The uproar over Dubai Ports World’s planned purchase of franchises at several American port facilities continues. Being owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is enough to make the company a subject of demagoguery in Washington, DC. The nation’s capital is a place where people seem unable to comprehend the profit motive. And Dubai Ports could not
This week, the Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins returned to his hobby horse of propping up housing prices by having the federal government pay for the destruction of houses. ( $ article ) “So far, Washington has put its political capital into trying to refinance salvageable homes for unsalvageable homeowners, when a relevant policy would
Bloomberg finds economists to refute Christopher Westley on Mises.org. Yes, they argue that disasters can generate economic growth so long as they are predictable and frequent. Broken and destroyed property is usually replaced using better technology, they say. Using this logic, the federal government should spur greater growth and technological
Foreign aid worsens the situation faced by victims of natural disasters, perpetuates misery and suffering for years afterward, and provides governments with additional tools of oppression. The current Tsunami crisis makes it critical to review Murray Rothbard’s “ Doing God’s Work in Somalia ,” a detailed account of how foreign aid caused further
A controversy is brewing over the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, which created a one-year tax holiday offering companies a 5.25% tax rate instead of the normal 35% tax rate on profits repatriated from abroad. Companies are usually forced to keep their profits abroad to avoid high US taxes. In 2003, US corporations added $119.2 billion to
The Institutional Risk Analyst does an excellent job of exposing the massive financial fraud known as Social Security. By connecting the financial dots, the article demonstrates that the government has effectively invested public pension funds in its own debt - something no private firm is allowed to do. The commingling of Social Security trust
A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s dismissal of lawsuits accusing Merrill Lynch of hyping stocks and causing investor losses during the collapse of the tech bubble. Hundreds of lawsuits spawned by New York state attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer have been filed against Merrill, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman
The Wall Street Journal reports that more than 500 companies have reported deficiencies under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In most cases, the deficiencies uncovered by costly internal control assessments were inconsequential. An auditor, whose services corporations are forced to pay for, claims the law is “first and foremost aimed at restoring investor
In the WSJ : “So far in 2005, 33% of the 18 withdrawn stock offerings -- including IPOs, secondary offerings and convertible-stock deals -- were put on ice because the issuers began discussions to be acquired instead, according to data from deal tracker Dealogic. That rate is up from 2004, when 18% of the 97 withdrawn deals were due to acquisition
New York state attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer reached a $600K settlement with Macy’s department stores in his race profiling investigation of the company. The store must also train its security guards to avoid racial profiling. According to the New York Times : “Mr. Spitzer’s investigation found that most of people
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.