Week in Review: September 16, 2017
As Ron Paul once wrote, “politicians who compromise and seek bipartisanship are the most dangerous among the entire crew in Washington.” This week Trump began making his Clinton-esque pivot toward being such a president, making deals with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on the debt ceiling and immigration.
Jacob Lindsey: NFL Hopeful from Harvard on Why He Loves Austrian Economics
Mises Stands Between Us and 1984
In September 1949, Yale University Press published Ludwig von Mises’s economic treatise, Human Action. Later in 1949 another book appeared, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Almost everyone has at least heard of Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The same is unfortunately not true of Mises and Human Action.
What Is the Correct Amount of Money?
Most economists believe that a growing economy requires a growing money stock, on the grounds that growth gives rise to a greater demand for money, which must be accommodated. Failing to do so, it is maintained, will lead to a decline in the prices of goods and services, which in turn will destabilize the economy and lead to an economic recession or, even worse, depression.
Since growth in money supply is of such importance, it is not surprising that economists are continuously searching for the correct — or the optimum — growth rate of the money supply.
With a Central Bank, Bank “Deregulation” Can Be a Bad Thing
Leading Federal Reserve policymaker Stanley Fischer has hit out at plans to unwind banking regulation, calling it a “terrible mistake.”
President Donald Trump and republican politicians have advocated the repeal of Dodd Frank, a major piece of post-crisis legislation, and the loosening of some capital and liquidity requirements in a bid to ease banks’ ability to lend.
Why Natural Disasters Are Worse For Poor Countries
In the wake of hurricane Harvey, disaster experts were shocked by how few deaths resulted from the storm: ““It was astounding that we didn’t have a much larger loss of life,” said Phil Bedient, co-director of a Rice University effort to research severe storms and evacuations.
The Neoconservatives Have Declared War on the Realists
In recent years, I’ve increasingly suspected that when it comes to foreign policy, the realists offer some of the most sane observations.
Janet Reno, American Saint
When former Attorney General Janet Reno died last November, the media heaped praise on her as if she had been justice incarnate. Reno had long enjoyed sainthood inside the Beltway; the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia even created a Janet Reno Torchbearer Award. But Reno’s record of deceit, brutality, and power grabs should not be forgotten by any American who cares about freedom.