As expected, the first week of the Trump administration has brought a mix of good and bad. The good: Trump has already begun to reverse course on government managed trade agreements, started cutting away at special interests, and seems to be generally offending the Washington bureaucracy. The bad: his protectionist instincts were in full display as he threatened Mexico with a tariff, he’s preparing to crank up Pentagon spending, and his Treasury secretary seems less interested in “draining the swamp” than maintaining its alleged “independence.” Meanwhile, as the Fed prepares for its first meeting next week, Janet Yellen’s doesn’t look likely to change much.
On Mises Weekends this week, Jeff joined Tom Woods to discuss the first week of Trump’s America. Jeff and Tom talk about what they’ve seen so far, what they expect in the future, and what the response from the left means for society.
Interested in seeing the newest research in Austrian economics? Register now for this year’s Austrian Economics Research Conference, taking place on March 10–11 here in Auburn, Alabama.
And in case you missed any of them, here are the articles featured this week on the Mises Wire:
- A Tariff with Mexico Will Ensure Americans Pay for Border Wall by Tho Bishop
- Asset-Price Inflation Heating Up with Nothing to Show For It by C. Jay Engel
- How Political Competition Made Europe Rich by Louis Rouanet
- Beware, Dissenter to the Monetary Regime by C. Jay Engel
- The Cultural Background of Ludwig von Mises — New Formats Available by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
- Trump Cuts Subsidy to Real Estate Industry, Opponents Call It a "Tax Increase" by Ryan McMaken
- What the Tobacco Industry Did for Women by Bill Wirtz
- Steve Mnuchin Defends the Myth of Fed Independence by Tho Bishop
- Remembering Oskar Morgenstern by Richard M. Ebeling
- Conceived in Liberty: The Medieval Communes of Europe by Guglielmo Piombini
- Trump Readies a New Pentagon Spending Binge by Ryan McMaken
- Janet Yellen’s Bland 2017 Forecast by C. Jay Engel
- The US Navy: A History of Waste and Corruption by Matthew McCaffrey
- Can Technology Prevent a Recession? by Frank Shostak
- Free Trade versus "Free Trade" by Peter G. Klein
- The Bank of England and the ECB Have a Credibility Problem by Gordon Kerr
- The DEA: A Good Place to Cut the Federal Budget by Alice Salles
- Spanish Courts Don’t Have Any Respect for Freedom of Contract by Enrique Clari
