For this year’s Summer Olympics in Rio, the Brazilian government spent $4.6 billion — that’s a conservative estimate that covers facilities used for sports only. When we include all other related expenses, the total comes to $12 billion.
Despite its shortcomings, America is still by far the greatest country in the world. For those of us who are fortunate enough to live here and are, thus, able to enjoy the luxuries provided to us by our American way of life, we often make the mistake of assuming our way of life is the only way of life.
Earlier this year, music sensation, and leader of the female empowerment movement, Beyoncé Knowles, came under fire when it was discovered that her new athletic clothing line is being produced by women in alleged “sweatshops” in Sri Lanka.
In the wake of the 2007-2009 recession, 78 months passed before employment returned to where it had been before the crisis. This was, by far, the longest period needed to recover from job losses in decades. The second-longest period needed to recover jobs occurred after the 2002 recession when about 50 months were needed to recover lost jobs:
There is no ready-made answer in Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT) to the multi-trillion dollar question now looming over the global economy and markets. Is the present virulent asset price inflation disease likely to enter any time soon its final phase of bust and recession? Will this happen even though the Federal Reserve has flip-flopped on even token steps toward policy normalization and leading foreign central banks (i.e., the Bank of Japan, ECB, and Bank of England) to pursue experiments with negative interest rates and novel forms of mega-balance sheet expansion?
This week the Bank of England continued the global trend of lowering interest rates when they announced a new historically low rate of .25%, along with an additional round of quantitative easing.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new employment data, with the BLS reporting 225,000 new jobs created, according to the Establishment Survey. A survey of economists by Bloomberg had predicted an increase of 180,000 jobs, so this report beats expectations. The press, not surprisingly, is gushing over the good economic news.
It’s hard to believe that Mises University 2016 ended just last week. While most of the Mises U lectures are available for free, it’s impossible to capture the true essence of Mises U from these alone.
Luckily, Mises University left such an impact on the students who attended that many have felt compelled to share their experiences.
Libertarians are often skeptical about the idea of class struggle. This is no surprise, given how closely associated it is with Karl Marx. However, Marx did not originate the theory of class conflict, which was actually developed by the French liberals in the 19th century. In fact, it was classical liberal intellectuals in France, England, and the United States who spearheaded the early development of class theory.
