On Tuesday September 18, US central bank policy makers surprised financial market players by cutting the federal funds rate target by 0.5% to 4.75%.

The key motivating factor behind the hefty cut in the federal funds rate target was an economic model that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke developed while in academia.

I admit I haven’t personally participated in any of this stuff, so I can’t speak from experience. But it seems that there are several gambling web sites with often different odds on Ron Paul. With the possibility of shorting a Ron Paul contract on Intrade, one can make a guaranteed profit (assuming the transactions costs aren’t too high). Let me give a quick example.

Today marks 34 years since the passing of Ludwig von Mises, October 10, 1973. He was 92 years old.

These obituaries are taken from Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism, by Jörg Guido Hülsmann:

The American Economic Review. In Memoriam: Ludwig von Mises, 1881–1973.’ 64:3 (June 1974) 518. Drafted (but unsigned) by Fritz Machlup:

Temporarily, just organizations and individuals that owe truckloads of debt, namely the US government (although, the debt still exists). Unfortunately in his interview with Wallstrip, Paul Kedrosky does not mention some of the larger demographic groups that suffer due to monetary malfeasance. Apropos Robert Murphy, the latest infusion of credit will result in price inflation due to the declining value of the dollar.

This review by Ira Katz of Lafayette College is pending at Amazon.com

[This article is excerpted from chapter 9 of The Betrayal of the American Right.]

One of the most brilliant and forceful attacks on Cold War foreign policy in this era came from the pen of the veteran conservative and free-market publicist Garet Garrett. In his pamphlet “The Rise of Empire,” published in 1952, Garrett began by declaring: “We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire.”

More bon mots from Dr. Hulsmann’s Mises - The Last Knight of Liberalism: “In the preface to the German edition [of his General Theory], Keynes boasted that his theory was particularly well suited for totalitarian regimes and lamented that it was less fit for the conditions prevailing in freer societies.”

[This article is from chapter 8 of The Betrayal of the American Right.]

Sarbanes-Oxley, of course, was just a small step along the yellow brick road that will lead to total rule over private industry, especially in the realm of accounting and audit. Talk is heating up regarding the new Treasury Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession.