Lenin’s main book1 , or at least his most voluminous book (now available in the Collected Works of Lenin), led some people to call him a philosopher.

For most economists and financial commentators the heart of economic growth is the increase in the demand for goods and services. It is held that increases or decreases in demand are behind rises and declines in the economy’s production of goods and services. It is also held that the overall economy’s output increases by a multiple of the change in expenditure by government, consumers or businesses.

The most prominent feature of the geopolitics of Russia and the West pivots upon a relatively obscure feature of the geopolitics of Russia and China. The mainstream media in the U.S. has covered minimally and only rather incidentally the estimated $900 billion construction of a complex matrix of strategic transport routes known generally as the “New Silk Road” or the “Belt Road Initiative” (BRI) project initiated by Beijing in 2013.

Tonight Mises Senior Fellow Bob Murphy is debating George Selgin of Cato’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives on the topic of fractional reserve banking. The host is Gene Epstein’s Soho Forum, an excellent monthly debate series based in New York City. 

In a talk at the Second Amendment Town Hall in Batavia, New York, James Ostrowski discusses how the long-used efforts to preserve gun rights are doomed to failure. Shouting “the second amendment is enough for me!” is a failed tactic:

Unfortunately I will not be able it make the highly anticipated debate between Bob Murphy and George Selgin on fractional reserve banking tonight, it should be a great event between two great scholars (and former Mises Institute alums). Though I’m obviously on Team Bob tonight, I did want to point out a great tweet from Dr. Selgin over the weekend that help shows the very superficial grasp of history many central bankers have.

[This is Part Two of a three part series. See Part One and Part Three.] 

Tom Kent was the senior government policy person in Canada when the Medical Care Act was passed in 1966. He described the government’s objective:

It might be a bit surprising at first glance, but the academic literature on the rather practical topic of entrepreneurship is quickly growing. Publications in the relevant journals enjoy relatively high reputation and can be helpful in climbing the academic ladder.

In order to add new insights to the already extensive literature, one often needs new subtopics and research questions that open routes for innovative inquiries. One such line of research that has developed and grown over recent years deals with the economic analysis of “social entrepreneurship.”

The Adam Smith Institute have recently published my report “Killing the Cash Cow: Why Andy Haldane is Wrong on Demonetisation” on Andy Haldane’s proposal (“How low can you go?”) to abolish cash.

April 10 marked 2018’s “Equal Pay Day,” decrying the almost 20 percent difference between median yearly incomes for men and women working full time (35 hours or more per week) for the most recent reporting year (2016). As has become traditional, “celebrants” reiterated assertions that the data establishes unjustifiable discrimination against women “doing the same work as men.”