Last week I attended a workshop at the ECB on Global Liquidity. Global Liquidity of course refers to money flowing throughout the world as a result of western central bank money printing—especially Fed printing. I thought it might be beneficial to highlight some insights gained. 1. Attended mostly by central bankers, the group of 40-50 people
Investors are happy today that a deal was reached on “tax cuts for the rich.” Lower taxes definitely help the real economy, but, except for a one-time pop, they can’t raise the stock market. Only money/bank credit can push stock prices higher. See here and here for
Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase (michael.e.feroli@jpmorgan.com), stated that Ron Paul’s idea of returning to the gold standard would result in the exact opposite of what, in reality, it would result in. He implies that under a gold standard, financial markets would be volatile and would be based on manipulation of the money
The former Tunisian police force belonging to President Zine ElAbidine Ben Ali were thugs who enforced the dictator’s rule. They engaged in bullying, intimidation, bribery, and numerous human rights abuses, including contributing to the deaths of more than 100 government protestors in the last couple of months. On Saturday, they too took place in
Freedom Swiss style: Pay a per head tax on your pet or the state will kill it. So much for private property—one’s pet—being one’s own. If pet owners don’t pay the state money, most of which goes into someone else’s pocket, it will come after them. A local Swiss politician described it for what it is: “It’s meant to put pressure on people who don’t
Redtube.com is an internet site offering high quality porn for free. But competitor sex sites which were trying to charge for the same service didn’t like the supposedly unfair competition (and California does have an “unfair competition” law). Thus, one competitor sued. Thankfully, however, a California Appeals court dismissed the case ,
It is one of thousands of cases where one group of people wants to live differently than the way in which another group of people forces them to live. In this case, those who were not allowed to live as they wanted have now been given the choice to vote their way to freedom. Low and behold, 99% of the people chose to live differently . The world
Last month, Kansas ended a five-year long experiment, whereby it lowered state income taxes with the expectation that it would boost economic growth in the state. As is widely acknowledged, Kansas’ low tax experiment was a failure. However, it was also a success. Few people know how to interpret the results, however, because few people use the
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.