Cato on the Basic Income
Robert Wenzel discusses a Cato Institute post on the basic income that ignores libertarian principles.
Mises Wire
Martin Shkreli To Learn a Hard Lesson?
I'm no fan of Martin Shkreli — who uses government thugs to do his dirty work — but I'm forced to sympathize with the private citizen over the government prosecutors.
The Fed Can Do Real Damage Without Even Trying
Whatever the Fed imagines they can control and whatever their real intentions are, a central authority cannot optimally set prices that are in line with people’s preferences. This is especially important for interest rates, which have far-reaching influence throughout the economy.
So Much for “Rules-Based” Policy at the IMF
One of the ways in which the IMF does that is by providing loans to member countries that are experiencing momentary difficulties. One of the IMF's lending rules had been that the Fund would not continue to support countries that failed to repay official creditors (i.e. other governments). Recently the IMF changed those rules so that it may continue to support a country that defaults on a payment to one of its official creditors. The beneficiary of that rule change? Ukraine.
Did “Tight” Fed Policy Cause the Financial Crisis?
In a recent exchange with Janet Yellen, Senator Ted Cruz blamed the Fed for being too "tight" with monetary policy, thus causing the financial crisis of 2008. Cruz is right that the Fed was at fault, but he's wrong about how.
The Stock Market Reacts to the Fed’s Interest Rate Hike
After the Fed’s November meeting, when the Fed decided not to hike interest rates, the stock market fell, indicating the disappointment of market p
Fed (Slightly) Raises Target Fed Funds Rate After Seven Years
The last time the target rate exceeded 0.25 percent was in November of 2008 when the higher bound of the target rate was 1 percent. In December of 2008, the Fed lowered the target rate to 0.00-0.25 and it has stayed there ever since.
SEC Approves Patrick Byrne’s Plan to Issue Stock Via Blockchain
This decision is a major victory for Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who has long advocated the potential for block chain, the technology behind bitcoin, to decentralize — and revolutionize — the financial services industry.
The Absurdity of Negative Interest Rates
The European Central Bank (ECB) made waves recently with its decision to lower interest rates on its deposit facility to -0.30%. That means that banks wanting to park their money at the ECB have to pay the ECB for that privilege.
True Money Supply Growth Rises Slightly to Eight Percent in November
The "true money supply" measure is a measure of the money supply pioneered by Murray Rothbard and Joseph Salerno, and is designed to provide a better measure than M2.
