Mises Search

Its been over 6 years of ultra low interest rates referred to as ZIRP, or zero interest rate policy. We have been told to expect a normalization of interest rates soon, but now we are told that the Fed, specifically the New York Federal Reserve Bank is trying to figure out how to do that.  For the millions of people who have suffered through an

Europeans and the Japanese have long been fearful of price deflation. This fear is probably based on the fact that mainstream economists and central bankers have this fear and express it often. That fear is called apoplithorismosphobia . They believe that deflation is a force that sucks an economy down and destroys it much like a black hole that

The headline from The Economist reads: Tower of Babel: Is there such a thing as a Skyscraper Curse : They explain the curse using my article without mentioning me, but at least they did reference my paper at the end of the article. Based on new empirical evidence apparently I am wrong about the connection between record setting skyscrapers and

March’s economic report from the National Association of Credit Management dropped to the lowest it’s been this year. The combined index fell from 53.2 in February to 51.2 this month. NACM economic Chris Kuehl had hoped the previous month’s reading was just a fluke and he noted that we are now at the lowest point since the recession. The report

Why is it that only former Fed officials are willing to say the truth about the economy and monetary policy. I know they don’t know the whole truth and they are blinded by power, but why do they always wait till they are “former” to tell the truth. In this CNBC interview former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh said that Janet Yellen does not seem to

Tim Knight At Slope of Hope posted some interesting charts regarding margin debt at the New York Stock Exchange and the S&P 500. It shows that margin debt and the S&P are both near all time record levels. When Austrian economists talk about the Fed’s ultra low interest rate policies engineering higher stock markets, this is the most obvious and

Joseph Salerno’s paper “ A Modest Proposal for Reining in the Bernanke Fed”  is now in the Top 10 in downloads on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) in the category of “Response to Financial Crisis.” SSRN is the primary depository of working paper in economics and the social sciences. You can download Joe’s paper  here  for free.    

UPDATE: The fact that marijuana legalization ballot measure (Issue #3) failed in Ohio is not an indication that legalization is not supported by the people. It was because they rejected government monopoly of pot growing as shown in the victory in the passage of Issue #2 which bans such monopolies. Its a great libertarian victory overall.   There

Ireland has announced plans to decriminalize drugs, including heroin and cocaine, in the near future along with needle exchange programs. However, this is not just another blip reform like Portugal in the 1990s. I expect the United Nations to issue new guidelines regarding the war on drugs. The current guidelines call for a tough war on drugs that

New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman has ruled that fantasy football companies such as FanDuel and DraftKings must cease and desist operation in New York. Because of New York’s historic role in consumer protection this ruling may spread into other jurisdictions. According to the New York Times , Mr. Schneiderman said: “It is clear