[Editor’s note: Shostak employs a different measure of the money supply than the Rothbard-Salerno money supply measure used here. For a more full explanation, see here.]
On October 2016, the US Money Market Fund (MMF) industry underwent a reform with new requirements for US institutional prime and municipal MMFs becoming effective.
With the Fed continuing to portray a “hawkish” message, focused on three or four 2017 rate hikes, the ECB is too having to decide whether their easing policy should be cut back. The Fed began its tapering of (official) QE years ago and is therefore now onto rate hikes and balance sheet efforts. The ECB, however, is still heavily in asset-purchasing mode.
The UK’s Express today reports that EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has threatened to begin supporting secession movements in the United States in retaliation for Trump’s ongoing support of Brexit.
It’s unclear whether or not Juncker is joking, but it’s a safe bet that Juncker thinks himself very clever.
“Production” is the general term for the natural and artificial processes by which indirect goods (or uses) are combined and advanced one or more stages toward ripeness or readiness for direct use by men.1 In the processes of production, goods are changed in various ways in their stuff, form, place, tim
Today is the eighth anniversary of the death of Burt Blumert. It’s still hard for me to believe that Burt isn’t here anymore. Burt was the person you could always go to if you faced a difficult situation. His insights and good humor made you understand exactly what you needed to do. To get some idea of what Burt was like, I recommend his collection Bagels, Barry Bonds, and Rotten Politicians.
Compared to the general population, advocates of a minimal state and those of a stateless society overwhelmingly agree on a vast majority of political issues. I wish to argue here that there should be at least one more agreement between them than there traditionally has been: policing services need not be monopolized by the state and would be more efficiently provided by the private sector.
The current Liberty Matters debate on the work of Israel Kirzner offers some fascinating insights into the modern history of Austrian economics. It’s particularly valuable because it highlights the numerous strands of Austrian research that have developed from the writings of Menger and his followers, especially from Mises.
Higher education professionals have become increasingly specialized in ‘cheating the system’ over the past 50 years. The table below excellently summarizes the findings of Edwards and Roy in their recently published work on “Maintaining Scientific Integrity in a Climate of Perverse Incentives and Hypercompetition.”
Los Angeles, home to one of the least affordable housing markets in North America, is now proposing to expand rent control to “fix” its housing problem.
As with all price control schemes, rent control will serve only to make housing affordable to a small sliver of the population while rendering housing more inaccessible to most.
As often noted, the Fed’s economists and bureaucrats operate on the assumption that everything they do is part of the solution, but they are never part of the problem.
