Alabama’s Superintendent of Education Ed Richardson threatened Friday to close Alabama’s 1,400 public schools on Oct. 1 if voters reject Gov. Bob Riley’s record-high tax plan and legislators fail to adopt an education budget, reports today’s Birmingham News . Richardson met with the state’s 128 public school superintendents, who were buzzing after
Today is the 70th anniversary of the creation of the National Recovery Act, Glass-Steagall, and several other New Deal laws that helped make the 1930s the “happy days” that they were. (They were actually American attempts to imitate European fascism.) The New York Times is offering copies of its June 16, 1933, issue for sale, and you can read
Clear, careful communications with the investing public is the Fed’s “new Big Gun” in the battle to manage the American economy, writes Peter Gosselin in the Los Angeles Times (free registration required). Nonetheless, a growing number of economists have begun expressing doubts about the Fed’s latest moves, especially its unexpected focus on the
From Reuters : With yields on U.S. deposits already below the rate of inflation, gold would remain a solid alternative to the dollar whether the Federal Reserve merely pared interest rates this week or slashed aggressively to prevent an overall decline in prices, analysts said. “The more aggressive cut, I would think, gold would react more
The Atlas Institute’s Alejandro Chafuen in the European Journal (in .pdf; scroll down to page 8): “Europeans often complain that letting the companies with the best products win in the marketplace is the equivalent of ‘economic Darwinism.’ They forget that government bodies have typically been the most voracious predators of productive
Does the English-Fedspeak Fedspeak-English Dictionary include an entry for deflation ? Consider the Fed’s pronouncement yesterday about the current state of the economy: “The committee perceives that the upside and downside risks to the attainment of sustainable growth for the next few quarters are roughly equal. In contrast, the probability,
“[A Milken Institute study ranking cities based on job growth] showed a shift in the strength of the nation’s cities, from larger, technology-driven areas to mid-sized urban centers with more traditional businesses, such as health care and government,” writes Randi Marshall in Newsday. ’In some respects, I think it represents a true change,’
“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
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.