More than two decades ago, the Federal Reserve joined with the federal government to make housing more affordable. The first housing bubble popped in 2008, and a second bubble is on its way to bursting.
Audio Mises Wire
Audio recordings of Mises Wire articles, offering contemporary news and opinion through the lens of Austrian economics and libertarian political economy.
Critics of capitalism claim that private enterprise gives workers the unhappy choice of either working difficult, low-paying jobs or outright starving. The claim is false and the history of capitalism tells a different story.
While protecting “intellectual property” has a good sound to it — even among libertarians — such policies are harmful to authentic property rights. We need to pursue another path.
Continued bailouts undermine the entire economy by rewarding financial failure and discouraging productive economic activity.
Economic laws represent the real world. They are not ideologies or objects of worship. These laws are not the product of an ideological wish list but rather explain production and exchange.
Instead of the usual claptrap that characterizes most graduation speeches, someone needs to give a speech that defends liberty and tells the truth about government and capitalism.
Commonsense safety measures are being replaced in our working culture by an impossible “no risk” standard. A culture of “can do” is replaced by the culture of fear.
The Washington political establishment's uniform condemnation of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump does not square with the apocalyptic rhetoric they have used to describe him over the past eight years.
Issues of immigration are complex. The current system of open borders, detention and expanding access to welfare is destructive to our body politic. We need to come up with a better system that protects the rights of all.
Economic mythology said governments must regulate markets to prevent monopolies. In reality, it is the government regulation itself that creates monopolies, which do not emerge in free markets.
Progressives promote civil rights viewpoints as being “good for the whole” of society. Yet most of the modern civil rights movements and accompanying legislation simply promote the "good" of one group at the expense of others.
For all of his freedom-loving rhetoric, it is clear that Woodrow Wilson was one of the most antifreedom presidents in U.S. history.
The Biden administration is determined to do an end run around the courts and ram through yet another student loan forgiveness plan. It is not real “loan forgiveness” but just a massive wealth transfer from lower-income to higher-income groups.
Utopians are not satisfied with imposing DEI on humans. They also want the state to treat animals as “oppressed” minorities with positive rights.
With political turmoil creating anxiety in Great Britain, The Economist chose to describe the political situation as “anarchy.” In reality, this is political chaos, not anarchy, since anarchy is based upon social cooperation and peaceful resolution of conflicts.
When governments seize private firms in the name of nationalization, the moves are usually politically popular. However, it doesn't take long for the nationalized firms to turn into a financial black hole.
It’s finally clear to everyone that President Biden is not running the federal government. Yet the government is carrying on as it always has. It’s important to understand why.
Human action is not a figment of our imaginations, nor is it a social construct. Praxeology describes real and purposeful actions by people who act on what they know or what they believe to be true.
Javier Milei’s recent “snub” of Spain's political establishment during a recent visit there may have been a “violation” of diplomatic protocol, but it also was a statement that Spain’s socialism itself is uncivilized.
Academic elites claim that there is no objective truth, only social constructs. Thus, people can create their own reality in many areas, and everyone else is expected to accept whatever “reality” is presented—or face serious consequences.
