During the mid-1980s, one of the kookier things I as an economist and a sane person had to deal with was Dr. Ravi Batra’s monster best-seller The Great Depression of 1990 , published by Simon and Shuster. Dr. Batra prophesied--er, I mean forecasted--that the year 1990 would begin a cataclysmic, seven-year, world-wide depression. If there was
A number of signs indicate that our prosperity is ending. The stock market has fallen, crude oil prices are rising, and the Federal Reserve is tightening money. An esoteric signal of impending recession is the “yield curve.” Normally, yields on U.S. Treasury securities rise from short-term Bills to mid-term Notes to long-term Bonds. But, from time
According to the internet-based “futures market” run by the University of Iowa, almost anything can happen in this year’s elections. In the Presidential race, the odds are about as close as possible. In the Congressional races, the Democrats are slightly favored to gain control of the House of Representatives, and the Republicans are heavily
A review of Stephen E. Ambrose, Nothing Like It in the World. The Men who built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869 . New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Ambrose is an accomplished military and presidential historian, best known for his books on Dwight D. Eisenhower and the American GI during WWII. He wrote this book on a piece of railroad
Ludwig von Mises was the foremost advocate of the gold standard of his day. Yet, he recognized that gold only became the world’s premier monetary metal because of a botched attempt to establish a bimetallic standard, in which the government tried to fix the value of gold in terms of silver ( Human Action, 3rd revised edition, p. 471 ). Well,
Since 1854, the country has been through thirty-two business cycles. Periods of expansion have averaged about five years, and periods of recession about one and a half years. Moreover, since the 1930s, recessions have been relatively short, averaging less than twelve months. Since it takes some time to say for sure that we are in recession, by the
Russell Crowe is sure to win Best Actor for his portrayal of Nobel Prize-winning economist and mathematician John Nash in “A Beautiful Mind.” The movie itself may win Best Picture. In real life, Nash was a brilliant young man, a young man who could solve mathematical conundrums, break codes, and intuit the laws of economics. But then, seemingly at
With all the recent news about con men operating phony businesses, I was struck by a curious item I came across on eBay. It was a $3 bill from the Salem & Philadelphia Manufacturing Company of New Jersey, dated 1828. It wasn’t the $3 amount of the note that caught my attention, as notes from that period came in many amounts that have long since
With the revelation to the investing public of fraud and misrepresentation in the presentation of Enron’s financial statements--fraud and misrepresentation in which the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen appears to have been complicit--at least 143 corporate clients, out of 2,311, have left Andersen, and Andersen itself has been forced to lay off
Ready for “Pinkbacks,” that is, for Federal Reserve notes with a pink hue? Yes, the Federal Reserve is continuing to experiment with new, more difficult-to-counterfeit paper money. First it was BIG FACES (along with the introduction of a variety of other counterfeit-proof characteristics into our Federal Reserve notes). Next, maybe, it will be
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.