In American political discourse, the Homestead Acts remain so widely regarded as a success, that merely mentioning them will often suffice to provide evidence of how government deserves credit for being wise, prudent, and devoted to taking the long view in economic development. 

Introduced by Murray Sabrin, Joseph Salerno spoke on “Why Falling Prices Are Good for Business” at Ramapo College in New Jersey on October 4. 

Dr. Salerno’s portion of the talk begins at 6:20. The lecture is followed at the one-hour mark by a panel discussion covering business cycles, the Fed, interest rates, and financial crises with Alex Olbrecht and Murray Sabrin. 

Prohibition kills a massive number of people in the United States every year. It does help make a few people extremely wealthy, but at the same time, it impoverishes the rest of us. This dire situation is mostly unknown, but it is not due to a simple misunderstanding or lack of knowledge about prohibition. It is because prohibition is nothing but a scam.

It is widely accepted that by means of suitable monetary policies the US central bank can navigate the economy towards a growth path of economic stability and prosperity. The key ingredient in achieving this is price stability.

Some experts are of the view that what prevents the attainment of price stability are the fluctuations of the federal funds rate around the neutral rate of interest also known as the “natural rate.”

Do central banks have a plan? Do they know what they’re doing? The BBC wonders, and Mises Institute President Jeff Deist provides some of the answers:

The Foundation for Economic Education The Freeman 1997

This report provides a description of the new largest building in the world. However, it is not a tall skyscraper so it does not fit nicely with the Skyscraper Curse analysis. Otherwise, we might expect a global economic crisis on the horizon.

The building is the world’s largest as measured by square footage, which it has around 20 million square feet of floor space. That is more floor space than the equivalent of:

It’s becoming increasingly clear that “democracy” exists only when the voters choose the option preferred by certain pundits and politicians. When the voters go the other way, well, then there’s just entirely too much of that democracy stuff going on. 

During the 2008 economic crisis, Iceland’s government froze offshore accounts held by foreign investors in that country’s currency, the krona. Recently, the government of Iceland announced it would unfreeze the accounts if the account holders paid a voluntary “departure tax,” which could be as high as 58 percent. Investors who choose not to pay the departure tax would have their investment “segregated” into special funds that only invest in CDs issued by Iceland’s central bank. These CDs are expected to only provide a rate of return of at most 0.5 percent a year.