Mises Wire

President Donald Trump is set to have an even greater impact on the Federal Reserve than expected, after Daniel Tarullo surprisingly announced he will be leaving the Fed’s board in April — five years before his term was set to expire. This now leaves Trump with three vacancies to fill. Will Trump take the opportunity to appoint someone who doesn’t believe that low interest rates and price controls are good for an economy? Or will it be more of the same? That may be as hard to predict as the Fed’s next interest rate hike. What we do know is that Tarullo, as Obama’s go-to-guy for financial regulations, will not be missed (hopefully the Dodd-Frank Act will follow him out the door).

Hopefully Trump will take the opportunity to reject the failures of the past and end the currency wars plaguing the global economy. Unfortunately, that may be as likely as the GOP ending the Department of Education.

Luckily technology has the ability to revolutionize things in spite of government, and one of the most exciting developments have been happening with the blockchain. Mises Weekends this week features one of the true leaders in the industry, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Byrne, who will be speaking at our event in San Diego later this month, spoke at our Austrian Economics Research Conference in 2015 on how blockchain can change the world (and eliminate much of Wall Street in the process). As countries like the Republic of Georgia take steps to utilize this technology to handle land titles, we are witnessing Byrne’s vision become reality.

And in case you missed any of them, here are the articles featured this week on the Mises Wire:

• Federal Spending Grew More Under Bush and Reagan than Under Obama by Ryan McMaken
• Tarullo Bails! by C. Jay Engel
• Introduction to the Austrian School of Economics by Randall G. Holcombe
• Healthcare Is Not Immune to the Laws of Economics by Jonathan Newman
• Rate Hike Guessing Games by C. Jay Engel
• Castro Regime Arrests Member of Mises Cuba by Tho Bishop
• Price Controls and Propaganda by Alasdair Macleod
• Why Government Employees in Iowa Are Paid So Much by Amy K. Frantz
• Why Food Stamps Don't Promote Healthy Eating by Gary Galles
• Will Republicans End the Department of Education? Not Likely by Ryan McMaken
• Universities and Innovation by Peter G. Klein
• Stockman to Trump: It's the Economy, Stupid by Ryan McMaken
• Trump Makes Up Murder Stats to Push for More Government Power by Ryan McMaken
• Why Not Replace Dodd-Frank With Glass-Steagall? by Tho Bishop
• Why Trump's Election Led to a Weaker Peso by Edgar Ortiz
• A Billion Dollars of Federally Funded Paranoia by James Bovard
• Human Action Beats Stats in the Super Bowl by Jeff Deist
• Bill Belichick: Entrepreneur by Tho Bishop
• Will Janet Yellen Lend Trump a Helping Hand? by Hunter Lewis
• How Trump Could Win the Currency War by Brendan Brown
• 1917: Early Moves Toward American Intervention in World War I by T. Hunt Tooley
• Cut, Don’t Reform, Taxes by Ron Paul
• After Obama, a New Dawn or More of the Same? by William L. Anderson
• Chasing Golden Dreams by Doug French