The Federal Reserve is sowing the seeds for its central bank digital currency (CBDC). It may seem that the purpose of a CBDC is to facilitate transactions and enhance economic activity, but CBDCs are mainly about more government control over individuals. If a CBDC were implemented, the central bank would have access to all transactions in
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens. David Card received the award for his paper (coauthored with Alan Krueger) “Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.” This was used by some as scientific proof that the minimum wage
On September 21st, the Fed announced another 0.75 percent rate hike. The target is 3 percent to 3.25 percent. The annual rate of the CPI went down in July and in August, standing at 8.3 percent . If we consider the methodology used in the 1980’s, the CPI also went down in the last months, but it is still above 15 percent , according to Shadow
The European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates for the second time this year (by 0.75 percent). The eurozone’s CPI was 8.9 percent in July . In that month, the ECB raised rates by 0.5 percent and created a new instrument of monetary policy, the Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI) , to counter the ‘risk of fragmentation’ of the
Recently, the Fed raised interest rates by 0.25 percent, after another 0.25 percent hike in February . The interest rate is now at 4.9 percent . The annual consumer price index (CPI) has been decreasing in recent months and it was 6 percent in February. However, according to Shadow Government Statistics , if we measure the CPI by the methodology
The eurozone’s annual price inflation rate hit 5 percent in December 2021 and (as of this writing) the consensus is for 5.1 percent in January 2022 . Eurozone industrial producer prices were up 26.2 percent in 2021 . This has been pressuring the European Central Bank (ECB) to adopt a tight monetary policy (or at least a less loose one). On
The inflation rates reported by governments are generally, at the very least, a little lower than they actually are. And the US government is not an exception. It makes the CPI (Consumer Price Index) artificially lower (by making changes in the methodology) and benefits from it in several ways (increasing its revenues while the voters don’t
Governments lie about the inflation rate and benefits from it , so, it is no surprise when they talk against deflation (for the purpose of this article, assume inflation as a general increase in prices and deflation as the opposite), which would be good for consumers and the economy, but bad for the government. (While Austrian Economists define
Last November, the Federal Reserve System announced tapering (a gradual reduction of the central bank’s monthly asset purchases to the point of ending the asset purchase program, which means that the Fed would stop increasing its balance sheet). In December, it announced another decrease in monthly asset purchases . And in the last Federal Open
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the US was 9.1 percent in June . Taking into account that the government lies about inflation , it is better to consider Shadow Government Statistics’ CPI (based on the 1980s CPI methodology), which was (as of July 13) about 17 percent . The government claims that this high CPI is due to Russia’s invasion of
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.