Mises Economics Blog

Omnipotent Government: Fantastic New Look

Jeffrey Tucker — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:48:40 -0600

Libertarian Press owns the rights to Omnipotent Government by Mises, and we couldn't strike a deal to publish it ourselves, so we did the next best thing: we designed a great cover for it and asked them to do a special print run. This is an amazing work by Mises, better than Road to Serfdom by Hayek and probably the most anti-Nazi book ever published, especially because he rightly examines the essential socialism behind Hitler's regime.

Truly hard to believe

Jeffrey Tucker — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:56:41 -0600

The far-left is worried that Obama is excessively influenced by Ludwig von Mises.

I know. It's nuts. Discussion on the forum.

A Pro-Free-Market Program for Economic Recovery

Mises Daily — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:56:48 -0600

The most important single step on the road to economic recovery is the establishment of a 100-percent reserve system against checking deposits. Ideally, the 100-percent reserve would be in gold. FULL ARTICLE by George Reisman

The Myth of the "Old Right"

Mises Daily — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:55:48 -0600

The writers and intellectuals who made up the most visible contingent of the "Old Right" were in no meaningful sense on the Right at all. They were on the Left, where they had always been. FULL ARTICLE by Jeff Riggenbach

Good Inflation

Mises Daily — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:54:46 -0600

Cash-economizing inflation is benign because it is an outcome of individuals striving to optimize their property holdings through the voluntary exchange process. Indeed, it improves economic welfare. FULL ARTICLE by Joseph T. Salerno

R.I.P. Rocky

Douglas French — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:48:19 -0600

While the debate is revving up in Washington this week to decide how the government intends to take over the healthcare industry, the passing of my childhood doctor has me remembering how it used to be.

"For four decades, untold numbers of Abilene area residents called Dr. Rorabaugh their doctor. He started practicing in Abilene in 1959 back in the days when doctors charged $3 or $4 per visit and made house calls."

Financial Censorship Growing

N. Joseph Potts — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:35:22 -0600

If you want to buy a book or DVD from the Web site of Writer David Irving, you'll no longer be able to use your American Express card, and that wasn't Irving's idea. It was the idea, evidently, of New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the district of Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York. Accusing Irving of neo-Nazism for Irving's defense of Adolf Hitler's actions as Führer of Nazi Germany and his revisionist inquiries into the Holocaust, Hikind wrote a letter to American Express and got eleven other New York elected officials to add their signatures to his.

Congress, of course, got the ball rolling for financial censorship in a big way when it barred use of credit cards to fund bets with offshore gaming Web sites, but this might be the first case of a "private" shutdown at the initiative of a group not exercising actual "legal" power over the card operator.

You can still buy books and DVDs, even reserve a place at a series of private meetings he's holding with fans in the US (Irving is British) currently using your Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal accounts, at least so far. Hikind may not be pursuing the matter further as he's currently in Israel, encouraging Americans to purchase real estate in East Jerusalem on formerly Jordanian territory occupied by Israel since its 1967 War.

Economists Can Be Hilarious

Mises Daily — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:36:56 -0600

Given our dismal reputation, I am happy to report that some economists' recent defenses of the efficient-markets hypothesis are laugh-out-loud funny. Just watch EMH economists try to defend their theory from either refutation or triviality. FULL ARTICLE by Robert P. Murphy

The Strike-Threat System

Mises Daily — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:35:58 -0600

While the book primarily concerns itself with the economic consequences of the strike-threat in our labor market, it presents an equally devastating argument for the superiority of the free market in the determination of the wage rates of labor. FULL ARTICLE by Robert G. Anderson

Taxes

Mises Daily — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:34:51 -0600

It is said, "There is no better investment than taxes. Only see what a number of families it maintains, and consider how it reacts upon industry: it is an inexhaustible stream, it is life itself." FULL ARTICLE by Frederic Bastiat

Tucker Speaking on IP

Briggs Armstrong — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:31:39 -0600

Jeffrey Tucker will be giving a lecture on the evils of Intellectual Property this afternoon at Auburn University. He will be in the Student Center Room 2107 from 5:30-6:30. This should be an exciting event for those who are able to make it on such short notice.

Here is Jeffrey Tucker's lecture from yesterday evening.

Newport Beach photos

Mises.org Updates — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:24:29 -0600

The Fed Plan: Two More Years of Stupid Things

Jeffrey Tucker — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:32:44 -0600

The WSJ reports on an interview with a Fed official who says that the central bank will keep rates at 0% for two more years at least. But right now, banks have no reason to lend (zero earnings) and no one has any reason to save (zero earnings), and the risk associated with long-term projects is nowhere reflected in these obviously phony rates signals. What's striking too is that the plan hasn't work, just as it didn't work in Japan. And yet the Fed persists.

End of an Era for Hillsdale?

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:08:01 -0600

Hillsdale College is starting a Charter School, and while there is no mention of this in the press release, Charter Schools rely on government money. That's what makes them different from regular private schools. Here is a 1989 explanation by George Roche of the long struggle of this college against ever accepting government money.

It turns out that the housing rebound was illusory

Jeffrey Tucker — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:46:24 -0600

It is possible to know what is in the papers without reading them.

NYT: New home construction slowed unexpectedly in October to the lowest level in six months, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, resurrecting fears that the housing market may be slow to recover.