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Last week I testified before a Congressional subcommittee on the Fed’s role in rising gasoline prices. All of the economists on the panel agreed that oil prices were rising (partly) because of the dollar’s fall against other currencies. However, Dean Baker — prominent Keynesian pundit and codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research —

With Friday’s dismal jobs report — showing a paltry 54,000 increase in nonfarm payroll employment in May — more and more analysts are realizing that the so-called economic “recovery” is stalling. As Jeffrey Tucker recently pointed out in an important article , Austrians realize that the recession never left. This has all been smoke and mirrors for

A recent NPR story on the debt ceiling seeks to correct the American public’s “misunderstanding” of the issue. But as we’ll see, whether through ignorance or deception, the analyst on whom the story relies makes claims about the debt ceiling that are simply not true. It turns out that the public’s gut reaction to politicians’ piling on ever more

I am pleased to announce that, starting July 20, I (and guest lecturer Peter Klein) will offer a Mises Academy class, Production and the Market Process . The course will focus on chapters 5–9 of Murray Rothbard’s masterpiece, Man, Economy, and State . The Scope of the Course The course runs for eight weeks, from July 20 through September 13. As

I am pleased to announce that in late June the Mises Academy will launch my new online class, Keynes, Krugman, and the Crisis . In the interests of both intellectual honesty and rhetorical effectiveness, it is important for Austrians to “know the enemy.” The class is designed to give students of the Austrian School a fair understanding of the

With various states debating measures to elevate the monetary status of gold, the gold standard is more politically relevant now than it has been in decades. When the LA Times (to pick just one example) runs an article stating matter-of-factly that “economists” uniformly oppose gold, you know the defenders of the current system are getting

Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. People often ask me, “How are the Austrians different from the Chicago School economists? Aren’t you all free market guys who oppose big-government Keynesians?” In the present article I’ll outline some of the main differences. Although it’s true that Austrians agree with Chicago economists on

“If employees are being systematically underpaid in a firm, there is an automatic incentive for other companies to bid them away.”   Earlier this week, the Supreme Court unanimously threw out a massive class-action sexual-discrimination lawsuit against Walmart. By overruling a lower court’s decision, the Supreme Court raised the barrier to future

My six-year-old’s interests have changed over the years, but one constant has been his fascination with vehicles. His most cherished vehicle is — in the words of one DVD — “everyone’s favorite friend, Thomas.” In the present article I want to discuss how amazingly “bourgeois” is the world of Thomas the Tank Engine . I imagine anti-industry

Earlier in the year, the BBC featured a series of articles commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the state in Somalia. Although the articles expressed the typical revulsion at “anarchy,” the series was surprisingly balanced for such a mainstream outlet. Somalia is undeniably experiencing progress according to several criteria, despite