Many argue that unregulated markets would fail due to lack of consumer knowledge, or information asymmetry. But competition in free markets actually gives rise to all kinds of mechanisms that help consumers make informed decisions. This is as true of medical tests for any other good.
Audio Mises Wire
Audio recordings of Mises Wire articles, offering contemporary news and opinion through the lens of Austrian economics and libertarian political economy.
BBC images from India show the human toll of the coronavirus shutdown. Americans should take note, and soon.
The whole idea of government regulating so-called monopolies in order to promote competition is based on fallacies. If anything, such intervention only stifles market competition and lowers living standards.
"Saving lives versus saving money" comparisons confuse ends with means. The end of saving the economy is not to have more money. The end is to have resources necessary to preserve the lives and health of countless human beings.
Central bankers think too much saving is a problem that must be solved with more money creation. But the real problem is the Keynesian-style fractional reserve banking system.
Government restrictions on production are driving prices up as unemployment drives them down. It's impossible to say now whether price inflation or price deflation will be the predominant factor in the crisis's next phase.
The shortages and lack of flexibility caused by government red tape during the COVID-19 crisis has forced many governments to rethink their many arbitrary and unnecessary regulations.
The COVID-19 panic may have sped up the beginning of this economic crisis, but the virus wasn’t the cause. The real cause of the crisis was the boom that came before it.
As the debt bombs in Italy and Spain and France get worse, it increasingly looks like the eurozone will have to bail out a huge portion of the European economy. Either that, or break up the EU, provoking a new crisis.
State and local government budgets are in danger of collapsing. This will impel politicians to find ways to end the lockdowns. Politicians may not care whether you have a job. But they care deeply about their government budgets and jobs for their friends.
During March 2020, year-over-year (YOY) growth in the money supply was at 11.37 percent. We're now seeing a trend similar to what we saw during late 2008 and early 2009.
So far, when it comes to disarming the population, governments haven't been quite as terrible as one might have predicted during the COVID-19 panic.
GDP is fine for counting things like washing machines. But it is quite useless for counting other basic indicators of the quality of life.
In fact, the average for total deaths for this year (averaging the first fourteen weeks of the year for each year) shows a decline in 2020 so far.
Regardless of government actions, many consumers, workers, and producers may seek changes that reduce exposure to disease in the workplace. The best way to do this is through markets.
Central banks are at the heart of government mega–bailout packages. Their ongoing expansion of the money supply won't end well.
When governments and central banks announce massive stimulus packages at the very beginning of a crisis, they bet on a speedy recovery and a return to normal as if nothing had happened. This is far from the case.
Although it may seem as if landlord simply collect money from tenants without working, nothing could be further from the truth. Landlords invest their stored labor—savings—at a risk and with the knowledge that they won't recoup their money for some time. In the creating or renovating rental...
Readers of a certain age may remember the hysteria that surrounded AIDS for a period of the 1980s. Anthony Fauci was a central player in that, too.
Wouldn’t you feel great knowing that your stock picking is fully insured by the Fed? Billionaires and wealthy hedge fund managers know the feeling.
