For the first time in more than a decade, the European Central Bank (ECB) raised its key interest rate this past Thursday. The deposit facility rate went from –0.5 to 0.0 percent. The change comes after fourteen months of price inflation in the European Union above the ECB’s 2 percent target. The EU’s price inflation measure hit 9.6 percent in
From the United Kingdom to Spain to the Balkans, it has become common practice in Europe to refer to secessionist groups of various types as “nationalists.” Sometimes the term is employed as a pejorative term, and often not. Scottish nationalists, for example, often refer to themselves as nationalists. On the other hand, sometimes the term
In September 2008, the worsening global financial crisis hit a new phase when Lehman Brothers collapsed and it became undeniable that “hard times” had arrived for most ordinary people. By then, the unemployment rate had been climbing for months, foreclosures had skyrocketed, and the yield curve had been inverted through much of 2006 and 2007.
The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee announced Wednesday it is raising its key policy rate—the federal funds rate—by 75 basis points to 2.5 percent. According to the FOMC’s press release, the committee recognizes that economic activity is declining but that Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation also “remains elevated”: Recent
The U.S. economy contracted for the second straight quarter during the second quarter this year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday. With that, economic growth has hit a widely accepted benchmark for defining an economy as being in recession: two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. According to the BEA, the US economy
Here’s an interesting bit of new legislation coming from Congressional Democrats. Georgia Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson has introduced the “Supreme Court TERM Act.” This legislation would : Establish terms of 18 years in regular active service for Supreme Court justices, after which justices who retain the office will assume senior status; Establish
Fed officials like Jerome Powell have long downplayed CPI as a price inflation measure in favor of the PCE index. But, much like CPI, the PCE measure is now also hitting 40-year highs. In new data released today for June, the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 6.8%, the biggest 12-month move since the 6.9% increase in January 1982
In spite of the fact that real wages are going down, the cost of living is soaring, and new jobless claims are heading up at a rapid pace, and the savings rate has collapsed, what really matters to the White House, it seems, is the “technical definition” of recession. Never mind the fact that the US economy has contracted for the past two
The topic of secession has become more common in recent years as various regions and minority populations (e.g., California and Texas) have suggested breaking away from the United States. The idea is put forward with varying levels of seriousness, but the fact that talk of secession is increasingly open and regular suggests increasing strength for
Come next January, Alabama will be the twenty-fifth state to allow concealed carry without a permit. Alabama will soon join Indiana, which in March of this year passed a new statute allowing permitless concealed carry—sometimes called “constitutional carry.” In 2021 alone, at least six states passed their own provisions legalizing permitless
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.