This week the Mises Institute held its Fall Campaign and the response has been extraordinary, which coincided with Ludwig von Mises’s 135th birthday this past Thursday. Everyone here at the Institute takes incredible pride in continuing our namesake’s legacy in being an uncompromising voice for the ideas of Austrian economics, freedom, and peace.
After the UK Brexit, politician Nigel Farage appeared at a Donald Trump rally in Mississippi. Hillary Clinton lashed out at Farage and the campaign to the leave the European Union. She accused the opposition to the European Union of “having fuelled anti-immigrant sentiments” and “being a brand of extreme nationalism.”
In the post-debate spin, few noted Hillary Clinton’s pride in coining “trumped-up trickle-down” economics to accuse Donald Trump of policy malfeasance. However, it is important, because every time anyone has ever used the term “trickle-down” economics (or its rhetorical cousins, “tax cuts for the rich,” “voodoo economics,” etc.) it has been a trumped-up, intentional misrepresentation.
A study published a couple of months ago in the BMJ (British Journal of Medicine) made headlines for claiming that medical errors are the third leading cause of death. As expected, the reactions were swift and polarized.
For some, the study confirmed that the self-serving healthcare system is utterly careless about the welfare of patients. For others, the claim was complete hogwash, based on faulty methodology designed to justify further regulatory oversight.
The Bank of England recently announced that it will not be pursuing plans to introduce its own Bitcoin-style cryptocurrency in the near future.
“Hillary Clinton Proposes 65% Top Rate for Estate Tax” blared a headline in The Wall Street Journal. Since the current top statutory tax rate on estates is 40 percent, Clinton’s proposal is nothing if not audacious. I can’t recall Barack Obama, our most left-leaning president, ever calling for a 65 percent increase in tax rates for the rich.
The American health care system had become the perfect poster child for cronyism long before Obamacare went into effect. Insurance companies, health care providers, and the government have become so intertwined, it’s almost impossible to discern where one ends and the other begins.
Racial identity is intertwined with almost every economic and political problem currently under debate, from police violence to immigration controls. In fact, it’s possible that racism and racial conflict are in the public eye now more than at any other time since the Civil Rights Movement.
