Mises Wire

Week in Review: March 4, 2017

debt

Donald Trump addressed his first joint session of Congress this week. During the speech, one subject was almost entirely ignored: the national debt. Though Trump did take a moment to bash the spending of Obama’s administration — ignoring his own political party’s legacy on the subject — he did little to address the very real threat posed by the nation’s current debt levels. Further, there seems to be no end in sight. Between the president’s continued calls for dramatic increases in defense spending, politicians constant demand for more disastrous government projects, and a bipartisan refusal to get serious about entitlement spending — Washington has made it clear that it remains blind to the mess it has created.

Even worse, the Federal Reserve seems dependent on consumers who themselves are already loaded down with their own debt issues. Given this toxic cocktail, perhaps it’s not a surprise that even the Fed’s own economics forecasts are starting to turn sour.

Mises Weekends features Overstock.com’s Patrick Byrne, who spoke at our event last weekend in San Diego. Byrne, the rare philosopher-capitalist, discusses the historical origins of liberty and the greatest threats to it that exist today.

Next week is our Austrian Economics Research Conference, where Austrian scholars from around the world, including Peter Klein, Walter Block, Thomas DiLorenzo, Jeffrey Herbener, Joseph T. Salerno, Paul Gottfried, and Hunt Tooley, to name only a few, will gather to show off their most recent research. Our keynote speakers, featuring Per Bylund, David Hart, Glenn Fox, Paul Rubin, and Yousif Almoayyed will be streamed live at mises.org/live.

And in case you missed any of them, here are this week's articles from Mises Wire:

image/svg+xml
Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.
Support Liberty

The Mises Institute exists solely on voluntary contributions from readers like you. Support our students and faculty in their work for Austrian economics, freedom, and peace.

Donate today
Group photo of Mises staff and fellows