Mises Wire

Quantitative methods are indeed useful and enlightening in the fields of economic history and descriptive economics. For Mises, however, these fields do not fall within the field of economics, narrowly understood. 

"Efficiency" has largely been demoted from a useful term of analysis and insight to little more than another warning that the government is about to rip you off with another redistribution scheme. 

Elizabeth Warren has decided that bitcoin mining uses "too much" electricity. This raises an important question: Is Senator Warren qualified to decide on the "correct" amount of electricity usage? 

Thanks to so many government restrictions on the use of potential monies that aren’t the dollar, we can only guess as to what the relationship between dollars and bitcoin would be in a functioning marketplace. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Without a coherent theory, it is not possible to begin to understand the causes of business cycle and no amount of data torturing by means of the most advanced mathematical methods will do the trick.

We've seen pictures of empty shelves in Venezuela. Meantime, the one-year return on the Caracas stock exchange is 1,804.92 percent. If you're already rich in assets, inflation is a big nothing burger. But it's a problem if you're poor. 

The founders of the new constitution proposed a cynical end run around state legislatures in order to improve the odds of ratification.  The "founding fathers" increasingly abandoned established law, justifying it with claims of a "national emergency."

Governments always justify printing more money with the excuse that there is no inflation. When inflation rises, they say it is transitory. And when inflation soars, governments blame businesses and shop owners, presenting themselves as the solution with “price controls.”

The covid panic brought an end to due process in many ways. Among these are the end of speedy trials and the end of a timely hearing for landlords to obtain evictions. Meanwhile, governments have seized private businesses with no due process at all. 

In Las Vegas, asset price inflation is combining with rising prices on building materials to create a real estate bubble of remarkable proportions.