Like a good guy in an old Western determined to put things aright, George Selgin has once again arrived on the scene shooting from the hip--and displaying remarkably bad aim. There are a number of substantive issues to criticize in Selgin’s typically intemperate and ill-tempered piece attacking Tom Woods and me . Bob Wenzel has done a good
With the passage of House Bill 195 into law, the State of Louisiana has banned the use of cash in all transactions involving secondhand goods . State representative Ricky Hardy, a co-author of the bill, claims that the bill targets criminals who traffic in stolen goods. According to Hardy, “It’s a mechanism to be used so the police department
A couple of careful readers wrote to inform me that the Louisiana law banning secondhand dealers from engaging in cash transactions, which I implied in my post yesterday was passed recently, was actually passed in July, 2011. The article that served as the basis for my post did not give the date the law was enacted. Interestingly, James Corbett
In thinking about strategies for abolishing or radically diminishing government, many libertarians are led astray by using a false dichotomy. The State, they say, can either be smashed in one swift, fell blow or it can be rolled back gradually according to a predetermined plan. These are, they say, the only two alternatives. There are a number of
A bill unanimously recommended for passage by the Wisconsin Assembly Committee and now being considered by the Wisconsin Assembly bans payment in cash for all treatments at “pain clinics.” Bill 366 is ostensibly aimed at so-called “pill mills,” which dispense prescription painkillers for recreational use. However, the bill broadly defines
100 percent-reserve banking is being introduced through the bac kdoor by U.S. regulators who remain queasy about banks runs in a future crisis. Under rules instituted in September 2014 by the Fed and other financial regulators, banks are mandated to hold only high-grade liquid assets against risky large demand deposits in order to cover
The Swedish government abetted by its fractional-reserve banking system is moving relentlessly toward a completely cashless economy . Swedish banks have begun removing ATMs even in remote rural areas, and according to Credit Suisse the rule of thumb in Scandinavia is “ If you have to pay in cash, something is wrong .” Since 2009 the average
Ben Bernanke is officially a celebrity. The New York Post’s venerable celebrity gossip section Page Six carried news of former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s fete for Ben in honor of the publication of his memoir Courage to Act. In attendance were many of Ben’s best--or at least most grateful--friends from Wall Street. These included: NY Fed
Well at least one of the candidates vying for the Republican or Democratic presidential nomination appears to have a reasonable grasp of current economic reality and the complicity of the Federal Reserve in exacerbating an impending financial disaster. In an interview with The Hill , Donald Trump blasted the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform
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.