[This is an excerpt from John Denson’s book A Century of War: Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt.]

David Henderson, writing for the Cato Institute, says that Greenspan ran a “tight” monetary policy. So of course he can’t be blamed. Robert Murphy has already responded to this claim in a wonderful article.

Some additional thoughts.

First:

Pew recently reported on how the homicide rate in the US has been cut in half over the past twenty years, even as gun ownership has greatly expanded in the US. The US public, meanwhile, thinks the murder rate is increasing.

It seems today’s theme is “we’re winning!”

In Ludwig von Mises is Winning, Tho Bishop includes a Google Trends graph comparing the Mises Institute to other organizations. The Mises Institute has been at or near the top for a few years now, according to the Google Trends data, which bases its measure on search interest from people looking up various terms using Google’s search engine.

Recently Senator Ted Cruz aggressively questioned Janet Yellen on the Fed’s possible role in causing the financial crisis and subsequent recession.

Today, just one day prior to the announcement of the FED’s decision as to whether or not they will raise rates, the financial headlines are awash with dire warnings to the FOMC by both economists and columnists alike.  Although these articles point out legitimate concerns and data that should cause us to pause if we think that the economy is functioning like a well-oiled machine, they all miss the mark for the same consistent reason – they’re viewing the economy through the Keynesian lens.  This leads to a diagnosis that is superficial and a prescription that reflects a deep misun

As I mention in today’s Daily, one of the really exciting developments in the continued growth of the Austrian school is what is going on in Brazil.

In one his last works, Theory and History, Mises wrote:

Thoughts and ideas are not phantoms. They are real things. Although intangible and immaterial, they are factors in bringing about changes in the realm of tangible and material things.

The “true money supply” measure is a measure of the money supply pioneered by Murray Rothbard and Joseph Salerno and is designed to provide a better measure than M2. The Mises Institute now offers monthly updates on the TMS metric and its growth. 

An opinion piece in today’s WSJ on the collapsing Brazilian economy extensively quotes a spokesman for Mises Institute Brazil as well as citing articles from the institute’s website.