“Until now, the money-laundering rules haven’t been controversial, and Mr. Sensenbrenner is intervening late in the process,” writes Glenn Simpson in today’s Wall Street Journal. “The rules, which codify the 2001 antiterrorism law known as the Patriot Act, take effect June 9 and have been in the works for more than a year. But some of the
From the Seattle Times: “Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wal-Mart, General Electric and other companies are gaining support in Congress for the right to set up a nationwide banking system that could compete with commercial banks but operate under looser federal rules. Consumer groups, bankers, some lawmakers and Federal Reserve Board Chairman
...or at least for accounting firms. Bloomberg reports that accounting costs for companies with less than $3 billion in annual sales have more than doubled because of this regulation, according to a study released recently by law firm Foley & Lardner. Overall compliance costs, including public relations, insurance, legal and directors’ fees have
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a front-page story focusing on the question, “ Why does this recovery feel so much like a recession?” ($). It is a question that has perplexed some of the economics professions’ leading macro theorists who predicted months ago that a recovery would be well under way by now. Says the NBER’s Robert Hall: “It seemed
The CBO projects a budget deficit of over $400 billion for FY2003, reports this morning’s Washington Post . ”Daniels predicted the deficit for 2004 would look better, but Wall Street economists have said next year’s deficit will likely approach $500
Today’s Daily Article of Henry Hazlitt’s cogent (and still timely) analysis of the NRA reminded me of the following excerpt from John T. Flynn’s The Roosevelt Myth [San Francisco: Fox & Wilkes, 1998, pp. 40-41]. Flynn’s description of the Blue Eagle program, meant to intimidate private business to comply with NRA regulations, sounds eerily
An excerpt from an infamous blog apparently run by an educated professional Iraqi pseudo-named Salam Pax (another source of news around the official organs): American civil administration in Iraq is having a shortage of Bright ideas. I keep wondering what happened to the months of “preparation” for a “post-saddam” Iraq. What happened to all these
“This basic framework for tax law doesn’t make much sense,” writes Yale’s Robert Shiller in today’s New York Times . “Instead, future tax brackets and rates should be contingent on the extent of future inequality. Tax law should be based on a principle that might be called inequality insurance: the taxes would be collected in such a way as to
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.