban Targeting Muslim Nations

At a moment both sides are still engaged in highly sensitive nuclear negotiations, Iran has strongly condemned US President Donald Trump’s new travel ban, blasting it as "racist" and indicative of Washington's deep hostility toward Iranians and Muslims.

The executive order restricts travel from 19 countries, primarily in Africa and the Middle East, in a new 'Muslim travel ban' of sorts - given it mirrors similar policies from Trump’s first term in office, and will take effect Monday. There are outright bans imposed on a dozen of the nations.

Via Reuters/JPost

Iranian official Alireza Hashemi-Raja criticized the move as reflecting a "supremacist and racist mentality" among American policymakers.

According to more via Al Jazeera:

Hashemi-Raja argued that the policy breaches international legal norms and denies millions the basic right to travel, based solely on nationality or faith. He said the ban would “entail international responsibility for the US government”, without elaborating.

The ban heavily features Mideast and North African countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and others - but is not limited to countries with Muslim majority populations.

Among the countries listed are also Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti. There are 'partial bans' and some new visa restrictions for Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

President Trump had explained this week in a statement posted to the White House: "The United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security."

And further:

I directed the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, to identify countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a full or partial suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries pursuant to section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f).  After completing that process, the Secretary of State determined that a number of countries remain deficient with regards to screening and vetting. Many of these countries have also taken advantage of the United States in their exploitation of our visa system and their historic failure to accept back their removable nationals. 

Source: NBC News

Interestingly, Syria was on the controversial ban during Trump's first term, but is notably absent this time around - despite the fact that the decade-plus long proxy war saw foreign jihadists flow there from around the world. There are even foreign jihadists who hold government positions in the Jolani (Sharaa) regime, in the wake of Assad's December ouster.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 14:35

At the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter this week:

Click on graph for larger image.

• Fannie and Freddie: Single Family Serious Delinquency Rates Decreased in April

• Q1 Update: Delinquencies, Foreclosures and REO

• 1st Look at Local Housing Markets in May

• June ICE Mortgage Monitor: Home Prices Continue to Cool

• Asking Rents Mostly Unchanged Year-over-year

This is usually published 4 to 6 times a week and provides more in-depth analysis of the housing market.

Trump Signs Orders On Deregulating Flying Cars, Supersonic Flight

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump signed executive orders on June 6 to deregulate and open research and development into flying cars and supersonic aviation technology.

A British Airways Concorde jet, the only commercial supersonic plane. Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, via Wikimedia Commons

Trump signed the two orders alongside others on Friday that target American drone capabilities, technology, and regulations.

One order instructs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to begin testing flying cars, also known as electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL), according to a senior White House official.

Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said the order will establish a pilot program working in conjunction with both public and private stakeholders.

“Flying cars are not just for the Jetsons, they are also for the American people in the near term,” he said during a White House press call.

Kratsios said, “eVTOL promises to revolutionize transportation as well as cargo delivery and logistics ... blazing a trail to new frontiers as part of the golden age of American innovation.”

Regarding supersonic flight, Trump’s order repeals regulations that hindered the technology’s development while instructing the FAA to create a standard for supersonic aircraft noise certification, a senior White House official said.

The order also advances research coordination between the FAA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and promotes international engagement through the FAA and other agencies to “align global supersonic regulations and bilateral agreements for international operations.”

“Together, these executive orders will accelerate American innovation in drones, flying cars, and supersonic aircraft, and chart the future of America’s skies for years to come,” Kratsios said.

He said Trump is looking to revolutionize supersonic aviation in the United States after years of regulations that have prevented airlines from using the technology for commercial air travel.

“The reality is that Americans should be able to fly from New York to L.A. in under four hours,” Kratsios said, adding that recent advances in aerospace engineering, material science, and noise reduction have made domestic supersonic flight safe, sustainable, and commercially viable.

“But for the last 50 years, outdated and overly restricted regulations grounded supersonic passenger flight and weakened our global competitiveness in aviation,” he added.

“The market is here and the technology is here.”

The government has already begun issuing contracts and agreements with major commercial airlines, which have agreed to purchase supersonic jets, to push the industry forward.

“Our message is simple: American innovation belongs in American aerospace,” Kratsios said.

Sebastian Gorka, who serves as both deputy assistant to the president and senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council, said Trump’s June 6 executive orders are about “restoring sovereign control of our airspace.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 14:00

The House Education Committee Gets It Right: Restore Excellence; Dump DEI

Authored by Teresa Manning via American Greatness,

On May 21, the House Education Committee held a hearing, Restoring Excellence: The Case Against DEI , or “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” a euphemism for neo-racism and therefore a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Thankfully, the hearing got this message across and the presiding chairman, Congressman Burgess Owens of South Carolina, should be commended for convening it.

The panel had four witnesses: a Manhattan Institute Fellow named Renu Mukharjee; Dr. Shaun Harper, a TProvost Professor from the University of Southern California; an attorney from the American Civil Rights Project, Dan Morenoff; and Kurt Miceli, a Medical Director of Do No Harm, an organization focused on protecting medical care from identity politics.

The testimonies made good, if basic, points, though no one mentioned President Trump’s January 21 Executive Order Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit Based Opportunity , an excellent backdrop and guide for the hearing, and only passing reference was made to the 2023 United States Supreme Court opinion banning racial preferences at universities, including when they’re rationalized for the sake of diversity.

But the witnesses did point out that a focus on diversity means competence and excellence take a back seat.

That’s bad for any activity, not just medical care, but also engineering (will bridges collapse?) and flight school (will planes crash?), as well as the arts, athletics, etc. Mediocrity takes over when excellence yields to the race industrial complex.

First, Ms. Mukharjee said that racial minorities are actually harmed by diversity practices, as others presume those minorities are less qualified, calling them “diversity admits” or “diversity hires,” which just reinforces destructive racial stereotypes. Medical Director Miceli also mentioned the concept of racial concordance creeping into medical practice, or the idea that black patients need black doctors.  That such nonsense gets any traction at all is a bit depressing. Patients obviously want competent doctors, just as Americans want competence generally.

Only one witness was an ardent defender of diversity ideology—Dr. Shaun Harper. He insisted that DEI had been proven to be beneficial on campus in “dozens of essays,” and in “dozens of books” and “hundreds of peer-reviewed academic journals.” His written remarks go so far as to suggest that abolishing DEI puts higher education at a greater risk of violence on the grounds that DEI reduces institutional susceptibility to racial crises, sexual harassment, and other abuses. This seems a stretch, as claims of racial discrimination and sexual harassment have increased alongside diversity initiatives.

Harper makes other questionable claims, insisting, for example, that attacks on DEI are “politicized.”

Actually, advocating a merit-based society is apolitical. The idea is to let the best man win or to have the cream rise to the top regardless of skin color.

Harper must know that it is diversity ideology itself that is simply politics—identity politics and racial politics designed to divide and conquer the American people, to destroy our national unity, and to keep us fighting each other instead of fighting for a stronger country. A strong America would include a strong national economy using our own, homegrown American students and workforce. For those unaware, diversity is often a moral-sounding cover for cheap labor. Foreigners flood schools and companies, taking seats and jobs from Americans, since they will work for less. This undercuts and depresses the compensation for workers at home, both blue- and white-collar. The recent H1B visa debate on X raised all these issues. In short, illegal immigration, coupled with top-down diversity ideology, has destroyed the national economy and workforce.

Second, no one should be wedded to labels such as “DEI,” since the labels change all the time. Congressman Burgess pointed this out, calling it the rebranding phenomenon. Not only are university DEI offices renaming themselves things like Access, Compliance, and Community offices, but the concept of diversity itself previously went by other terms, such as multiculturalism. But even before that, it was racial preferences, or affirmative action, or reverse discrimination. Americans reject them all. Americans believe in equal opportunity, not playing favorites, much less playing favorites based on skin color.

Third, Harper also seems oblivious to the real target of diversity ideology: Western Civilization and especially the Christian ethics that formed it. In his long list of groups that supposedly contribute to diversity, for example, Christians of European descent are conspicuously absent. DEI’s animus against Christianity is clear from its promotion of sexual degeneracy. DEI encourages all manner of sexual activity except within the context of marriage and family. But traditional Christian teaching specifically protected human sexuality by honoring it within marriage and ordering it toward children and family life. In short, DEI agitators covertly target Christian morals with race as cover.

Obsessing about race in the West is ironic since the West is probably the least racially bigoted region in the world. After all, most of the globe is beset by ethnic tension—India still informally has a caste system, for example; the Middle East and Africa are still largely tribal, as is much of Asia. Witness China’s subjection of the Uyghur people. Ugly tribalism is the norm, not just throughout human history but still in much of the world. While the West had different tribes or nations, its Christian heritage tried to unify them since Christianity was for “all nations” and depended on individual belief, not tribal supremacy.

Furthermore, millions of migrants risk their lives to live in the West and America. But we’re told we’re systemic racists in need of DEI?

Last, pointing to dozens of studies to rationalize DEI is unserious. First, such publications are self-serving; these authors often have academic positions dependent on DEI bureaucracies. But more importantly, everyone knows that universities were captured by the political left decades ago. “Republicans need not apply” is an understatement; many academic departments actually have zero registered Republicans.

The result is that the American college campus is now a place of left-wing political agitation, not a place of serious learning or research.

Consider that Harvard’s own former President Claudine Gay was a serial perjurer. And Oregon professor Pete Boghossian exposed fraud in academic journals when he famously accepted an essay on dog-on-dog sexual assaults in Portland public parks.

Modern academics cite studies because they get to conduct them—they ask the questions, they decide which findings to publish, and they decide what to promote, all the while pretending the content is objective or serious. It’s not. Witness the rise of fake science.

In saner times, academics used words such as reason, understanding, and even wisdom (philosophy), not studies, articles, and journals.

In the end, among the best and most real teachers are experience and reason. Reasonable people know that a country needs unity and excellence to be strong, not diversity—just as the title of the House Education Committee Hearing suggests.

 

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 09:20

How Inflation Undermines Culture And Values

Authored by Daniel Morena Vitonvia The Mises Institute,

In the previous article, I discussed the social consequences of the welfare state; now I want to focus on inflation—or more precisely, on central bank policy. Inflation can broadly be defined as an artificial increase in the money supply that ultimately drives up prices, but this definition overlooks the fact that it is a process in which prices first rise in the capital goods of industries furthest from final consumption and then gradually spread throughout the entire system. Therefore, in an inflationary process, there are a few winners who reap substantial profits, and many losers whose purchasing power declines.

It can be said that inflation is caused by governments, both through monetizing debt and by allowing commercial banks to violate general legal principles regarding the deposit contract. Inflation is a hidden tax with devastating economic and moral consequences; it encourages the population to go into debt by making credit cheaper, and it penalizes saving, increasing the length of time preference. Not only that, but it is also a spiritual burden. It drives people to seek ways to protect their savings, making society more materialistic, causing people to prioritize money over happiness, and often forcing them to migrate, thereby breaking family and patriotic ties.

As Jesús Huerta de Soto explains, the Peel Act of 1844 forms the foundation of modern banking systems. This law correctly prohibited the issuance of banknotes without 100 percent backing, but not that of deposits, as it failed to recognize that deposits are part of the monetary base (M). While issuing unbacked banknotes constitutes forgery and fraud, fractional reserve banking is a form of embezzlement. The ruling issued by Judge Lord Cottenham in 1848 in the case of Foley v. Hill concluded that deposits were under the custody of the banker and, therefore, considered his money to do with as he pleased. This jurisprudence was both binding and disastrous. Moreover, it occurred at a time when grain depositors who had appropriated their clients’ deposits to speculate on the Chicago market were declared to be engaging in fraudulent activity.

On the other hand, human creativity produced a solution that lasted for half a century until World War I: the gold standard. The classical gold standard is a rigid system that prevents disproportionate expansions of the money supply, since the gold stock grows by only about 1-2 percent per year. At the same time, it also prevents any sharp contraction of that supply, and the process of credit expansion through loans not backed by voluntary savings—which creates intertemporal discoordination—cannot occur. With productivity growing at about 3 percent during that period, the years from 1865 to 1896 were marked by deflation. Yet this did not prevent it from being a time of great capital accumulation.

While there were inflationary episodes when rulers manipulated the currency, society did not live under constant inflation as it has in the 20th and 21st centuries. The key difference lies in the central banks. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 granted the Fed the privilege of issuing banknotes and required all banks to hold their reserves in demand deposit accounts with it. The Fed, in Murray Rothbard’s words, is inherently inflationary because it acts as a lender of last resort and can expand its reserves without facing the constraints of a decentralized banking system.

It is no surprise that the Fed reduced the reserve requirements for commercial banks from an average of 21.1 percent to just 3 percent by 1917. Coincidentally, this system came into effect in 1914, and World War I greatly favored its implementation, just as the system facilitated the US entry into the war. Without the Fed, the government would have had to raise taxes directly or print greenbacks, which were highly unpopular. With this system, however, they managed to double the money supply between 1914 and 1919. By 1917, they had obtained permission to issue gold exchange notes and required banks to hold them as deposits with the Fed instead of in physical cash. These measures gradually detached the average American from the habit of using gold in daily life and accustomed them to checks and paper money.

Inflation caused by fiduciary media (although there are other types of inflation, which are neither as obvious nor as persistent over time) has the same redistributive effects as the welfare state, because credit expansion unfolds in several stages. New money enters the economy through specific channels, increasing the purchasing power of those particular actors, who can also consume goods at lower prices. Meanwhile, for the rest of the population, consumer prices rise, leaving them worse off and contributing to a redistribution of income. One could say that inflation promotes capital concentration.

Guido Hülsmann’s claim that the growth of the welfare state and the militarized state would not have been possible without inflation is entirely accurate. This phenomenon has transformed the economic structure since the 20th century. Industrial firms and corporations once relied on retained earnings for financing, with financial intermediaries playing a secondary role. But with the global regime of inflationary fiat money, the tables have turned, and debt has risen at all levels. This is because fractional reserve banking and fiat money violate the non-aggression principle: the latter does so by creating a product that would not survive in a free market and is only used because it is protected by legal tender laws.

As a result, the state’s potential monetary resources are unlimited, since the central bank has unlimited credit through the issuance of national paper money. Investors are aware of this, which is why they continue to buy government bonds even though they know that public debt will never truly be repaid. Credit offered at artificially low interest rates creates perverse incentives, whereby entrepreneurs take on massive debt—but the truth is that an entrepreneur-capitalist operating with only 10 percent equity and 90 percent debt is merely an executive. The real entrepreneur-capitalists are the banks, which act as creditors. Inflation reduces the number of true entrepreneurs—independent men operating with their own money.

The social consequences are numerous. Under inflation, Wilhelm Röpke describes the massive rise in consumer credit and installment purchases as a disorder worthy of parasites and freeloaders, contrary to the idea of living within one’s means—that is, maintaining a balance between income and expenses and living a coherent life. For him, the novelty of democratic-socialist inflation, brought about by the ideologies of mass democracy, is a moral disease stemming from mistaken beliefs about full employment. Inflation causes a vertical surge in investments not backed by real savings, thereby eliminating all incentives to save.

The culture of sacrifice is undermined. As Hülsmann states, “civilization crucially depends on the ability and willingness of at least some of its members to make genuine sacrifices, at least some of the time.” Saving, which is linked to sacrifice, also benefits the economy of giving, and deflation supports it—because falling prices discourage leverage, especially in households. As capital use becomes less profitable, the opportunity cost of making donations drops, which increases charitable giving both in absolute and relative terms. Inflation, by contrast, is harmful because it reduces the value of inheritances, and one of the strongest incentives to save before death is the desire to leave something to one’s loved ones. From this, it follows that one of the most powerful motivations for preserving wealth is the ability to make donations.

The reality is that human motivations are heavily influenced by the political and economic context. Hülsmann continues explaining that monetary expansion first reduces the incentives to save. Families are the school of love and virtue, and they are sources of sacrifice and generosity—but they are not only founded on spiritual grounds, but also on economic ones, rooted in the division of labor and capital accumulation. Inflation forces all participants to dedicate more time to money and investments rather than to starting a family. Under a debt-based system, family ties represent a far greater sacrifice, contributing to rising divorce rates, later ages of first marriage, and fewer children. Inflation has pushed women into the labor market, reduced the costs of leaving the family unit, and increased the number of single mothers and divorces.

To conclude, Hülsmann finally explains how inflationary culture also reduces the time spent on selfless activities like simply being with others, which becomes instrumentalized as “networking”—transforming friendships from relationships of trust into utilitarian arrangements. Every society has individuals with perverse attitudes, but they are usually few and must bear the consequences, including the cost and loss of good company. With inflation, however, these attitudes are subsidized, and the meaning of good and evil is reversed. It also creates tensions between taxpayers and recipients, employers and employees, men and women, or retirees and young professionals, fostering a sense of identity-based conflict or group polarization. Incentives to save in cash are eroded, and savings must either be spent on consumption or invested. In low-income households, the former is more common. The average worker, who only saves in ways he understands—namely, in cash—and who distrusts opening investment accounts with banks or brokers and knows nothing about financial markets, is left with no savings. Inflation has destroyed the working class’s culture of saving, erasing its sense of transcendence.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 08:10

FBI And DHS Warn Of 'Elevated Threat' To Jewish Community After Boulder, DC Attacks

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned of an “elevated threat” to the U.S. Jewish community following an attack last weekend in Boulder, Colorado, and last month’s killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington.

In a bulletin issued on Thursday, the agencies said that the Israel-Hamas conflict “may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters.”

“Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States. The FBI and DHS therefore urge the public to remain vigilant and to report any threats of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement,” the joint statement added.

As Jack Phillips report for The Epoch Times, the statement made references to both the Boulder attack, in which an Egyptian national and illegal immigrant allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at people who were protesting in solidarity with Israel and sought the release of Israeli hostages in the conflict. Prosecutors said that 15 people were injured in the incident.

Mohamed Soliman, the suspect, allegedly yelled “free Palestine” during the attack, federal officials have said.

Prosecutors also said that Soliman told officials that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people” and that he also expressed no regret about the attack.

Soliman was charged with a federal hate crime, as well as 118 state charges, including attempted murder, use of an incendiary device, and assault. He has not entered a plea in the two cases against him.

Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the United States illegally. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Wednesday that his family was being processed for removal, though a federal judge later stopped their deportation.

Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.

The FBI and DHS notice Thursday also made reference to the attack in Washington, where suspect Elias Rodriguez shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers after they attended an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum. Video footage and charging documents said that Rodriguez yelled “free, free Palestine” while he was being arrested and handcuffed.

The two staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were a young couple who had worked at the embassy. Lischinsky was an Israeli national and Milgrim was a U.S. citizen from Kansas, family members have said.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has described both the Washington and Boulder attacks as terrorist acts.

“We are investigating this incident as an act of terror, and targeted violence. All of the necessary assets will be dedicated to this investigation,” Bongino said in a statement on the social media platform X this week, in reference to the Boulder attack.

“If you have any investigative tips please contact the FBI. And if you aided or abetted this attack, we will find you. You cannot hide.”

Later in the notice, the FBI asked people to “promptly report information concerning suspicious activity” to the FBI’s tip website or local field offices.

Tyler Durden Sat, 06/07/2025 - 07:35