The global economy continues to wrestle with deflation, with oil reaching its lowest price in over a decade. The economic winds continue to look ominous, with even mainstream outlets questioning whether 2016 could be worse than 2008. Of course much of the week headliners was dominated by political theater, first with the annual absurdity of the President’s State of the Union address and then Thursday’s Republican so-called debate. While it’s nice to see politicians quote Ludwig von Mises, this political season has as much of a chance of resulting in economic sanity as Joe Biden does curing cancer.
The newest episode of Mises Weekends continues the theme of political theater, taking a look at the visceral reaction to Ted Cruz’s earlier debate comments about gold and monetary policy. Dr. Joseph Salerno joins Jeff to discuss why gold — or currency competition in general — is so offensive to the central planners of both parties. They dive deeper into the fundamental question of a gold standard itself: would it really need to be “imposed” on a country? And how do the Fed’s interest rate targeting and open market operations obscure what is really going on with our money?
And in case you were fortunate enough to gain some monetary value on your Powerball ticket, we hope you will consider becoming a Member of the Mises Institute — or join us at our upcoming Houston Mises Circle on January 30!
And in case you missed any of them, here are this week’s featured Mises Daily articles and some of our most popular articles at Mises Wire:
- Is the Auto Loan Bubble Ready to Pop? by Tommy Behnke
- Austrian Economics Is More than Free-Market Economics by Matt McCaffrey
- Will Immigration Force a Change in Sweden’s Labor Laws? by Per Bylund
- Is Eating a Cinnamon Roll Irrational? by Tyler Kubik
- Do Video-Game Worlds Need Government Regulation? by Giuliano Millan
- The Big Short by Mark Thornton
- The Real Value of a Powerball Ticket by Matt McCaffrey
- The Swiss Consider a National Referendum on Fractional Reserve Banking by Jeff Deist
- Rand Paul Quotes Mises in Time by Tho Bishop
- David Bowie, RIP by Joseph T. Salerno
- Oil Price at 11-Year Low as Economy Falls, Dollar Rises by Ryan McMaken
- Republican AGs Declare Colorado a “Drug Cartel,” Demand Federal Intervention by Ryan McMaken
- The Times They Are A Changin’ by Carmen Elena Dorobăț
- Calling All Mises Alumni
- How Price Controls Leads to Socialism by Ludwig von Mises
- Why We Need Markets To Know Who Should Own Western Lands by Ryan McMaken
