If you want to expose the absurdity of the state, think governmental accounting. Really, there is no better way to show the impossibility of a government solution to scarcity than by reading the annual audit of any governmental entity. Goethe considered double-entry bookkeeping — the essence of accounting — to be “ one of the finest inventions of
The Free Market 14, no. 8 (August 1996) A wealthy broker of questionable repute is trying to sell a mutual fund. If it stock goes up, he says, you profit. If it goes down, he adds, he’ll send you a personal check to put it back on par with the original purchase price. He promises do this forever. Thus its value can’t decline, no matter how much
The Free Market 15, no. 3 (March 1997) They should have called it the Federal Advisory Panel for a Huge and Sneaky Tax Increase and a Massive Increase in Corporate Welfare. That—and not “privatization”—is the real upshot of what the advisory counsel to fix Social Security recommended. We’re not talking here about minor subsidies and taxes, but a
The Free Market 15, no. 11 (November 1997) Making lots of money is evil say the politically correct. It’s sleazy, socially destructive, and almost always immoral, unless profits are given away to left-wing lobbying groups. Typical of this trendy disgust with getting rich through capitalistic means is Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), a
The Free Market 16, no.2 (February 1998) It’s time to start thinking of the stock market as a giant S&L. Money continues to pour in, despite a bounty of evidence that the extraordinary gains of the last few years cannot be enjoyed in the near future. The perception has never been stronger that the stock market is the right place to be for your
The Free Market 17, no. 1 (January 1999) The most talked-about financial failure of the year is Long-Term Capital Management, an investment partnership (loosely termed a hedge fund) run by Wall Street darling John Meriwether. The fund is known for its esoteric financial models and complex securities transactions, many involving derivatives. Its
The Free Market 21, no. 6 (June 2003) Not content with extracting $1.4 billion in fines from Wall Street securities firms, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has set his sights on hedge funds. The state prosecutor has begun a formal investigation to determine whether certain hedge funds misled investors and manipulated the stock market.
The Free Market 23, no. 9 (September 2003) I t happens in every bear market and in every crash. Investors get it wrong. Then regulators get it wrong. They look for scapegoats and find the wrong ones. They whoop up a holy war in the popular press as markets are embraced by a persistent bear. They indict the wrong people. They’re like the
Volume 24, Number 1 January 2004 “The world is in permanent monetary crisis,” Murray N. Rothbard once observed, “but once in a while, the crisis flares up acutely, and we noisily shift gears from one flawed monetary system to another.” Monetary systems built on floating fiat currencies are fragile things. Most of the world currently operates under
The Free Market 18, no. 9 (September 2000) Dictatorships always immediately ban short selling,” wrote Fred Schwed, Jr., in his fun 1940 book on investing, “since it is axiomatic with them that no professional pessimists are going to be tolerated.” Indeed, the long-vilified bearish practice called short selling involves a sale of borrowed stock
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.