The wavelike movements affecting the economic system, the recurrence of periods of boom which are followed by periods of depression, [and it] is the unavoidable outcome of the attempts, repeated again and again, to lower the gross market rate of interest by means of credit expansion. There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom
Italians love cash and avoid credit and debit purchases at the highest rate of all the euro region. As a result, they are among the region’s least indebted and biggest savers. It’s estimated that the government loses 100 billion euros of revenue a year in untaxed transactions, while its banking cartel loses out on billions of possible fee revenue
If there is one issue that pops up again and again in my conversations about economics with interested noneconomists, it is manufacturing. There’s a genuine concern about the state of manufacturing in the United States, and I am not sure of the reason why. It could be that there is an inchoate sense that manufacturing is dying here, given that so
One aspect of the current economic crisis has been the comeuppance for certain firms, industries, and segments of the labor market that are overdue for correction, all made possible by their special relationships with the state. The result is a case study in how political favors can result in short-term gain, while in the long run economic laws
[ Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin’s Kremlin: The Story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina • By Paul R. Gregory • Hoover Press, 2010 • 196 pages] A man and woman who have known each other for more than two decades realize that they are in love. They marry and quickly have a son. Soon thereafter, the man is arrested for treason based on false
Once upon a time, I developed a theory that we have much lower expectations for public-sector performance than we do for private-sector performance. We saw this in accounting standards that — when applied to Enron — resulted in market forces shutting that firm down, while the Department of Defense loses billions of dollars annually. The difference
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue until resisted.” Frederick Douglass I have written here about Alabama’s tax structure in the past,
“On a basic level, a job is the result of the mixing of capital and labor.” Why can’t everyone who wants a job, or a better job, just find one? In a perfect world, this would be the case. Sadly, the recently released employment figures for June indicate that the world in which we live is still far from perfect. Nationally, unemployment still
Do you remember when, Things were really hummin’, Yeaaaah, let’s twist again, Twistin’ time is here! So crooned that 1960s social philosopher, Chubby Checker, hoping to extend the popularity of the dance craze he started in a follow-up song urging the kiddies buying his music to do it again for another year. It was a successful twist on the Twist;
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.