Nobel laureate Friedrich August von Hayek admonished, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” The fact that we have gross ignorance about how the world operates is ignored by the know-it-all elites who seek to control our lives. Let’s look at a few examples of the world’s complexity.

According to some estimates, there are roughly 100 million traffic signals in the US. How many of us would like the US Congress, in the name of public health and safety, to be in charge of their actual operation? Congress or a committee it authorizes would determine the length of time traffic lights stay red, yellow and green and what hours of the day and at what intersections lights flash red or yellow. One can only imagine the mess Congress would create in the 40,000 cities, towns and other incorporated places in the US. But managing traffic lights — and getting good results — is a far less complex task than managing the nation’s health care system and getting good results, which Congress tries to do.

Here’s another task I’d ask whether you would like Congress to control. The average well-stocked supermarket carries 60,000 to 65,000 different items. Walmart carries about 120,000 different items. Let’s suppose Congress puts you in total control of getting just one item to a supermarket — say apples. Let’s not make it easy by having the help of apple wholesalers. Thus, you would have to figure out all of the inputs necessary to get apples to your local supermarket. Let’s look at just a few.

You need crates to ship the apples. Count all the inputs necessary to produce crates. There’s wood, but you need saws to cut down trees. The saws are made of steel, so iron ore must be mined, and mining equipment is needed. The workers must have shoes. The complete list of inputs to get apples to the market comes to a very large, possibly an unknowable, number. Forgetting any one of them, such as spark plugs, would probably mean no apples at your supermarket.

The bottom line is that each of us is grossly ignorant about the world in which we live. Nothing’s wrong with that ignorance, but we are stupid if we believe that a politician can produce a better life than that which is obtained through peaceable, voluntary exchange with our fellow man anywhere on earth.

Back in 2008, a plummeting economy absolutely devastated retailers and it resulted in an all-time record of 6,163 retail stores being closed that year. So far in 2017, over 6,700 stores have been shut down and we still have nearly two months to go! Meanwhile, mainstream news outlets are reporting that homelessness is “exploding” out on the west coast. For instance, we are being told that there are “400 unauthorized tent camps” in the city of Seattle alone… But I thought that the Seattle economy was doing so well. I guess not.

Down in San Diego, they are actually scrubbing the sidewalks with bleach because the growing homeless population is spreading hepatitis A everywhere… Over the past two years, “at least 10 cities or municipal regions in California, Oregon and Washington” have declared a state of emergency because homelessness has gotten so far out of control. Does that sound like a healthy economy to you?

The truth is that the financial markets have been doing great since the last financial crisis, but the real economy has never really recovered in any sort of meaningful way. With each passing day, more Americans fall out of the middle class, and the homeless populations in major cities all over the nation continue to grow.

We truly are in the midst of a long-term economic collapse, and if we don’t find a way to fix things our problems will just continue to accelerate.

Now Jake Novak of CNBC is saying that a “direct conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, as opposed to the proxy war they’re fighting in Yemen, looks inevitable.” I put those last two words in bold so that there wouldn’t be any confusion.  In fact, Novak is warning that the Saudis “are marching ever closer towards a wider regional war”.  Novak understands the dynamics of the Middle East, and he realizes where things could be headed if cooler heads do not prevail.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have already been fighting proxy wars against one another in Syria and Iran for quite a while, but a direct military conflict between the two could literally be a nightmare scenario. One of the primary characters in this ongoing drama is Saudi Arabia’s extremely hawkish crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.  He hates Iran with a passion, and he has already said that he believes that a peace dialogue with Iran is impossible.

The Iranians and the Saudis both have weapons of mass destruction, and so a direct conflict between the two would seem to be unthinkable. But rational thinking does not always prevail in the Middle East.  The conflict between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam has a long and bitter history, and the bad blood between the Saudis and the Iranians is never going to subside until one side or the other ultimately prevails.

Let us hope that a “hot war” between Saudi Arabia and Iran does not erupt any time soon, because such a war would not be good for the United States whatsoever.  Pretty much every scenario that you can imagine ends with enormous numbers of innocent people dead, and such a conflict could ultimately be the spark that sets off World War III.

Now it has been revealed the bloc is considering buying military grade drones, capable of carrying missiles and overseen by Eurocrats in Brussels as part of 47 new military projects currently in the pipeline. A report in the Berlin Morning Post said: “A transferable hospital, a logistics hub, common officer training - these are just three of 47 project proposals. In July, August, there were only about seven, all by the Bundeswehr. 

“In autumn, however, the plan of permanent structured cooperation briefly gained momentum. And if the Foreign and Defence Council of the EU decides on Monday on PESCO, then 20 of the 28 members will probably agree, if not more. One month later, on December 11th, they will decide on their first projects.”

It comes just weeks after Donald Tusk confirmed he is pushing to set up an EU army by the end of the year to protect the bloc’s borders and fight back against “destabilisation around Europe”. The European Council President called for the 27-nation superstate to introduce PESCO to protect the bloc from the effects of the migrant crisis, hostile bordering states and forces which risk tearing the bloc apart.

He added the EU should be prepared to spend huge amounts on the project, which will come with its own centralised headquarters and ambitious plans for EU military missions abroad. Mr Tusk said: “We are a territorial community, which means that we have a common territory and common external borders. Our duty is to protect them.”

Ancient underground streams of heated rock, called a mantle plume, might be an explanation for the instability of Antarctica’s western ice sheet, according to a new NASA study. Scientists have been debating whether or not mantle plume heat contributes to western Antarctica’s instability. Some recent studies provided evidence this might be the case, but even this study’s authors were skeptical.

“I thought it was crazy,” Hélène Seroussi, the study’s co-author and scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a release. “I didn’t see how we could have that amount of heat and still have ice on top of it,” Seroussi said in a statement. NASA says Seroussi’s study provides more evidence of geothermal activity underneath a portion of the world’s largest ice sheet.

They also called "on all sides to pursue constructive dialogue and to build on the work achieved in the last 11 months towards strengthening Lebanon's institutions and preparing parliamentary elections in early 2018, in adherence with the Constitution". On Tuesday, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert issued a declaration of support to Lebanon amid growing unrest in the Middle East. She said: “The United States strongly supports the legitimate institutions in the Lebanese state.

"We expect all members of the international community to respect fully those institutions and the sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon.” The EU and US support comes after Saudi Arabia accused the Middle Eastern country of declaring war following “aggression” against the kingdom by Shia group Hezbollah.

Saudi Gulf affairs minister Thamer al-Sabhan said the Iran-backed Lebanese group had attacked his country. Lebanese president Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, has refused to accept Hariri's resignation, saying he first wants him to return to Lebanon so he can meet him in person to understand the reasons.

Despite Washington’s decision to side with Lebanon on this issue, the US has joined Saudi Arabia in pointing the finger at Iran for the recent failed missile attack on Riyadh. While President Trump continues his 12-day tour of Asia, the White House has condemned the missile attack by Yemen's Houthi militias on Saudi Arabia and said Iran "enabled" the launch amid increasing instability in the Middle East.