Mises Wire

 In our age of contested truths, the power to define reality is the ultimate sign of control. Do you control yourself, or does someone else?

The political zeitgeist is to embrace protectionism, leading some who support free trade to embrace open borders. However, as Murray Rothbard explained, people and societies are complex entities and what may work for trade does not work for open immigration.

Watching the Federal Reserve's inflationary “strategy” of enacting repeated “stimulus” and creating asset bubbles, one is reminded of the “Cargo Cult” in the South Pacific after the end of World War II. 

The market always tends to bring people together in peace, neither compelling nor forbidding exchanges. This is why racists and despots prefer the state to markets. 

Stung by political gains from Democrats over abortion and other issues, the Trump campaign tries to woo voters by promising to subsidize in vitro fertilization. What possibly could go wrong?

This year's presidential election is presented in stark terms of right and left, Trump on the right and Harris on the left. However, it is more realistic to say that both candidates are to the left of where electoral politics was located just a couple decades ago.

Many proponents of free markets have tried to cast aside the name “capitalism” as a descriptor of the market system. They should take caution before doing so.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. In our present age of inflation, we are reminded of how Diocletian and other Roman authorities ordered price controls and other measures to hold down prices. None of these edicts were successful in bringing down prices.

The Fed is desperate for you to think that “this time is different.” Unfortunately, Powell can’t seem to come up with explanation of why that is the case.

The Fed’s specialty is propaganda through data, with a long record of failure. This is by design. Their communication tools must work in overtime, particularly in the face of a decision like this, to avoid “spooking markets”, though this veneer is easy to see through.