During Senate confirmation hearings on the nomination of new Fed chairman Janet Yellen, Mike Johanns ( R-Neb) expressed the opinion that Fed stimulus is putting the economy on an unsustainable “sugar high.” Pat Toomey (R-PA) described it as a monetary “morphine drip.” The Fed insists that it can quickly reverse all the new money it has conjured
People often ask today: if the Fed has created so much new money, why hasn’t it produced more inflation? When the Fed creates masses of new money, it initially flows to Wall Street, which profits from it in a variety of imaginative ways, but from there its path is unpredictable. The Fed inserted into the TARP bill in 2008 the authority to pay
As Ryan McMaken noted on June 5 , the European Central Bank has instituted negative interest rates for member banks. This could soon spread to the US and also to consumer accounts. If so, you would find money taken out of your bank account each quarter unless you spend it. Some observers think that in the US at least it will start with higher
Shawn Ritenour writes: Three days ago I had the honor of delivering the Founders Lecture in Pittsburgh sponsored by the Center for Vision and Values. My topic was “Economic Freedom and the Early American Republic.” I gave the audience a whirlwind tour of the variety of economic ideas that were current in the minds of the founders. I highlighted
Blue jeans have more in common with drugs than you might think. One of the more consequential episodes in the history of crony capitalism occurred in 17 th and 18 th century France. Cheap clothing made from cotton was threatening the rich woolen, linen, and silk manufacturers, so they persuaded the government to ban it. In short order, government
CNBC claims that the Fed has been “crying wolf” and will back off raising interest rates even a tiny bit more. There are reasons why they might want to back off. China is selling US securities, other central banks are selling, and the Fed might be afraid to sell any of their holdings, which would have to accompany a rate increase. It was fear of a
We would seem to be experiencing a pretty close duplicate of the almost fifty year old scandal that rocked the world and brought down President Nixon. But this time the Washington Post is trying to cover up the scandal, not bring it to light. President Trump gave President Obama and the Democrats lifesaving wiggle room by using words like “ wire
The Republicans have a problem. Healthcare prices are so swollen by government imposed monopolies that most people cannot possibly afford to pay the crazy bills without subsidies. What to do? Example: my son recently went to an out-of-state emergency room for food poisoning. The bill came in at over $8,000. And how is this for fairness: our
Many years ago, the mass circulation Reader’s Digest had a feature titled “Humor in These United States.” The following would have qualified for inclusion. Greg Mankiw, author of a leading economic textbook, former Chair of the G.W. Bush Council of Economic Advisers, member of the Romney inner circle, widely praised for his decency as a human
In my last post, I made light of British columnist George Monbiot’s absurd charge that today’s free market economists and libertarians are part of an establishment crony capitalist system. A “progressive” friend of mine responded by asking: “Doesn’t big business wrap itself in the mantle of free markets? If so, aren’t exponents of free markets
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.