How Easy Money Killed Silicon Valley Bank

2023-03-08

From March 17, 2022, to the end of January 2023, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) increased its federal funds rate from practically zero to 4.50–4.75 percent. The rise in lending rates came in response to skyrocketing consumer goods price inflation: US inflation rose from 2.5 percent in January 2022 to 9.1 percent in June. Notwithstanding inflation falling to 6.4 percent in January 2023, the Fed continues to signal to markets that it will continue to hike rates to bring down consumer price inflation.
This is understandable. The Fed wants to maintain its inflation-fighting credentials; it wants people to believe it is really determined to bring inflation back to 2 percent. It is presumably well aware that the US dollar’s world reserve currency status needs to be protected more than ever, as it

2023-03-04

Recently, I published an article in the Mises Wire, “Woke Egalitarianism and the Elites,” in which I presented the true intentions behind woke egalitarianism. The article also described how elites attempt to rebuild society through collectivism. But more than discussing the goals of progressivism, we need to discuss the intellectual basis of these attempts. What assumptions and intellectual framework guide these actions?
Progressivism is based on a disrespect of individuals, their actions, and their ability to choose. First, progressivism groups people into collectives based on a particular criterion (e.g., race, gender, and sexual orientation). Moreover, progressivism homogenizes their thinking, values, and actions based on these collective classifications. To progressivists, individuals

2023-03-02

Over one hundred years ago, Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises discovered what causes the boom-bust business cycle.
As Mises explained, the boom is caused by central and commercial banks creating money out of thin air. This lowers interest rates, which encourages businesses to borrow this newly created money to fund capital-intensive investment projects.
The bust is caused when the money creation process slows. It is then that businesses discover there are not enough scarce resources to complete their projects, so these projects must be liquidated to allow for labor and other resources to be allocated to where they are most desired by consumers.
As a result, not only does the boom-bust business cycle cause tremendous short-term hardship, but it also lowers long-term living standards by

2022-12-17

[This article is the foreword to Breaking Away: The Case of Secession, Decentralization, and Smaller Polities, by Ryan McMaken, available in PDF, at the Mises store, and on Amazon.]  Classical liberal tradition defends the right of secession on many grounds.