Dissatisfaction with the Federal Reserve appears to have gone mainstream with presidential candidates Trump, Sanders, Cruz, and Rubio all expressing a need for reform of the central bank.
An understanding of how central banks work has become more important than ever as central banks across the world, have been putting their faith in increasingly radical forms of monetary policy, which now includes negative interest rates and paying interest on reserves.
As always, a solid understanding of sound economics remains at the center of the fight against statism.
Earlier this week we celebrated the birthday of Carl Menger, founder of the Austrian school. Ludwig von Mises, who credited Menger’s Principles of Economics for making him an economist, recalled that not only was Menger a revolutionary thinker, but a prophet for the devastating wars that engulfed Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.
Unfortunately it is easy to look at the world today and see the same troubling trends that Menger saw in the early 1910s. Be it governments weaponizing the financial sector at the expense of innocent people, or the dangerous consolidation of industries due to legislation named after obnoxious politicians — far too many people with influence continue to fail to learn the lessons of history. It is no surprise that populism seems to be sweeping the globe.
This time on Mises Weekends, Jeff Deist recaps his recent talk in Houston entitled "Socialist Left vs. alt-Right: What it Means for Liberty" — a talk which generated plenty of comments from libertarians, progressives, and the alt-Right. Jeff discusses why we should celebrate the death of supposed "democratic consensus," why the progressive left doesn't care about winning votes, how the alt-Right turns identity politics against social justice warriors, and what libertarians should learn from populism and even demagoguery.
In case you missed any of them, here are articles from this past week’s Mises Daily and Mises Wire:
- Bernie Sanders Criticizes the Fed for the Wrong Reasons by C. Jay Engel
- Where Negative Interest Rates Will Lead Us by Patrick Barron
- Democracy Has Been Weaponized by Ralph Raico
- Central Banks Should Stop Paying Interest on Reserves by Brendan Brown
- The Economics of "Free Stuff" by Jonathan Newman
- Negative Interest Rates (and Fear) Mean We'll Save More, not Less by Charles Hugh Smith
- Rothbard and the Importance of Freedom in Education by Ryan McMaken
- Carl Menger: Founder of the Austrian School by Jörg Guido Hülsmann
- Europe Continues to Splinter: A British Exit Looms Large as Schengen Dies by Ryan McMaken
- The Dodd-Frank Oligopoly by Mark Thornton
- Legal Marijuana Businesses Must Pay 70% Tax by Ryan McMaken
- Will Donald Trump Reform the Fed? by Ryan McMaken
- The Us Banking System as an Arm of US Foreign Policy by Paul-Martin Foss
