As the financial crisis of 2008 took shape, the policy recommendations were not slow in coming: why, economic stability and American prosperity demand fiscal and monetary stimulus to jump-start the sick economy back to life. And so we got fiscal stimulus, as well as a program of monetary expansion without precedent in US history. David Stockman
Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, President Clinton proposed more spending, regulating, and monetary manipulation as the keys to fixing up the world economy. More ominously, he called for the creation of a new international financial “architecture,” which, he implied, would be a permanent bailout fund for deadbeat governments the world
Losses are an integral part of the capitalist process. But you wouldn’t know it from the way some big boys are treated by the Federal Reserve. It seems that if your losses are big enough, and your connections good enough, you can rely on a permanent line of credit to shield you from the consequences of your mistakes. The new rule is gleaned from
When Clinton declared he would use budget surpluses to “fix” Social Security, the ruse was obvious. He was trying to forestall the only moral use of any surplus: cutting taxes. But a few days later, a very strange trend began to develop. Clinton’s words were endorsed and echoed by D.C. conservatives and libertarians. Beltway types began to say
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order demanding that any American holding gold was to turn it over to the banks and the government. In 1999, a Federal Reserve has floated official has floated the idea of doing the same thing (in effect) to paper dollars. It’s proof that the economic ignorance and disregard for liberty is
The new Sacagawea dollar coin is an offense, starting with its color. It is supposed to summon the memory of the gold standard, when the dollar was something besides a government-issue piece of paper. Money was just another name for a real commodity that facilitated exchange and held its value independent of government’s blessing. Liberty thrived
In economics, people often mix up cause and effect. Observe, for example, that both wages and labor market regulations have increased for most of this century. Did the laws and court decisions cause wages to rise? Or did wages rise despite the interventions; might they be even higher without regulation? Adopting the view that government can
Somehow, someway, it always comes back to the central bank. With economic anxiety growing, trouble in Latin America , frustration at the length of the recession, suspicions that matters are going to get worse before they are better, and, above all, terror that stock prices could fall ever further, Alan Greenspan is letting it be known that rate
Many states have enacted higher minimum wage laws than are imposed by the federal government. The federal minimum is $5.15 per hour, whereas in Washington State it will soon be $7.16. A proposal in Madison, Wisconsin , would raise it to $7.75. “Living wage” legislation in 110 local governments imposes wages as high as $10. Senator Kennedy is
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.