Mises Search

Well it’s about time. The headline on Monday’s CNBC article announces: “Investors Starting to Believe That Inflation Threat is Real.” For some time, I have been a proud member of the fuddy duddies who have been predicting the return of serious stagflation . Thus far, our prognostications have clearly been half -right — the “real economy” is indeed

Inflation hawks were disappointed by the very early retirement of Kevin Warsh from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. In contrast, those who think Ben Bernanke needs more doves on the board in order to push through his inflationist medicine celebrated Warsh’s unexpected exit. In this context, Charles Plosser — president of the Philadelphia

Back in early January, the Federal Reserve made an obscure announcement in its weekly report. It appeared to be an inconsequential accounting change in the treatment of earnings , and was sold as a step toward greater transparency. The change was buried in such jargon that it took weeks for the financial bloggers to fully digest what had happened

Brad DeLong recently wrote a blog post titled “Empirical Proof That America’s Libertarians Are Completely Insane.” The “proof” was that libertarian Sasha Volokh had had the audacity to suggest that it would be immoral for the government to tax people even to stop a deadly asteroid from hitting the earth. As we’ll see, DeLong misunderstood Volokh’s

Steve Landsburg is an economics professor at the University of Rochester, and author of some great books on free-market thinking. However, in a recent blog post he gave a misleading explanation of option pricing. It’s worth going over the episode because it beautifully illustrates the tendency of economists to overlook the assumptions they sneak

It’s not newsworthy when Paul Krugman contradicts himself. However, in two recent blog posts on the varying economic fortunes of US states, Krugman’s about-face was so complete and so fast that I just have to share. Krugman’s Kind of Contradiction At the outset I should note that Paul Krugman is a very clever, careful guy. It’s extremely rare when

The news abounds with arguments and even riots over so-called austerity measures. Whether in the Middle East, Europe, or even certain US states, the public is realizing just how deep a hole various governments have dug for themselves. In this article I’ll outline Uncle Sam’s position and then explain why it’s such a problem. A Shocking Chart I

The political upheaval in the Middle East underscores one of the most profound aspects of Ludwig von Mises’s worldview: all governments ultimately rely on the consent of the governed. Although the claim at first sounds preposterous — who could possibly argue that a dictatorship is subject to the will of the people? — there is an important sense in

Whether giving public lectures or teaching at the Mises Academy , I’m often asked whether Bernanke will be able to “pull this off.” Specifically, can the Fed gracefully exit from the huge hole it has dug for itself? Unfortunately my answer is no. In the present article I’ll go over three possible exit options, and explain the flaws in each. The

Everyone knows that the unemployment situation is very bad, but the official figures (not surprisingly) understate the problem. In this article I’ll outline the severity of the stalled labor market, and explain some of the major causes.   The Employment Outlook According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the official civilian unemployment