Mises Daily

Modern health "insurance" is really just a wealth-transfer scheme that now ignores risk and true costs.

Physical cash has long been problematic for governments because it allows people to avoid the banking system, which in turn can lead to tax avoidance and bank runs. It’s much easier to control an economy when all money must remain in banks.

For decades, American military strategy has amounted to little more than outspending all adversaries. Vietnam and Korea showed this strategy sometimes fails, although it often works as long as the money keeps flowing. But the financial good times won’t last forever.

Legal recreational marijuana has now been legal in Washington State for two and a half years. During that time, violent crime has decreased, and the doom-laden predictions of opponents to legalization have failed to come true.

Many commentators focus on immigrants when declaring that people who live off government spending should not be able to vote. However, there is no lack of longtime citizens who also have an incentive to keep the tax money flowing as long as possible.

Gold prices are subject to manipulation in a variety of ways from the private sector, central banks, and governments. To see how gold fits into markets, we must look to see how "official" and "unoffocial" prices for the yellow metal are being shaped.

The Fed often uses the "natural rate" of unemployment to determine whether or not it should raise interest rates. But as with so many metrics the Fed uses, this one is based on arbitrary measures that can be manipulated to suit Fed policy.

Strictly speaking, the phrase "check your privilege" could be an invitation to debate. But in practice, it is all too often an attempt to shut down debate and to make a personal attack on one's opponent in the name of "tolerance."

Jeb Bush recently opined that to get more economic growth, people need to work more hours. What Bush fails to understand is that more employment is not the key to more economic growth. Saving and investment bring more productivity, which brings a better economy.

Apart from driving up prices, one of the main problems of subsidized government loans is the fact that a student can get the same loan terms for a high-risk degree in art history as for a safer degree in engineering.