Mises Wire

Japan's once-envied economy is now in shambles. The European economy, built on the same shaky tenets, is crumbling, too. Where to go from here?

Central banks can only distort and mask real interest rates with monetary policy. Interest rates are really set by each individual's time preference.

Easy-money policies pushed by central banks may be redirecting wealth away from investment, and toward greater production and consumption of cheap consumer goods. That's not "green."

The history of Latin America is filled with tragic stories of countries reaching great heights — Argentina and Venezuela come to mind — and then falling back to mediocrity. Chile could be next if the protesters get their way.

Government officials have often stood in the way of scientific progress.

Woke journalists are not barriers to state-sponsored oppression, but rather its enablers.

By abolishing the weekend, the Soviets were in one move able to strike a blow against both families and religious institutions. All that was left was the state — and state-mandated labor.

Central planners cannot calculate the costs and benefits of environmental policy.

As long as there is still room for pushing the market interest rate down even further, the chances are reasonably good that the boom continues, and that the bust will be postponed into the future.

Loose monetary policy can get people to use idle resources. But this new economic activity will likely be in the service of bubble industries that don't create real wealth. Moreover, these bubbles create many idle resources of their own when the bust comes.