As a precondition to joining the European currency, member states had to abide by quantitative fiscal criteria, explained below, sharply limiting their room to maneuver. Since the adoption of the fiscal pact and the launch of the euro, many countries chose to flaunt it, to the chagrin of others that steadfastly adhered to it. This article explains
“The destiny of this country was decided long ago and nothing and no one can intimidate or threaten us.” Fidel Castro’ remarks last year leave little doubt that he is willing to go any length to preserve the socialist ideology of Cuba’s 1959 revolution. The latest evidence of Castro’s firm approach to maintaining the island’s revolutionary credo
When President Bush released his 2006 budget proposal, he cast himself as a measured and decisive figure bent on taming the government’s profligate spending and raging deficits. When one peers beyond the stage-managed façade, however, what one finds is that Bush earns the dubious distinction of being one of the biggest big spenders of all time.
The second anniversary of America’s expedition into Iraq passed with relatively scant fanfare. Since hostilities in Mesopotamia commenced, thousands of American and Iraqi casualties have been tallied. Every month Washington spends billion of dollars on counterinsurgency and rebuilding efforts in Iraq and further afield, which swells the nation’s
Leaders of European Union member states have been reeling from the double rejection of the proposed European Constitution by two of the six founding members, the Netherlands and France. Given a chance to express their opinion on “ever closer union,” for the first time in over a decade and ever, respectively, French and Dutch voters spurned the
In recent weeks tens of millions of trousers, dresses, brassieres, T-Shirts and other categories of clothing and textiles have amassed at European ports, prohibited from reaching retail outlets by customs officials. The consumer goods were held in abeyance because of an ill-conceived trade agreement limiting exports to the European marketplace
After five months and seven rounds of contentious negotiations, the Bush administration and the American textile lobby got what they wanted: a cap on China’s booming export business in the sensitive trade. The agreement sets quotas ( or “ safeguards “ in security speak) for nearly half of the Chinese textile exports to America, such as bras, baby
The Free Market 26, no. 2 (February 2005) It is a sign of the times when the Chinese government, which was just granted market economy status by debt-laden Argentina, takes America to task over its gaping budget and trade deficits. When interviewed by the Financial Times, published Nov. 22, Li Ruogu, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of
Spreading democracy is one of the mantra’s of U.S. foreign policy. Austrians, of course, know otherwise. The military is often used not for alturistic aims, but to secure the financial interests of unscrupulous firms that have an influence over government policy. I found a most frank example in a recent article in The Economist, “The view from
During the first week of March Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan aired his views on tax reform in front of Bush’s appointed panel on the topic. Greenspan advocated the introduction of consumption taxes, to which I replied with this letter to the Financial Times of London. Sir- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s comments advocating the
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.