Stock markets continue to head lower this morning. Certainly one of the catalysts is the prospects for higher interest rates. The Federal Funds rate was pushed downward beginning in the third quarter of 2000 and has been held down at 1% for the last year ( see chart ). On the other hand, the bond market indicates that interest rates are heading
In an attempt to “clean up” government the sheriff of tiny Marshall Country, Alabama (pop. 97,000) ordered 22,000 rolls of toilet paper and 450 cases or trash bags. No word if this was an accident or if it was an attempt to bankrupt the county.
A new record breaking skyscraper for Europe has been completed as the tallest skyscraper in Europe. Under construction for six years, the 87 story building (Lakhta Center) in St. Petersburg will become the headquarters of Russia’s natural gas giant and its oil subsidiary, Gazprom. The building will not be finished on the interior and open to the
Mark Thornton recently joined CJ of the Dangerous History podcast to discuss his new book The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century, and his recent article on the government’s role in Florida’s recent red tide crisis. Listen
National Public Radio recently broadcast a segment on the concept of the open office. When I went back to my office I planned to listen to the entire segment and when I Googled it, there were multiple hits to NPR segments. One might suspect that NPR has some disgruntled reporters working in the open office format. The open office concept of no
The Royal Academy made a clear political statement with this year’s Nobel Prize in economics. Coming a day after the United Nations panel on climate change issued its dire warning on climate change, this award attempts to emphasize the long term impact of climate change on the economy and economic growth. In Mr. Nordhaus case, he emphasizes how
Bradford DeLong posted a vicious rant on his blog recently accusing the signatories of a letter in support of President Trump’s economic policies of being “both 100% cynical and 100% deluded” as well as “moronic and easily grifted.” However, it turns out that Delong himself suffers from the delusion that a president gets to write and pass
It has been often said that our future rests with the next generation. If that is true, then it is a scary prospect. The millennial generation (ages 18-34) increasingly sees itself, politically, as socialist. I personally know a couple of young men who declare themselves Marxists! Although that is frightening enough, remember the context in which
There were three important victories related to cannabis yesterday, including the states of Michigan, Missouri and Utah which are far from being lefty hippy states! Only in North Dakota did the ballot measure fail. Michigan passed full adult recreational legalization of cannabis by a 54-46 margin making it the 10th state to do so. Missouri became
ABSTRACT: Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey G. Williamson, in their book Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700 (Princeton University Press, 2016), explore the reasons for the decline in the share of income captured by top earners in industrialized nations. Embedded in their take on the “Greatest Leveling” is a push for progressive
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.
