Presented at the Mises Circle in Manhattan, hosted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and sponsored by the Story Garschina Charitable Fund, and Anonymous Donor. Recorded on Friday, 14 September 2012, at the Metropolitan Club in New York
More and more underwater borrowers are deciding it’s time to walk from their mortgage. “Guilt and morality are one side, and objective financial analysis are on the other side,” 68-year old David Martin told msnbc . “They’re coming to two opposite conclusions. I wonder how many other people are struggling with the same question.” Three out of 10
The Free Market 30, no. 2 (February 2012) To the minds of most environmentalists, the ham-hand of the government is needed to protect wildlife. Private property be damned— the government must step in, otherwise every species on the planet will be hunted into oblivion, or human development will gobble up all remaining wildlife habitat, leading to
Small business is the subject for debate in today’s Wall Street Journal . Small business is said to be the main job creator in the U.S. economy and with unemployment still high, and a punk business climate, a goosing from government policy is thought to be the tonic to put us right back comfortably in bubble land. All we need is a massive wave of
The Supreme Court is going to consider the constitutionality of ObamaCare in the coming weeks, but the government takeover of healthcare didn’t start with the current president, but with Harry Truman decades ago. We’re told the nation’s health care needs fixed: That the free market isn’t providing for this vital service adequately. However,
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke went back to the classroom to educate young minds at George Washington University about the history and role of central banks and the Federal Reserve in particular. On the topic of financial panics, Bernanke asks the students if they’ve seen the movie “A Wonderful Life.” Not as many students had seen the movie
Just one visit to Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar tells a visitor how Turks store value. The Turkish monetary authorities have a history of debauching their currency so Turks store their wealth in gold and rugs. There are 373 jewelers and 125 rug stores in the bazaar. In 1966, one US dollar bought 9 lire. By 2001, a dollar bought 1.65 million lire. Four
Las Vegas has the reputation as being a libertarian city, but like anyplace else, certain business interests would rather use the force of government to stifle competition rather than compete in a free market. Cab drivers in Las Vegas have immense political power. In 2005, then Governor Kenny Guinn vetoed a bill that would have outlawed cabdrivers
Ben Bernanke is starting to get his way. Matt Wirz writes for The Wall Street Journal that companies with junk credit ratings are bellying up to the debt trough like no other time in history. The first quarter of 2012 will go down as the most active for junk bond issuance since 1980 when Thomson Reuters began keeping track, with 130 companies
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.