Mises Wire

If local prices are sending the message that everything's perfectly normal, residents may be overly optimistic about the risks they face during natural disasters.

An increasing reliance on military contractors has allowed US policymakers to keep more wars going while using fewer and fewer US troops in combat.

A trip down memory lane will give us a refresher of how gun confiscation has helped consolidate government power.

Racists are often willing to pay higher prices for the psychic profit of living in certain neighborhoods. J. Dallas Bowser was happy to take their money.

New York Fed Chief Dudley recently suggested asset bubbles "emerge from the way market participant’s process information and trade" — thus ignoring the role of the central bank.

Proponents claim that if the government just "cracks down" even harder, the drug problem will be solved. The reality in Mexico and the Philippines shows how wrong this idea is.

In the early years of the United States, legal systems were far more localized and flexible. But elites preferred consistency over flexibility, and the rich could afford the more bureaucratic legal institutions that ordinary people could not. 

Even a degenerate capitalism produces more prosperity than the best socialism. Therefore, the task ahead cannot be to remove capitalism in favor of socialism but to make capitalism better.

Selgin thinks fractional reserve banking critics are akin to "flat-earthers", but he gets some important points wrong. 

In last weekend's election, Swedish voters appear to have handed more power to a populist party.