Those arguing that Wall Street and other major industries cannot survive without a strong regulatory structure because regulators keep markets fair must now answer a basic question: Who regulates the regulators? The query comes in the wake of a recent blatant conflict-of-interest at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulatory group
The hypocrisy of the federal government appears limitless. Now it’s suing the big tobacco companies for $25 billion. Mind you, they’re not going after the cigar companies, which, of course, don’t have “deep pockets.” Just cigarettes smokers and makers—America’s most embattled minority. How can the government sue these companies? It sanctioned the
“There is no doubt that the real destroyer of the liberties of any people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and largesse.” Plutarch “Nothing could be more obsolete than to attempt to liberate mankind from poverty by political means; nothing could be more futile and dangerous.” (Hannah Arendt) From its beginning in the mid 1930s,
The Free Market 17, no. 3 (March 1999) Duality is the Visa and MasterCard management policy that allows banks doing business with one to issue both credit cards. It is a contractual arrangement the merits of which must be tested by the market. There is no way to know ahead of time which contracts will (and should) survive and which will (and
The Free Market 17, no. 9 (August 1999) No New York City public institution better illustrates the rise and decline of the city than the subways. The subways were primarily built by private-sector entrepreneurs at the turn of the century. On Oct. 27, 1904, the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), the first subway line in the city, began operating
The Free Market 17, no. 8 (August 1999) Those arguing that Wall Street and other major industries cannot survive without a strong regulatory structure because regulators keep markets fair must now answer a basic question: Who regulates the regulators? The query comes in the wake of a recent blatant conflict of interest at the Securities and
The Free Market 17, no. 11 (November 1999) Jesse Ventura, Governor of Minnesota, took a position that is extremely rare in state government. He said that neither the state nor the city nor any other unit of government should spend any money on funding yet another municipal ballpark or providing a taxpayer subsidy to professional ball teams and
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.