The Swiss central bank's decision to let the Swiss franc find its market value (compared to the euro) was predictable, yet it has caused instability for Swiss markets. Meanwhile, the peg never helped the Swiss economy.
The most realistic plan for increasing freedom and free markets is not to vainly hope for a libertarian takeover of DC, but to create our own de facto independent societies right here at home.
Our daily lives are determined by our choices as individual economic actors. When governments intervene in our personal economics, they intervene in our personal preferences and choices.
At the individual level, we can't get rich by spending money, but Keynesian stimulus is built on the idea that yes, spending money does in fact make you richer. Unfortunately, it only makes some people richer, not including you.
John Cochran discusses his career as an economist and how the academic world has changed for Austrians in recent decades.
Unable to compete with cheap, government-subsidized services designed for the low end of the market, entrepreneurs find they must turn to higher-end customers who will pay more. Some wrongly interpret this as proof that markets are more expensive than government services.
One essential feature of private equity is the taking advantage of economies of scale in cronyism, and politicians hope private equity will provide them high-paid jobs when they quit Washington.
The Greeks may still default, and that would mean big trouble not so much for Greece as for other EU member states who will be on the hook for even more bailouts.
Thanks to high oil prices and years of cheap money, capital-intensive fracking operations became feasible in even some of the most marginal areas. But with easy money comes bubbles, and falling oil prices may soon help pop the fracking bubble.
The recent de-peg of the Swiss franc from the euro illustrates the importance of currency competition, and the damage that state monopolies over money can do. We Americans should embrace currency competition here at home as well.
