“It is a perverse consequence of our fortunate condition that the question of our happiness, or lack of it, presses unhappily hard on us,” writes John Lanchester in the New Yorker. Many people in the world are better off, but no one seems to be happier. Modern humans are “stuck on a ‘hedonic treadmill’: their expectations rise at the same pace as
Anyone who follows politics or financial markets has to wonder at times, “What are people thinking? How did they come to make those decisions?” It’s hard to imagine that John Muth and Robert Lucas came up with what’s known as the “rational expectations theory” wherein, as explained in Wikipedia, “it is assumed that outcomes that are being forecast
“There will be more bank failures, but nothing compared with previous cycles, such as the savings-and-loans days,” Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), said in an interview recently after $32 billion IndyMac was seized by Bair’s organization. The IndyMac failure is the second largest in history behind the failure
Like a lot of baby boomers I make my living sitting behind a desk. Unlike my father who stood and cut hair all day, or my grandfathers, one who was a farmer, the other a carpenter, my job in the deflating credit bubble business requires no physical exertion — just mental stress. So, the idea to do yoga seemed like a natural. After a few months of
FreedomFest headliner Doug Casey told a crowd of investors recently that it’s “tough to give advice because we’re in the twilight zone.” That’s quite a statement given that Casey has made (and continues to make) a living giving people investment advice, especially in the junior mining and resource stock arena. The globetrotting Casey literally
H.L. Mencken once described democracy as “simply a battle of charlatans for the votes of idiots.” Writing in 1937 for the Baltimore Evening Sun , Mencken theorized that by now “the incurable idiots may conceivably constitute an absolute majority of the population.” Alas, another election season is upon us to prove his prophetic point. Of course,
With prices at the pump in the $4-per-gallon range, people are starting to think twice about taking those unnecessary trips. And it’s likely to get worse. “As the lack of supply growth and price-insulated non-OECD demand suggest a future rebound in U.S. gross domestic product growth or a major oil supply disruption could lead to $150 — $200 a
The dealing has started at this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas. It seems America has gone poker crazy. The game is now televised and shown at all hours of the day and night, watched by millions all over the world who no doubt fanaticize about playing at the final table of the WSOP and winning it all. And, why shouldn’t they?
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.