Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

Filter archive by: Show All Show only Articles Show only Videos

GDP is a Poor Measure of Economic Health

2024-02-15

by

2024-02-15

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the most common measure of national wealth and economic growth. Yet the layman—and even many businessmen and economists—is taken aback when mainstream commentators and professionals get very excited about changes to GDP, which seem to have little to no impact on real economic conditions.

Read More »

Are We Really All in This Together?

2024-02-14

by

2024-02-14

Whenever governing elites create a new crisis, they insist that “we're all in this together.” It’s time to ignore their lies altogether. Original Article: Are We Really All in This Together?

Read More »

Climate Deniers Deny Socialism. That’s Why the Regime Hates Them.

2024-02-14

by

2024-02-14

So-called climate change is really an excuse for government to do what it does worst: intervene in our economic affairs. While government efforts will not cool the planet, they will make life more difficult for the planet’s inhabitants. Original Article: Climate Deniers Deny Socialism. That's Why the Regime Hates Them.

Read More »

Washington’s Planned Theft of Credit Card Benefits

2024-02-14

by

2024-02-14

Congressional Democrats are trying to intervene in a complex and varied market they know little about but that consumers navigate without need of help. This will not end well. Original Article: Washington’s Planned Theft of Credit Card Benefits

Read More »

A Short History of the Right to Self-Determination

2024-02-14

by

2024-02-14

Modern international law tends to grant a right to “remedial self-determination” only in extreme cases. Unfortunately, this position accepts that states ought to be free to violate human rights so long as the abuses fall short of war crimes and genocide.  Original Article: A Short History of the Right to Self-Determination

Read More »

Does the Balance of Payments Determine Exchange Rates?

2024-02-14

by

2024-02-14

It is a common belief that a key factor in determining the currency exchange rate is the balance of payments. An increase in imports increases the demand for foreign currency. To obtain the foreign currency, importers buy it using domestic currency, which strengthens the exchange rate of the foreign currency against domestic money. Conversely, an increase in exports, in which exporters exchange their foreign currency earnings for domestic currency,...

Read More »

How Governor Whitmer Doomed Detroit Autoworkers

2024-02-14

by

2024-02-14

The new year started out on a painful note for autoworkers building electric vehicles (EVs). In the last month, thousands of workers have been laid off from General Motors (GM) and Ford plants in Michigan. Most workers involved were, or were slated to be, working on electric versions of each brand’s signature trucks—the Chevy Silverado EV and Ford F-150 Lightning. The latter has been available for purchase since 2022, with the Silverado EV set to...

Read More »

Lincoln Dissected

2024-02-13

by

2024-02-13

Thomas DiLorenzo, the President of the Mises Institute, has already reviewed Paul C. Graham’s Nonsense on Stilts: The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Imaginary Nation (Shotwell Publishing 2024) in characteristically excellent fashion, but the book is so insightful that some further comments are warranted.

Read More »

Is Taiwan a De Facto Sovereign Nation or a Province of the PRC?

2024-02-13

by

2024-02-13

It is a running gag among the pro-Taiwan camp that if you were to ask ordinary folks about Taiwan five years earlier, most could not locate Taiwan on a map. At the time, matters relating to China were mainly debates about Donald Trump’s protectionist stance, as relations between Taiwan and China didn’t receive the attention many would warrant in the face of a potential war.

Read More »

The “New” South Africa Is Now a Newly-Failed State: Don’t Look for Things to Improve

2024-02-13

by

2024-02-13

Recently, South Africa evoked opposition in some quarters by bringing a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice on the account that the latter is perpetuating genocide against Palestinians. Israel’s response to the terror of Hamas has been widely denounced by the mainstream press, but irrespective of the legitimacy of South Africa’s claims, this matter has brought South Africa to the forefront of public discourse, and as such, an...

Read More »

The Myth of the Unchanging Value of Gold

2024-02-12

by

2024-02-12

According to mainstream economics textbooks, one of the primary functions of money is to measure the value of goods and services exchanged on the market. A typical statement of this view is given by Frederic Mishkin in his textbook on money and banking. “[M]oney ... is used to measure value in the economy,” he claims. “We measure the value of goods and services in terms of money, just as we measure weight in terms of pounds and distance in terms of...

Read More »

Javier Milei Understands the Road to Serfdom

2024-02-12

by

2024-02-12

Each week we encounter mouthwatering policies implemented by the newly elected libertarian president of Argentina Javier Milei. He has the libertarian community in awe. His arrival to politics with an openly antisystem discourse shook not only the local scene in Argentina but also the rest of the world. But how? The respective libertarian parties in each country barely get enough votes to even appear on the main grid on election night! There are...

Read More »

Bank Crises and the Interventionist Spiral

2024-02-12

by

2024-02-12

Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank fell like dominos in March–April 2023. The United States Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) intervened in an unprecedented way to stall the domino effect. They waived the FDIC’s $250,000 cap on insured deposits at the failed banks, and the Fed instituted the Bank Term Funding Program to bail out any and all banks that run into...

Read More »

Are Free Markets More Dangerous than Regulated Markets?

2024-02-10

by

2024-02-10

Is the regulatory choice a tradeoff between safety or “breaking a few eggs” via free markets? The logic of allowing for free and unhampered markets is compelling. Original Article: Are Free Markets More Dangerous than Regulated Markets?

Read More »

Biden’s Middle East Policy Puts Americans at Risk

2024-02-10

by

2024-02-10

The Biden administration’s Middle East policies are going to produce the same kind of blowback that led to the 9/11 attacks. The more reckless Biden becomes, the more American lives are placed at risk. Original Article: Biden's Middle East Policy Puts Americans at Risk

Read More »

Biden and Forgotten Federal Financial Tyranny

2024-02-10

by

2024-02-10

Under Obama and Biden, the banking sector has been weaponized against industries American leftists don't like.  The Obama administration acted as if its regulatory targets did not deserve due process, and the program ravaged far and wide. Original Article: Biden and Forgotten Federal Financial Tyranny

Read More »

If One Wishes to Discredit Capitalism, One Should at Least Understand How It Works

2024-02-10

by

2024-02-10

Scott R. Sehon tries to be intellectually honest in his critique of capitalism and his endorsement of socialism, but David Gordon writes that Sehon needs to better know the arguments favoring capitalism. Original Article: If One Wishes to Discredit Capitalism, One Should at Least Understand How It Works

Read More »

New Jobs Report: Full-Time Jobs Disappear as Fewer Americans Find Work

2024-02-10

by

2024-02-10

According to a new report from the federal government's Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday, the US economy added 353,000 jobs for the month of January while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%. CNN news was sure to tell us that this was a "shockingly good jobs report" and it "shows America's economy is booming."  At this point, many of us who follow these numbers have become accustomed to the routine: the BLS reports...

Read More »

Fed Wisdom and the Magnificent Seven

2024-02-10

by

2024-02-10

In this week's episode, Mark takes a quick look back at Fed wisdom in the year 2000, and then surveys today's stock market—and, in particular, the Magnificent Seven stocks, which represent very narrow leadership of the overall stock market. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. Get your free copy of Dr. Guido Hülsmann's How Inflation Destroys Civilization at Mises.org/IssuesFree.

Read More »

The Fed Claims the Banking System is “Sound and Resilient.” The Banks’ Balance Sheets Say Otherwise

2024-02-10

by

2024-02-10

The wordsmiths at the Federal Reserve wisely omitted the line about a “sound and resilient” banking system in its statement on January 31. That same day shares of New York Community Bank plunged when the bank announced a loss of thirty-six cents per share when analysts expected earnings of twenty-seven cents a share for the fourth quarter. Internal or external auditors occasionally comb through individual loans in a bank’s portfolio and make...

Read More »