Why We Need Revisionist History

The term “revisionism” came into use after World War I, when historians like Harry Elmer Barnes, Sidney Bradshaw Fay, and Charles Austin Beard challenged Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, which assigned exclusive guilt to Germany and its Kaiser for the outbreak of the world war, with all its appalling destruction and massacres. It was on the basis of that clause that the Treaty imposed on Germany a Carthaginian peace, memorably condemned by J.M. Keynes in The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

The Bankruptcy Parade Continues: U.S. Cities and Towns

The American 21st century bankruptcy show continues with cities, counties, and local special purpose districts (SPD’s) (local entities) for fire protection, hospitals, libraries, water districts, etc. One common bankruptcy theme was that when a project began and a bond-covenant issued, revenue from the project did not meet predictions, bond payments were not timely, the local entity could not renegotiate the bond payments with the lender(s), and so federal bankruptcy was their best option.

Krugman: Harris Hasn’t Proposed Price Controls and It’s Good That She Did

In Paul Krugman’s latest column, he claims that Kamala Harris hasn’t advocated for price controls, only a ban on price gouging on groceries. Of course, these are the same thing. Krugman’s own principles text defines price controls as “legal restrictions on how high or low a market price may go.” A ban on price gouging is a legal restriction on how high a market price may go.

Keir Starmer’s Crackdown on Dissent

It’s not unfair to say that the current unrest and rioting in the UK has been accompanied by a lot of inaccurate information. As with any event, everyone should be aware that it becomes a lot easier to spread false information and have people believe it. Tensions are boiling over and emotions are running amok, and it does not take a genius to understand why you should be more wary of misinformation when emotion is in the driver’s seat.

The Folly of Legislating against Unfairness

In A Cure Worse Than The Disease: Fighting Discrimination Through Government Control, M. Lester O’Shea criticizes the notion that we should legislate against unfairness. He poses the question as follows: “No one defends unfairness. So shouldn’t it be against the law?” In posing the question that way, his point is that the mere fact that we regard something as unfair – or even morally wrong – does not mean we ought to legislate against it.

Inverted, Recessed, and Hung Out to Dry

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Minor Issues podcast. I am Mark Thornton at the Mises Institute.

The great reckoning seems to be following the course that I have been charting by guesswork. In other words, the great trainwreck seems to be happening. Let’s see what we are experiencing so far.

Interest rates appear to be headed out of their long inversion. My anticipation was that the economy would not enter recession when interest rates started to invert, but rather when they started to reverse the inversion.