The epicenter of the current economic crisis has been the U.S. housing market. The collapse of the subprime mortgage market and the dramatic fall in home values have sent out shock waves of economic disruption around the world. Many have interpreted these events as another example of the inherent instability of the free market. There have been
The reason there is an interventionist-welfare state is that there are individuals and groups in the society who want “other people’s money.” The political process is the mechanism that these individuals and groups use to get that money via regulation, protections, and redistribution. “Following the money,” therefore, can be extemely useful to
The another step in Obama’s agenda for advancing state power and economic collectivism in America is his carbon “cap and trade policy,” under which the government will formally nationalize the atmosphere above the United States and make businesses buy permits to emit carbon dioxide into the air. I discuss the consequences of this policy in a new
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this Federal fiscal year will see a budget deficit of $1.2 trillion. And that is not counting what will be borrowed to cover the $775 billion “stimulus” package soon to be passed by Congress and signed by our in-coming president. Since the beginning of this decade, the Federal debt has grown from over
The monetary central planners never stop thinking of new gimmics to manipulate the money supply, price inflation and interest rates. Ben Bernanke has long been an advocate of what is called “Inflation-Targeting.” The Fed would explicitly set a desired rate of price inflation and manipulate the money supply to hit the target. See my new piece,
Over six decades ago, free market, Austrian economist and Nobel Laureate, Friedrich A. Hayek, warned about the kinds of misguided economic policies that can lead a country down a road to serfdom of government control and domination over the citizenry. With the rapidly expanding power of government under the cover of the current economic crisis, I
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.