Murder Rates Around the World…

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How is this for amazing. Here are some homicide / murder rates for a numbe of countries (per 100,000 of population; mid to late 90’s). From the World Health Organization.
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The Fractional Backing of Money

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Let’s say that the Federal Reserve, as usual, decides that it wants to expand the money supply. The Federal Reserve decides to go into the market (called the “open market”) and purchase an asset. It doesn’t really matter what asset it buys; the important point is that it writes out a check. The Fed could, if it wanted to, buy any asset it wished, including corporate stocks, buildings, or foreign currency. In practice, it almost always buys U.S. government securities.
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