Monthly Archive: January 2024

The Bad News Hiding Behind the GDP and Jobs Numbers

2024-01-06

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2024-01-06

Economist Daniel Lacalle joins Ryan and Tho to talk about how central banks are engineering more zombie companies, higher inflation, and a "private sector recession," all hiding behind misleading and bullish aggregate data.  Claim your free book: Mises.org/RothPodFree Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at Mises.org/RadioRothbard. Radio Rothbard mugs are now available at the Mises Store. Get yours at Mises.org/RothMug  PROMO CODE:...

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Murray Sabrin on Our Broken Medical System

2024-01-05

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2024-01-05

Murray Sabrin joins Bob to discuss his upcoming online course on the economics of the US healthcare system, including practical solutions. The course begins in mid-January 2024. Dr. Sabrin's New Online Course: Mises.org/HAP429a IPAK-EDU.org is offering the following discounts: 50% off until Jan 6th with code: COUNTMEIN  25% off after January 6th with code: JACKSAYS75 Murray Sabrin on Our Broken Medical System...

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Greenwashing: A Bridge between Austrians and Environmentalists?

2024-01-05

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2024-01-05

Greenwashing is a relatively new term to describe false and misleading claims that a product or business practice has environmental benefits. The point is that companies can advertise their efforts as “green” while continuing various profitable activities that environmentalists consider “harmful,” gaming the system and profiting off well-intentioned, sustainably minded consumers. The term was coined forty years ago by a student in response to a...

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FDR against the Bill of Rights

2024-01-05

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2024-01-05

In this week’s column, I’d like to raise two questions suggested by David Beito’s excellent book The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights, which I reviewed last week. First, how can it be that Franklin Roosevelt has acquired a reputation among leftist historians as a champion of liberty, with his internment of Japanese Americans during World War II regarded as an aberration, in the face of the manifold violations of civil liberties that occurred...

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Why Argentina Needs Free Cities

2024-01-05

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2024-01-05

As the libertarian anarchocapitalist Javier Milei ascends to the Argentinian presidency, the parting of the ominous clouds of socialism has brought about the rising sun of libertarianism on the South American continent. The Argentine legislative system, consisting of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, is designed to bolster democratic governance and accountability. However, its inherent structure often leads to impasses, particularly with...

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Greenback is Bid ahead of the Jobs Report

2024-01-05

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2024-01-05

Overview: The dollar is bid going into the December jobs report. After selling off into the end of last year, it has recovered this week. The five-day moving average is crossing the 20-day moving average against several of the currency pairs, capturing the shift in momentum. The greenback's gains have as interest rates have jumped. The 10-year Treasury yield finished last year near 3.88% and is now near 4.04%. European benchmark rates have mostly...

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Why the Fed Sends Mixed Messages on Rate Cuts

2024-01-05

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2024-01-05

The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee released the minutes to its December meeting yesterday, and the minutes further strengthen the view held by many Wall Street investors and observers that the Fed plans to implement rate cuts by the middle of 2024. Specifically, the most recent Fed survey of market participants "suggested that the first reduction in the policy rate would occur in June."  This contrasts only slightly with the FOMC...

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What the Fed Accomplished: Distorted the Economy, Enriched the Rich and Crushed the Middle Class

2024-01-04

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2024-01-04

The mainstream holds the Fed is busy planning a return to the glory days of zero interest rates, but ZIRP is on the downside of the S-Curve; it's done, gone, history.

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Exposing the Price Level Myth

2024-01-04

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2024-01-04

Price inflation statistics were a hot topic in 2023. Official measures, like the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to levels not seen in over four decades. These measures were under commentators’ microscopes as recently as last week. The FRED Blog (run by the St. Louis Fed) briefly discussed how these two measures are constructed and how they differ. Paul Krugman compared the change in the...

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Zoning Laws: Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

2024-01-04

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2024-01-04

While zoning laws do not explain all homelessness in this country, they help make housing less affordable, putting more people on the streets who no longer can pay for a place to live. Original Article: Zoning Laws: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

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The Bill of Rights: The Only Good Part of the Constitution

2024-01-04

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2024-01-04

The Bill of Rights turns 232 years old today. Adopted in 1791 as a consolation prize for the Anti-Federalists,  it has been the most important part of American legal history since the 18th century. Original Article: The Bill of Rights: The Only Good Part of the Constitution

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Truth Is the Biggest Threat to Democracy in DC

2024-01-04

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2024-01-04

It seems U.S. government officials are entitled to blindfold and deceive the American people to avoid “intruding” on foreign leaders planning a military attack? This theory of democracy gets curiouser and curiouser. Original Article: Truth Is the Biggest Threat to Democracy in DC

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Experiencing the Rothbard Graduate Seminar: Who Should Apply

2024-01-04

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2024-01-04

​Why did you want to attend RGS? I attended the Rothbard Graduate Seminar (RGS) in 2023 for several reasons. For one, it fulfilled a requirement as one of the final classes to complete the Mises graduate program. Additionally, RGS was part of the Mises summer fellowship program, which I was also a part of this year. That said, I wanted to attend RGS because of the unique format it provides for graduate-level reading, lectures, and discussions with...

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Consolidative Tone Emerges Ahead of Tomorrow’s US Jobs and EMU CPI

2024-01-04

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2024-01-04

Overview: After gaining for the past couple of sessions to open the New Year, the dollar is mostly softer today. The yen is the main exception. The greenback was bid above the JPY144 area where chunky options expire today. Most emerging market currencies are also firmer though there are a few exceptions in Asia, like the South Korean won and Thai baht. Still, the general tone is consolidative ahead of tomorrow US jobs data and the eurozone's CPI....

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Why More Secession Means Lower Taxes and More Trade

2024-01-03

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2024-01-03

[This article is Chapter 9 of Breaking Away: The Case of Secession, Radical Decentralization, and Smaller Polities.] When we hear of political movements in favor of decentralization and secession, the word “nationalist” is often used to describe them. We have seen the word used in both the Scottish and Catalonian secession movements, and in the case of Brexit. Often the term is intended to be pejorative. When used pejoratively—as by the critics of...

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Resurrecting the Failed Policy of Rent Control

2024-01-03

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2024-01-03

It certainly isn’t common to find much agreement between the various authors here at the Mises Institute and our favorite metaphorical punching bag: Paul Krugman. But when it comes to the recently resurrected policy corpse of rent control, we have found a common cause. As Krugman noted back in 2000, The analysis of rent control is among the best-understood issues in all of economics, and—among economists, anyway—one of the least controversial. In...

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The Anti-Semitism Controversy on College Campuses Is the Direct Result of Identity Politics

2024-01-03

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2024-01-03

Anyone following the news knows that after a bruising congressional hearing on antisemitism on elite college campuses knows that Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, and Claudine Gay, president of Harvard, recently lost their jobs. while the president from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is under fire. While the issue is being framed as these presidents permitting (and sometimes encouraging) antisemitism on campus,...

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What an Old Coin Collection Tells Us about Money from the Past

2024-01-03

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2024-01-03

A coin collection can tell a lot about this nation's monetary history, and especially what happened nearly 60 years ago after the government debased U.S. coinage. This history is not having a happy ending. Original Article: What an Old Coin Collection Tells Us about Money from the Past

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The Escalating Tensions in the Red Sea Are a Bad Omen

2024-01-03

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2024-01-03

On New Year’s Eve, US Navy helicopters in the Red Sea engaged and sank three boats belonging to Yemen’s Houthis, killing ten. According to US Central Command, the boats were attacking a container ship and fired on the helicopters as they responded to the ship’s distress call. The encounter represents a significant escalation that risks forcing a whole new war on the American public and the Middle East. The Red Sea region has become one of the...

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Holiday Moves Continue to be Unwound

2024-01-03

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2024-01-03

Overview: The dollar is firm. Rates are mostly higher and equities lower. The moves scored in the holiday-thin markets are at end of last year are being unwound. This does not appear complete yet. Geopolitical tensions remain high but do not seem to be having a direct market influence as both gold and oil are trading lower. Among the G10 currencies, sterling has been the most resilient today but nearly flat. Within the emerging market complex, the...

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