Global Economy

Joe Salerno make sense of market crashes.

China has recently devalued its currency. Like many governments, the Chinese government thinks this will help the economy by increasing exports. But it will really just destroy real wealth in the process.

Economics has been in trouble for decades, ever since mathematics replaced what should properly be known as economics. In many ways, the science was killed, but it's not dead enough for some anti-economics leftists who want all of economics to be abandoned permanently.

Less Marx, More Mises? Helio Beltrão explains what's going on in Brazil.

The European Monetary Union has failed to bring economic stability, and it has also increased nationalistic tensions among member nations. Some taxpayers, such as German taxpayers, view themselves as working to subsidize foreigners. Meanwhile, central banks continue to distort the economy.

Europe’s problems will not be solved by a Greek exit, and a breakup of the euro certainly won’t fix things as long as the Europeans remain in the thrall of many economic fallacies that have long driven the debate over the euro.

The data shows that many Greek workers work for long hours, and some labor data suggests the Greek economy must be fine. But a closer look shows that hard work isn't enough when many others live off the productivity of the working few.

Europe and America did not cause the plight of the underdeveloped nations, but they have prolonged its duration by implanting in their intellectuals the ideologies which are the most serious obstacle to any improvement of conditions. The socialists and interventionists of the West have poisoned the mind of the East. 

Full-on anti-capitalism is again fashionable. The supporters of the latest surge in socialist sympathy relies on the idea that socialism can better deliver a decent standard of living. But without functioning markets, such a goal will prove impossible.

Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 24 July 2015.