The policy of the Bernanke-Yellen Fed to whet investors’ appetite for risk by maintaining short-term interest rates at zero in order to pump up investment spending seems to be working quite well. Here is some anecdotal evidence as reported by a friend: I tried tapping private banks for a business loan, for fun, last month, for a business that I
Recently Steve Horwitz has adamantly defended Larry White’s interpretation of Mises’s attitude toward fiduciary media, an interpretation which I have criticized . Steve is surprisingly uncompromising and has even gone as far as to stake Mises’s reputation as a historian of economic thought and monetary theorist on the correctness of White’s
It has always been very difficult to get a read on Masonomics, that is, the style of economics taught at George Mason University, generally under the term “Austrian Economics.” But thanks to Pete Boettke’s prodigious blogging, we learn more and more about it every day. Pete has in the past referred to research at GMU as “a stew of Menger,
In his brilliant article on “The Intellectuals and Socialism,” Friedrich Hayek suggests a strong causal connection between copyright laws and socialism. In discussing the development of the intellectual class, whom he characterizes as “secondhanders in ideas” and inherently inclined to promote socialism, Hayek writes: One of the most important
Lyndon McClellan is a small entrepreneur who owns and operates L & M Convenience Mart in Fairmont, North Carolina. L & M comprises a gas station, convenience store, and a small restaurant serving hot dogs, hamburgers, and catfish sandwiches. One day last July, more than a dozen federal, state and local law enforcement agents swarmed Mr.
In his Economic Viewpoint memo yesterday, Brendan Brown, Executive Director and Chief Economist of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International, surveyed the crowded field of prospective Republican Presidential nominees on the subject of radically reforming the Fed and pronounced it sadly lacking. Since Brown is one of the few financial commentators
Today is a historic day in Austrian economics. Today a Ph.D.-level seminar in Austrian economics commences at the University of Missouri. What is so important about this event is that the course is not part of a niche Austrian program dependent on external funding, but is part of the regular curriculum of a mainstream program at a major research
In April it was announced that Greece was imposing a surcharge for all cash withdrawals from bank accounts to deter citizens from clearing out their accounts. So now the Greeks will have to pay one euro per 1,000 euros that they withdraw, which is one-tenth of a percent. It doesn’t seem very big, but the principle at work is extremely big because
There is an interesting article in the NYT on the emergence of alternative paper currencies. “Artisanal” or “low-batch” currencies have been popping up all over in the past decade. They have been issued by municipal governments in Great Britain, a private nonprofit entity in Amsterdam, and a regional network of businesses, nonprofits, and
Those searching for a Ph.D. that will allow them to pursue an academic career in Austrian economics should read Michael Rozeff’’s article on LewRockwell.com . Although the topic of the article is “Stimulus as Seen through Becker’s Chicago Lens,” Dr. Rozeff provides in passing an instructive description of his own graduate education at the
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.
