Mises Search

The Free Market 14, no. 3 (March 1996)   Look at the back of your computer monitor, the bottom of your table lamp, or the label on your hair dryer. Chances are you will see the symbol “UL” with a circle around it. It stands for Underwriters Laboratories, a firm headquartered in Northbrook, Ill., and an unsung hero of the market economy.  Most

The Free Market 14, no. 6 (June 1996)   Hollywood ain’t what it used to be. For the most part—and with known exceptions—the quality and content of today’s movies have plummeted when compared to the Golden Age. With the movies’ parade of sex and violence, they’re an easy target for cultural critics to say capitalism inflicts grave damage on the

The Free Market 14, no. 11 (November 1996)   Republicans seemed  sincere when they argued against a minimum-wage increase. In their rhetoric they were right: it increases unemployment, especially among the poor, by making work illegal. Even the head of Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers denounced the minimum wage—when he was a private

The Free Market 16, no. 4 (April 1998)   British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for doing “too little” in response to the Irish Potato Famine of the 19th century that killed one million people and brought about the emigration of millions more. But in fact, the English government was guilty of doing too much. Blair’s statement draws attention

The Free Market 17, no. 9 (September 1999)   The Mississippi River Basin is the largest river basin in the world, and stretches from New York to Idaho and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. In the course of American history, the river often flooded, but not until 1927 had so many people been killed and left homeless and never had such a large land

The Free Market 17, no. 10 (October 1999)   The politics of discrimination have been a major force for statism for decades. Only recently have some politicians yielded to public pressure to pull back from their absurd enforcement of quotas.  Californians rescinded their preferential treatment for protected minorities in state colleges. Courts

Gallop has just released its report on Prosperity and Well Being in the 50 States. North Dakota jumped 18 places to take the number one spot, thanks to the oil discoveries there. What stuck me was the relationship between high well being and medical marijuana laws. There are about 20 states that have passed medical marijuana laws, permitting the

by Ron Paul Last week Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed an additional 40,000 reduction in active duty US Army personnel, down to 450,000 soldiers. As US troops are being withdrawn from the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it might make sense to reduce not only the active duty military but the entire military budget. However, from the

Here is a forecast of Gross Domestic Product based on the Austrian notion of the money supply and its growth rate. Jeffrey Peshut shows that Real GDP peaks with a variable lag to the growth rate of the True Money Supply. In other words we should expect Real GDP growth to peak from 1 to 3 years after the True Money Supply growth rate peaks. He

A recent study by Gan Li found that 90% of households in China own their homes and that housing is typically the largest item in household wealth. The study reinforces the idea that China has been experiencing a real estate bubble of epic proportions the popping of which the Communist Party cannot tolerate. “The Chinese housing market is clearly