In an almost daily debate over economic and monetary policy politicians complain if prices — such as home prices — do not rise, and some complain if they think other prices — such as health care prices — are going up too much. This situation begs the question: do we want rising prices or falling prices?

The war against cash has, up to now, been waged almost exclusively by national governments and official international organizations, although there are exceptions.  Now the war has acquired a powerful new ally in Chase, the largest bank in the U.S. and a subsidiary of JP Morgan Chase and Co., according to Forbes, the world’s third largest public company.

Recently, the Polish economy experienced its first price deflation since the 1980s, which sparked in the country deflationphobia (or, as Mark Thornton calls it, apoplithorismosphobia).

The Foundation for Economic Education The Freeman 1979

Writes Xiong Yue:

The translation of the Chinese version of In Defense of Deflation by Prof.Philipp Bagus has been finished, I am so proud to be one of the translators. It will be published this summer.

With the excitement surrounding yesterday’s release of J.J. Abram’s new Star Wars trailer, it is worth taking a look back to one of the best pieces of economic satire since Frédéric Bastiat’s famed Candlemakers’ Petition.

Mises Daily Friday by Louis Rouanet:

Largely forgotten in the English-speaking world today, French laissez-faire economist Michel Chevalier was an early opponent of patents, which he dismissed as a type of monopoly and an obstacle to technological and intellectual progress.

In this first installment of a two-part interview, Jeff Deist and Joseph T. Salerno discuss the health and vitality of the Austrian school, the impact of the South Royalton conference, Joe’s relationship with and memories of Rothbard, and why so many factions seem to persist within Austrian economics. 

Militarism and military spending are everywhere on the rise, as the new Cold War propaganda seems to be paying off. The new “threats” that are being hyped bring big profits to military contractors and the network of think tanks they pay to produce pro-war propaganda. 
 
Here are just a few examples:

We often focus on the fact that abolishing cash abolishes the last remnants of financial privacy. But of course, abolishing cash also increases the Fed’s ability to manipulate the economy with negative interest rates.