[ Walk Away (2010)] The average Joe and Jane are quick to sign on the dotted line with what they think is the American dream clearly in sight. Meanwhile mortgage originators are only too eager to facilitate the dream, knowing that a secondary market created by the federal government is waiting to buy the paper. And why not? Eighty-one percent of
“I hadn’t had a hot meal in two days, and I knew they’d be open.” Nicole Gainey Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s plan for New York City with hurricane Irene bearing down on the Big Apple was to evacuate residents and force businesses to close in low-lying areas. Move in with friends and relatives living on higher ground, stay out of the way, so government’s
While the pols in Europe endlessly consider how they will paper over their financial crisis, “ring fence” Greece and the other PIIGS pass austerity programs, and still get reelected, some speculate that perhaps China will step forward to bail out the eurozone . In recent years a number of investment gurus have touted China as the new financial
President Obama’s mostly forgotten jobs package would reportedly create 1.9 million new jobs, a one-percentage-point drop in the unemployment rate, and goose GDP by two percentage points. That was the prediction of Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics . You see, he has a model. He did a simulation, and presto — 1.9 million jobs! Zandi
Book buyers have been used to hardback books being the most expensive, with softcover versions being priced much less, while e-book versions are cheaper still. This pricing scheme comports with David Ricardo’s doctrine that the value of consumption goods are determined by the “cost of production” or the labor theory of value. Obviously the
While Oliver Stone has had two cracks at the subject, J.C. Chandor bests him on his first try. The 99 percent occupying Wall Street won’t get much satisfaction from J.C. Chandor’s Margin Call . The occupiers want to believe that the 1 percent is Gordon Gekko stepping on their throat. Half the protesters are aged 20–29, highly educated, in hock up
The foreclosure crisis has crawled on for going on four years now with no end in sight. The S&P/Case-Shiller index for August fell 3.8 percent from a year ago. The index includes home prices for 20 US cities. “Continued house price declines could lead to even more defaults, foreclosures and distress sales, undermining wealth, confidence and
Everybody does “shadow work.” No matter how a person makes a living — trading time, talent, and productivity for a more marketable commodity, money, so as to trade that indirect good for necessities and beyond. Virtually everyone in the modern economy pumps their own gas, drives themselves to work, or scans their own groceries. In his New York
Back in 1997 Gregory Bresiger penned a piece for the Free Market tearing apart the notion of “socially responsible investing” (SRI). Managers focused on social issues instead of profits will perform poorly as resources are diverted to unproductive uses. Bresiger looked to close the argument with this seemingly absurd proposition: But SRI funds do
To the minds of most environmentalists, the ham-hand of government is needed to protect wildlife. Private property be damned — the government must step in, otherwise every species on the planet will be hunted into oblivion, or human development will gobble up all remaining wildlife habitat, leading to the complete extinction of all species.
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.