newspapers buzzed with the news that former Secretary of State Richard Olney declined President Woodrow Wilson’s request that he serve as the first head of the newly-created Federal Reserve Board. Olney’s refusal was considered a defeat for Wilson during his second year in office. Wilson wanted a New Englander to head the board, in part (he said)
The World Bank is a secretive multilateral organization that wastes many billions of dollars a year siphoning taxpayer dollars to foreign governments as part of a loan portfolio that emphasizes loan volume over loan profitability. Under normal circumstances, banks that reward volume over profit would not last long, but when the institution is
This is how it goes . The government bungles its distribution scheme for flu vaccines, causing an unanticipated supply shock, and suppliers face an upward pressure on prices. If the high price is charged, then your anal neighbor, who regularly receives flu shots even though he is in a low-risk category for catching the flu, decides to forego the
Some quick ruminations on medieval and Thomist economic thought. The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas is one of the world’s most reknowned masterpieces of intellectual thought. The medieval intellectuals prohibited the taking of interest, a philosophy fortified by earlier, Aristotelian doctrine. (The Second Lateran Council explicitly forbade usury
Most states and municipalities that lose business in spite of offering companies tax breaks walk away, but one town is fighting back. (Story in today’s NYT .) Point: In a competitive global environment, ... ...tax breaks can’t trump the adoption of competitive tax and regulation policies relative to those overseas, and as a result, states’ and
The original theory behind state-supported television was that it would give voice to those excluded from the marketplace. After all, commercial television’s interests are not necessarily in line with the national interest. What about the millions of the poor, benighted Americans who don’t fit into the few demographic targets that commercial
Mises Institute adjunct scholar Richard Vedder was interviewed this morning on NPR’s Morning Edition about his new book, Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much . Listen here . Sounds like a great book. From the interview: [College costs increase] because growing government financial aid, especially student loans, has made students
The ‘05 federal budget deficit is set to break last year’s record, reports the Washington Post . “In separate briefings, administration officials detailed the rising cost of war while the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its deficit forecast for the coming decade. Taken together, the briefings painted a sobering picture of the
I reeceived the following e-mail raising questions about my recent Mises.org critique of “forced savings” as a solution to the mess that is Social Security. My response follows. Professor Westley, I’m writing in regard to your article entitled “Robbing Peter to Pay Peter” at Mises.org. Let me start by saying that I fully agree with you that the
On the same day that the president says in his State of the Union speech: America’s prosperity requires restraining the spending appetite of the federal government. I welcome the bipartisan enthusiasm for spending discipline. ...one of the big news stories is the announcement that Viagra would be covered by Medicare--to a tune of a half a trillion
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.
