Here’s the abstract from a new paper in the October 2013 issue of Economic Inquiry : During their meetings, the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) make monetary policy, but they also make each other laugh. This article studies the amount of laughter elicited by members of the FOMC during their meetings. The study finds that a
Congress had just passed the Underwood Tariff (reinstating the federal income tax following the passage of the 16th Amendment) and, miracle of miracles, the stock market began to slump. While the trade-off for passing the income tax was a reduction in tariff rates—this way, the tax’s proponents could claim pro-trade motivations—the
You were considered a hoarder and a slacker if you still resisted turning over your gold to the government. From the New York Times, June 13, 1933: (Click on the image for a sharper picture.) Roosevelt had only been in office for 101 days and while there was broad bipartisan support for inflationary policies in Congress, it’s safe to say that most
Thomas Sowell recently sat down with Peter Robinson to discuss his latest book, Intellectuals and Race . Here’s a short excerpt: Robinson: [N]ow you’re saying that multiculturalists [who argue for] bringing kids into [academic] institutions for which they’re ill-qualified — you take bright, hard-working, otherwise perfectly well-qualified
A new book by Portuguese economist João Ferreira do Amaral entitled Why We Should Leave the Euro is outselling Fifty Shades of Grey there. This makes sense given that both books center on painful relationships in which one party is being spanked and that are apparently difficult to dissolve. (h/t Bill
The inestimable Jim Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer reminds Washington Post readers that the United States has defaulted on its debt in the past and will do so again in the future. Almost as educational as Grant’s op-ed are the accompanying comments from beltarians who are simply shocked--shocked!--that there are people beyond its border
Mises Institute Associated Scholar Richard Vedder is interviewed in the Wall Street Journal and discusses the cost of a college education: Mr. Vedder, age 72, has taught college economics since 1965 and published papers on the likes of Scandinavian migration, racial disparities in unemployment and tax reform. Over the last decade he’s made himself
Senior Fellow Yuri Maltsev recently lectured in Mauritius and was interviewed in Le Mauricien . Here is a portion loosely translated from the French original: So what is the meaning of socialism in a globalized world dominated by the market economy ? In states that prefer socialism, living conditions deteriorate and abuses of human rights are
On this date in 1913, from the New York Times : POPULARITY OF THE INCOME TAX. The Chamber of Commerce has directed an inquiry into the administrative feature of the income tax after a debate in which it was said that the tax would not affect 99 per cent. of the citizenship. It was suggested that this deprived the bill of general interest, and that
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.
