The Federal Reserve no action on interest rates this week, making November the 94th month in a row during which the Fed’s target interest rate is below 1 percent. The lack of movement surprised no one this close to next week’s election, especially with the Fed’s current policy as seen to be helping Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances (at the expense of the greater economy). Hurting her campaign is the continuing disaster of Obamacare, as government mandates have tainted insurance pools with too much risk, and not enough healthy individuals to balance the cost. Meanwhile, as public referendums on both medicinal and recreational marijuana appear on ballots across the country next week, the Federal government continues to undermine legalization efforts to the benefit of black markets. While Washington itself is beyond repair, it’s important to recognize the rhetorical tricks being used within the capital to continue to attack your freedoms.
If you are looking for a reprieve from endless campaign coverage this weekend, on Saturday we will streaming live from our Dallas-Ft. Worth Mises Circle. Jeff Deist, Bob Murphy, Ryan McMaken, and more will be speaking about The End of Politics. The event begins at 11 a.m. CST, and can be seen at Mises.org/live.
On Mises Weekends this week, Jeff joins Andy Duncan of the Fin Tales podcast to share his thoughts on next week’s presidential election. Going beyond the electoral horse race, Jeff and Andy discuss the impact each candidate could have on the Federal Reserve, gold prices, and US foreign policy.
In case you missed them, here are this week’s articles of interest from the Mises Wire:
- Central Banks Have Robbed Us Of the Benefits of Free Trade by Patrick Trombly
- What Will the Fed Do After the Election? by Ryan McMaken
- Why Is It So Hard to Reduce the Pentagon Budget? by William D. Hartung
- Is the Market Our God? by David Gordon
- Government Pension Plans Are Headed for Disaster by Robert Fellner
- Electing “the Right People” Won’t Fix Washington, DC by Tho Bishop
- Why We Need Whistleblowers by Ben O’Neill
- 5 Tricks Gun-Control Advocates Play by Ryan McMaken
- Is There a Savings Glut? by Frank Shostak
- New Overtime Rules Will Make Life Much Harder for Young Workers by Brittany Hunter
- Top Ten Most-Read Articles in October
- Government Regulators Drive Legal Marijuana Underground by Ryan McMaken
- Two Arguments Against the Fed We Should Make Over and Over by Jeff Deist
- The Obamacare Tipping Point by Richard Kocur
- Making Sugar a Delicacy by Chris Calton
- Blame Government, Not Markets for Monopoly by Ron Paul
- Chalk One Up for Populism by Joseph T. Salerno
- Bring Back the “Gold-Clause Contracts” by Jp Cortez
- The Devaluation of Higher Education by Carmen Elena Dorobăț
- It’s Not In Your Self-interest to “Vote Yourself a Raise” by Gary Galles