On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve once again reaffirmed its zero-interest rate policy. Amusingly, this commitment to the monetary status quo is being seen by some as “hawkish” which, as Ryan McMaken points out, “shows just how much the goal posts have been moved in recent years.” Unfortunately all the spin and promises of future rate hikes doesn’t change the fact that we are nearing the seven year anniversary of ZIRP with an economy Janet Yellen doesn’t think is strong enough to survive the reversal of the Fed’s monetary morphine. Hopefully our central bankers will one day realize their war on deflation is leaving us poorer, but in the meantime — at least we can laugh about it.
In this edition of the Mises Weekends, we have the third in our series on the current state of healthcare. Our first episode featured Charles Hugh Smith who discussed the consequences of a healthcare market taken over by government regulators and insurance lobbyists. Our second featured Dr. Michel Accad giving his perspective as a practicing doctor in a post-Obamacare world. This week, Robert Murphy discusses his new book, The Primal Prescription, which he co-wrote with Dr. Doug McGuff. Murphy not only applies his understanding of Austrian economics to highlight the problems plaguing us today, but offers advice on how to navigate through the current state of American healthcare.
In case you missed any of them, here are this week’s featured Mises Daily articles and some of our most popular posts at Mises Wire:
- The Fed Can’t Raise Rates, But Must Pretend It Will by Thorsten Polleit
- Robert Shiller Imagines What Consumers Should Want, While Ignoring What They Do Want by G.P. Manish
- The War on Cars Is a War on Workers and the Poor by Gary Galles
- Today’s War Against Deflation Will Make Us Poorer by Frank Shostak
- The World Bank Threatens Free Markets in Peru by Simon Wilson
- If Sweden and Germany Became US States, They Would be Among the Poorest States by Ryan McMaken
- There’s More to Money than Hyperinflation by Matt McCaffrey
- Pew: Homicide Rates Cut in Half Over Past 20 Years (While New Gun Ownership Soared) by Ryan McMaken
- Spectre by Matt McCaffrey
- Sunday of the Blind, or the Failed Revolution by Carmen Elena Dorobăț
- US Soldiers Are Paid Significantly More than Civilians with Similar Skills and Education by Ryan McMaken
- With Interest Rates, “There Are Two, Opposite Causal Chains at Work” Murray Rothbard
- FOMC: We’ll Raise Rates Some Day; We’re “Hawkish” Now by Ryan McMaken
- Underwear Prices to Remain Near Zero by Peter Klein
- Textbook Definitions of Economics: An Informal Survey by Jonathan Newman
- Politicians Pander to an Anti-Fed Public by Tho Bishop
- In Sweden Cash Is Becoming Radioactive by Joseph Salerno
- First they came for the cash, then they came for the microwaves by David Howden
