Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel points out that people are making riskier investments. If that is the case, we should remember that it is by design. One outcome of negative and zero-percent interest rate policy is to push yield-starved investors into riskier territory. It’s already “mission accomplished” according to Speigel:
Snapchat has a monster valuation and relatively small revenue.
In a recent Mises Daily I argued against the widespread belief that tax breaks are a kind of subsidy. This proved to be a controversial topic, so I’d like to clarify the basic argument, as well as raise some additional criticisms.
Back in the days of yore, the Progressive Party and other prohibitionists in Colorado managed to put in place laws restricting the sale of alcohol in the state. Decades later, it was still illegal to open a liquor store on Sunday or sell liquor or wine or full-strength beer in grocery stores. The alcohol prohibitionists are long gone, but the liquor store lobby has ensured that restrictions on grocery store sales remain.
From A Critique of Interventionism:
The history of the last decades can be understood only with a comprehension of the consequences of such intervention in the economic operations of the private property order. Since the demise of classical liberalism, interventionism has been the gist of politics in all countries in Europe and America.
Brendan Nyhan at The New York Times seems to be under the impression that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has something to do with free trade. Nyhan writes that the TPP
We live in a world of massive monetary inflation and extremely low interest rates. Mortgage rates are near historic lows and yet it seems that people cannot get loans. Home sales are up, but with a near record percentage of sales made with cash, rather than a mortgage.
The standard narrative floating about the mainstream press is that the developing world is held back by a quagmire of free market fundamentalism. Sure, there are a few exceptions to this narrative, such as Peter Bauer and William Easterly.
May 29 marks the 99th birthday of Arthur Seldon, a prolific defender of freedom against government control. His biography’s subtitle, A Life for Liberty, reveals his animating commitment.
