The Reichsbank: Germany’s Central Bank Lays Foundation of Monetary Disaster

On January 18, 1871, the German Empire was established after a seven-year conflict to unite the German confederacies. Prussia, a northern German state on the Baltic Sea would be the nation to unite Germany under a central ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm I. The central bank of Prussia, the “Reichsbank,” would assume control on January 1, 1876. While the gold standard was adopted after the reunification wars in 1871, the Reichsbank would adopt a “gold” mark as the universal German currency.

To UBI or Not to UBI, That Is the Question

In recent decades, proposals for a universal basic income (UBI) have aroused a good deal of attention, but supporters of the free market have for the most part been averse to the idea. In his article “A Hayekian Case for Free Markets and a Universal Basic Income” (in Michael Cholbi and Michael Weber, eds., The Future of Work, Technology, and Basic Income [Routledge, 2020], pp. 7–26), the philosopher Matt Zwolinski has made a good case that free-market supporters should endorse a UBI, but I’m not convinced.

Taxing the Wealthy: A Tale of Two State Propositions

As Democrats and Republicans across the country fought over control of Congress in this past midterm election, progressives in Massachusetts and California continued with one of their favorite pastimes: trying to raise taxes on the rich. In Massachusetts, voters were presented with a proposal to add a 4.00 percent tax on annual incomes above $1 million in addition to the state’s current flat tax of 5.00 percent.