Mises Wire

When governments resort to unbacked fiat currency, a many-layered swindle lies hidden behind the appearance of a quick fix.

If Social Security was efficient, equitable, reliable and sustainable, defending the status quo might be sensible. But it is none of those things.

The key to a high quality of life is a free economy devoted to trade and entrepreneurship. Contrary to what we're told about Europe's welfare states, more government social spending doesn't cause economic prosperity.

Despite spending nearly $2 trillion, or 45% of the federal budget, every year on Social Security and Medicare, the feds are headed toward insolvency, and there is no relief in sight.

America's "defense" budget is really more than $1.2 trillion, more than double the Pentagon's official "base budget," once we include all the other related spending like that on "homeland security" and veterans affairs.

Just as unilateral free trade results in a more solid economy for the countries that adopt it — even within an international economy of protectionism in other countries — so would a commodity-money based economy surrounded by fiat-money economies.

The EU retreated from the ideas of free trade, free markets, and competition and turned its attention, resources and intentions towards developing a bureaucratic, regulatory, planning economy approach.

The "subsistence fund" — created by real savings — is the foundation of true economic growth. But it can be eroded and destroyed by creating money "out of thin air."

Huawei’s 5G global ambitions, coupled with the global trade effort known as the "Belt and Road Initiative" means the US government is motivated to undermine Hong Kong's monetary stability.

Tariffs are just a tax increase on business owners who must now lay off workers or take pay cuts to deal with a government-imposed rise in the cost of doing business.