Fractional-reserve banking systems create money out of thin air, and this causes malinvestments into less valuable and less productive activities. Eventually, banks realize there's trouble ahead, so they cut back on loans which leads to deflation and crisis.
The World Bank recently announced that the world had reached a new milestone. Extreme poverty is likely to dip below 10% worldwide for the first time in 2015.
The institutions of scientific research, like other human activities, involve expenditures of scarce resources, have benefits and costs that can be evaluated on the margin, and are affected by the preferences, beliefs, and incentives of scientific personnel.
The continuing power of the US dollar was called into question this week as the International Monetary Fund added the Chinese yuan as a part of the IMF's "currency" known as Special Drawing Rights. What does this mean for the US and China?
The 'good' news this holiday season comes from the IMF, as the Fund decided yesterday to include the yuan in the basket of currencies which underpins its Special Drawing Rights (SDR).
Robert Wenzel reports that none of the speakers at a recent Cato Monetary Conference favored ending the Fed.
In the 19th century, many western states gave the vote to non-citizens, and by using their control over who could vote, states indirectly controlled citizenship standards in the United States.
In the latest issue of The Austrian, Jeff Deist explores the intimate connection between authoritarianism and political correctness. It's not about being polite. It's about political control.
Even though it isn't a member of the European Union, Norway is a part of the Schengen Area in Europe which is the "borderless" zone of Europe where, until recently, people and goods could pass from country to country without border checks.
Republicans and conservative think tanks are apparently convinced that the key to improving the Federal Reserve is to create a "rules-based" monetary policy. But, as is so often the case with economics, things are much more complicated than they seem.
