Mises Wire

Some think that beer's history of regulation begins with hops, but beer has been hemmed in by government red tape for much longer.

The gold standard supposed a limit to the fiscal voracity of governments, and suspending it unleashed the perverse proclivity of the states toward indebtedness and to pass the current imbalances on to future generations.

Victor Davis Hanson's cartoonish conception of how foreign states act is not supported by history and contributes to the US government’s insane defense expenditures and destructive crusades around the globe. 

Governments are seeking to mandate vaccine usage in a variety of ways, even while vaccine producers are shielded from full legal accountability should their treatments cause harm. That should raise some red flags. 

Fifty years after Nixon closed the gold window, prices are heading toward 1970s-era increases. Yet the Fed cannot increase interest rates as long as the politicians keep creating billions of new debts.

Gold was only included in the plans for the Bretton Woods system because of the veneer of solidity it gave.

Even at a "mere" two-percent level, cumulative price increases over time are nothing to scoff at. Even worse, if we look at what people really spend money on, price inflation doesn't much reflect the conclusions of "official" stats.

There is no reason to expect the Afghanistan debacle to humble Washington policymakers. Korean War fiascos were swept under the rug, paving the way for the Vietnam War. The cycle didn't end there.

In a “post-totalitarian” period, power does not simply originate from a singular dictator, but rather conscripts the population into its very structure.

Most Egyptians have lived their whole lives in a country where the government heavily subsidizes bread prices. But now the deeply indebted Egyptian state faces some tough choices, and Egypt's poor may suffer the most.