Mises Wire

The housing bubble has been replaced by a number of new bubbles. Among them is the auto loan bubble. Car loans now last longer than ever and are going to more people with bad credit. This might not end well.

You may have heard about the Swiss referendum to end fractional reserve lending by Swiss commercial banks. It's a fascinating development, and another example of how average Swiss people can use the federal referendum process to force both the central legislature and the 26 cantons to consider citizen proposals—merely by gathering 100,000 signatures within 18 months.

Writing in Time, Senator Paul quotes Mises in discussing the role sound money plays in constraining the powers of government.

The rock icon David Bowie died peacefully yesterday surrounded by family after an 18-month bout with cancer. While his obituarists justly focus on his musical genius and his mastery of a broad range of musical genres, his political views deserve some attention.

The Republican AGs in Nebraska and Oklahoma are demanding for federal control over states. The protesting ranchers in Oregon should hope these AGs fail.

Rather than a cold estimate of the probability of future returns, the Powerball actually illustrates the subjective theory of value.

Populism was in the air this week as ranchers in the Western US opposed the spread of federally-owned lands, and reformers in Switzerland look to a referendum on fractional reserve banking.

The Big Short is a pretty good movie, but there are a few things it leaves out.

It is now even clearer that Krugman is wrong about France and the UK.