Interviewed by host Tom Woods, Mark Thornton discusses a recent article in the Financial Times, and why its recommendations for Fed policy will benefit the wealthiest at the expense of everyone else. Mp3, 25 minutes.
The ultimate thesis in Thomas Piketty’s best-selling Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century is that the return on capital is higher than the growth in output and wages, so the owners of capital will see their wealth, and therefore, incomes, rise faster than those who earn the bulk of their incomes through labor. The distribution of wealth and
Sometimes, a federal grant is worthless. The federal government has the ability to attach enough costly provisions to its grants that the net value is less than zero. A recent case in my home town of Tallahassee illustrates this. The Tallahassee Democrat , May 21, page A1 (sorry, no link because a subscription is required) reports that project
The Federal Reserve has just released a survey indicating that income and wealth inequality has been growing in the United States since 2007. Meanwhile, President Obama has called for government action to reduce inequality. So, it is worth a remark that the growth in inequality reported by the Fed pretty much coincides with the Obama presidency.
Reflecting on the Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to rescind protection of the Washington Redskins’ name, whether some people view a trademark as offensive should not be a criterion for determining whether it should be protected. If a large number of people are offended by a trademark, then it will be a liability rather than an asset to
I don’t know if you are as popular with the political insiders as I am, but already today I have received emails from Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In fact, I’ve received more than a dozen emails today alone from either the Democratic Party, Democrats involved in election campaigns, or Democratic interest groups. The
Ralph Nader argues in his new book, Unstoppable , that the left and right are coming together in their opposition of corporatism: those government policies that favor the economically powerful over the general public interest. This convergence of the left and right presents an opportunity for people to drop their political labels and unite to
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.