With reporters of the Western World losing their heads over the outbreak of the Ebola virus, it’s helpful to put it in the context of other diseases. This year roughly 8,000 West Africans have contracted the disease, mostly limited to just four countries (Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea). Of these there are 3,866 confirmed deaths, for a mortality rate of a hair under 50%.
Last week, S&P/Case-Shiller released its latest data, up through July 2014. The 20-city home price index was up, year-over-year by 6.7 percent. S&P’s spokesman described the latest data as evidence of a “broad-based deceleration in home prices.” It’s true that’s the smallest YOY change since December 2012, but 6.7 percent is still a long way from zero or negative territory.
A panel discussion at the 2014 Mises University addressed the question of whether Austrian economics can improve financial predictions.
We first want to distinguish between a colloquial meaning of prediction — improving the accuracy of one’s expectations — and the more rigorous sense of actually knowing the future. Austrians emphasize that the belief that one actually knows the future can be very dangerous, especially when central planners start to think their statistics and charts constitute crystal balls.
Lew Rockwell discusses the life and works of Murray Rothbard with Tom Woods.
In today’s Wall Street Journal, two Fed insiders Jeffrey M. Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and John A.
