The Case Against the Fed
Introduction: Money and Politics
By far the most secret and least accountable operation of the federal government is not, as one might expect, the CIA, DIA, or some other super-secret intelligence agency. The CIA and other intelligence operations are under control of the Congress. They are accountable: a Congressional committee supervises these operations, controls their budgets, and is informed of their covert activities. It is true that the committee hearings and activities are closed to the public; but at least the people’s representatives in Congress insure some accountability for these secret agencies.
Ron Paul: The Case for Free Trade
With recent DC politicking on both the Export-Import Bank and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we revisit Ron Paul’s 1981 essay “The Case for Free Trade“ which explains the basics of truly free trade:
Although we think of ourselves as a free-trading nation, it takes more than 700 pages just to list all the tariffs on imported goods, and another 400 to inventory all the non-tariff restraints, such as quotas and “orderly marketing agreements.”
No, Tax Breaks are not Subsidies
There’s a popular misconception that giving tax breaks to industries is the same as subsidizing them. Sadly, like many economic myths, this one just won’t die.
The video game industry offers a recent example. Critics have been arguing for years that US game developers are given unfair advantages and “subsidies” through a range of state and federal tax breaks that lower the cost of game design and artificially prop up production.
The Bait-and-Switch Behind Economic Populism
Argentina will hold elections this year, and a number of provinces will be electing governors. Buenos Aires, the capital city, is holding elections for mayor, and Mauricio Macri, who is stepping down as mayor, is a favorite to become the next president. Toward the end of the year, a presidential election will be held and Cristina Kirchner, after two consecutive mandates, will have to step down because she cannot be re-elected.
Collective Causes and Freedom
May 21 marks the 1983 death of Eric Hoffer, the “longshoreman philosopher.” He was best known for his 1951 book The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, which brilliantly analyzed movements that played prominent roles in world events during his lifetime.
From Beijing to Auburn
THE AUSTRIAN: How did you first become familiar with the Mises Institute?
Why Do We Celebrate Rising Home Prices?
In recent years, home price indices have seemed to proliferate. Case-Shiller, of course, has been around for a long time, but over the past decade, additional measures have been marketed aggressively by Trulia, CoreLogic, and Zillow, just to name a few.
The Fed Takes a Beating on Amazon’s Best-Sellers List
Interestingly, Amazon’s list of best sellers in the “monetary policy” category is a veritable parade of anti-Fed and anti-central bank books. Having not read all of them, I certainly can’t endorse all of them, and many of them surely contain questionable economics and fanciful claims about central banks.
