All my life I have been watching the U.S. federal government steadily increase its power, but I never expected to see it expand into the comic book business. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found a comic book — excuse me, a “graphic novella” — on the official web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a minor masterpiece of the horror genre entitled Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic. Evidently the political principle “never let a good crisis go to waste” extends even to fictional crises.

One doesn’t have to be a strict methodological individualist to appreciate that collectives don’t think, act, and choose. Yet one of the standard tropes of financial journalism is the idea that the stock market, like your broker or your Aunt Sally, “reacts” to this or that bit of economic news. “Stocks Soar on Summers Withdrawal,” screams this morning’s Reuters headline.

University of Michigan Survey Research Center surveys consumers monthly.  The Index of Consumer Expectations is one of two indexes compiled from consumer answers to these questions.  One of the routine questions posed relates to expected inflation for next year and for 5 to 10 years from now.  Judging by the average response to this question recent consumers clearly do not believe that the Fed either is aiming at or is capable of hitting its announced inflation target of 2 percent.

I am trying to write a book, or at least a bunch of more articles, applying private property rights to the oceans, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water. The difficulty I’m having is that while I’m pretty much plugged in to the Lockean-Rothbardian vision of private property on the basis of which I attempt to analyze this material, and make the case for privatization, as I do more and more research into this topic, I realize I’m woefully ignorant of a large list of concepts, topics, issues, etc.

A crazy claim you are probably thinking after reading my title. After all, “failed policies” are a staple of discussions and debates about government actions in the United States. Everybody, regardless of political preferences, has a list of what he regards as the most glaringly failed policies. This way of looking at the matter, however, is all wrong.

Mises Institute Associated Scholar Frank Daumann of University of Jena in Germany visited the Mises Institute campus in September and discussed current research, and his latest book, The Economics of Doping, 2nd Ed. He hopes to return in March to present a paper at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.

It isn’t just a “fashionable” online currency, but something far more revolutionary, Fernando Ulrich of the Instituto Ludwig von Mises in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre told IPS. Ulrich is a Bitcoin enthusiast, saying that not only does it reduce transaction costs, but it also represents a new way of thinking about the international economy without interference from national states and central banks. “I was astonished at its r

A newly released report by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that most Americans  living below the bureaucratically designated “poverty line” enjoy most modern conveniences.  For example more than 80 percent of U.S. households below the poverty line have a: refrigerator (97.8%); stove  (96.6%); television (96.1%); microwave oven (93.1%); air conditioner (83.4%); VCR/DVD player (83.2%); and cell phone (80.9%).