U.S. Economy

Concerns over safety and pollution are merely protectionist tactics to keep out imports from Mexico, writes Gary Galles.

We have heard all the claims 10,000 times, and here William Anderson deals with the main ones.

Eric Mattei explains the implications of 'civil rights' interventions: some must serve others regardless of their own personal choices.

The US government is the world's largest debtor with deficits feeding debts that pile on in increasingly larger numbers of numbing proportions, writes Christopher Mayer.

This dreadful election season will spew forth many promises by politicians to "lead us into the future." I can hardly think of a worse fate for any society than to be led into the future by the political class of gangsters, marauders, looters, and liars. Fortunately, they haven’t the capacity to lead whole societies anywhere. They are outclassed and outrun by trends in the world economy that are beyond the ability of the political class to control or direct.

William Anderson examines the common myths of the gas price increase, and then turns to the question of why prices are as high as they are.

So Greenspan says that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are so big and so out of control that they represent a threat to the whole financial system. Well, asks Frank Shostak, just how does Greenspan think they got to be that way? Might it have something to do with a central bank that guarantees the life of not only these two institutions but every bank in the US?

The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently announced that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.5 percent in January, its biggest increase in nearly a year. The CPI core rate, which excludes energy and food prices — like any of us can go without gasoline or food — rose 0.2 percent. Both increases surprised analysts, but normal people — people who actually pay money for goods and services — weren't surprised.

Recorded at Mises University 2001.

Ryan McMaken provides a sweeping roundup of false perceptions of the American West. The story is not one of unrelenting violence but of hard work, trade, peace, and the tedium of daily life. The development of the West was not dependent on the soldier with the rifle, but on the blacksmith, the school teacher, and the saloon owner.