Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

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Can We Understand AI? A Response to Jordan Peterson’s Podcast

2023-06-01

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2023-06-01

Like snobby teenagers claim of themselves, many say that “nobody understands artificial intelligence (AI).” For example, in a recent interview between Jordan Peterson and Brian Roemmele about ChatGPT, Jordan Peterson claimed that “The system is too complex to model” and each AI system is not only incomprehensible but unique. He further claims that “some of these AI systems, they’ve [AI experts] managed to reduce what they do learn to something...

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The “Buy Black” Movement: Divisive or a Boon to Black Entrepreneurs?

2023-06-01

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2023-06-01

Calls for black consumers to "Buy Black" can be interpreted as socially divisive, but they are also a way to encourage black entrepreneurs in a free market. Original Article: "The "Buy Black" Movement: Divisive or a Boon to Black Entrepreneurs?"

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Smarter Talk Is Smarter Action

2023-06-01

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2023-06-01

Americans have long thought of themselves as people of action. As Leonard Read noted in his article “How to Gain Liberty,” the sentiment “I want less talk and more action” is (or at least once was) common among Americans. It even extends to situations when people recognize that their liberties are threatened. But then the question arises as to what sorts of action are appropriate in defense of our liberties: Thus speak Americans when they suddenly...

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The Fed Is Insolvent, and That’s a Bad Thing

2023-06-01

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2023-06-01

On this first episode of the Fed Watch Podcast, Ryan McMaken and Senior Fellow Alex Pollock talk about how the Federal Reserve has negative cash flow. The Fed will print money to "solve" the problem. Be sure to follow the Fed Watch Podcast at Mises.org/FedPod. Recommended Reading "The Fed’s Capital Goes Negative" by Alex J. Pollock: Mises.org/FW_01_A "Who Owns Federal Reserve Losses and How Will They Impact...

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Understanding Relationships between Money Supply and Liquidity

2023-05-31

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2023-05-31

Can the injection of new money into the economic system enhance economic growth? Not really. Increasing (or decreasing) the money supply affects the demand for money but doesn't make us wealthier. Original Article: "Understanding Relationships between Money Supply and Liquidity"

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A Collection of the Political Writings of William Leggett, Two Volumes

2023-05-31

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2023-05-31

A Collection of the Political Writings of William Leggett, selected and arranged, with a preface, by Theodore Sedgwick, in two volumes. (1839) This collection provides important example of populist laissez-faire opinion from the Jacksonian Era in the United States. In terms of economic policy, the Jacksonians favored low taxes, decentralization, and hard-money while opposing central banks and regulation of private business. William Leggett was born...

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The Economic Nationalists Are Wrong: Free Trade Means Freedom and Prosperity

2023-05-31

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2023-05-31

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a debate about the morality of capitalism between James Otteson and Michael Anton, a defender of economic nationalism. Otteson made a good case for capitalism; however, Anton derailed the debate by choosing to focus on specific policies rather than ethical concerns. Ironically, Anton admits that he has hardly ever picked up an economics textbook. Throughout the debate, Anton made claims that were either...

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The Street of the Palaces

2023-05-31

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2023-05-31

[In this 1836 editorial, William Leggett laments how Wall Street and the "privileged" orders of the American upper class employ the power of the state to protect their own financial interests at the expense of ordinary taxpayers. In the nineteenth century, Leggett was an important spokesman for the laissez-faire, populist wing of the Democratic Party which supported hard money.] There is, in the city of Genoa, a very elegant street,...

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The Putrid Underbelly of Woke Capitalism

2023-05-31

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2023-05-31

American corporations are lavishing billions of dollars on leftist groups in the name of "equity." But many of them also are donating to even more questionable people and causes. Original Article: "The Putrid Underbelly of Woke Capitalism"

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Individualism in the US Has Helped Make It an Economic Success

2023-05-31

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2023-05-31

Immigration has raised concerns in some about America’s demographic future. Some propose that an influx of migrants with foreign worldviews will fracture American society. This argument is based on the finding that the diversity generated by immigration deters social trust. Trust is a crucial ingredient for societies to thrive by establishing collaborative institutions. Trusting societies are more cooperative and innovative because when people...

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The Failure of Public Works and Public Funding

2023-05-30

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2023-05-30

Shoddy service, regular breakdowns, and overbudget to boot. There is a reason why government-funded projects always waste resources. Original Article: "The Failure of Public Works and Public Funding"

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Higher Corporate Profit Margins Aren’t Causing Inflation

2023-05-30

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2023-05-30

It is hard to ignore the headlines about US corporate profit margins stabilizing at their highest level in decades. This information has provided plenty of ammunition for populist commentators and politicians who blame corporate greed for the sharp increase in postcovid consumer prices and ignore the elephant in the room, which is a more than 40 percent increase in broad money supply after March of 2020 mostly due to central bank balance sheet...

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Biden’s New Intersectionality: Where Equity Policies Meet Bad Economics

2023-05-30

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2023-05-30

The Biden administration has decided that the REAL problem with housing is that the wrong people are saving money and making timely mortgage payments. They must be punished. Original Article: "Biden’s New Intersectionality: Where Equity Policies Meet Bad Economics"

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Republicans Fail on the Debt Ceiling in 2023

2023-05-30

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2023-05-30

The United States House of Representatives’ passage of the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 is a big Republican failure addressing the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling would be raised above the current limit of $31 trillion by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024, whichever comes first. Notably, “official cost estimates have not yet been released,” so the projected paltry $480 billion annual spending reductions likely will be much less. This is because...

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In the Event of an Official US Bankruptcy

2023-05-29

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2023-05-29

Economically speaking, the US government is bankrupt even if the government won’t admit what is obvious. But how would an actual bankruptcy proceeding go?  Original Article: "In the Event of an Official US Bankruptcy"

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The Bankruptcy Caravan Is Now Arriving: Time to Pay for the Easy Money

2023-05-29

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2023-05-29

The character Mike Campbell in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises was asked about his money troubles and responded with a vivid description embracing self-contradiction: “‘How did you go bankrupt?’ Bill asked. ‘Two ways,’ Mike said. ‘Gradually and then suddenly.’” Ground-hugging interest rates for more than a decade kept the inefficient and the incompetent in business. Now, the jig is up, with a Mother’s Day weekend corporate massacre...

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Taxing Capital Leads to Capital Consumption

2023-05-29

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2023-05-29

Progressive governments in the name of equity are calling for taxation of capital gains. They really are demanding destruction of capital through capital consumption.  Original Article: "Taxing Capital Leads to Capital Consumption"

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“Trans Rights” Means Trans Entitlements and the End of Civil Society

2023-05-29

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2023-05-29

A “civil society” is a community of individuals who are linked together by common interests and activities. Common interests include being able to walk the streets safely (peace) and to exercise such rights as freedom of speech (individual freedom). These shared interests allow common activities to flourish, including commerce and the education of children. Civil society is possible only because most people want to live securely, protect their...

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The Money Supply Has Plummeted in the Biggest Drop Since the Great Depression

2023-05-28

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2023-05-28

With negative growth now falling to near –10 percent, money-supply contraction is now the largest we've seen since the Great Depression.  Original Article: "The Money Supply Has Plummeted in the Biggest Drop Since the Great Depression"

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The Lure of a Stable Price Level

2023-05-28

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2023-05-28

One of the reasons that most economists of the 1920s did not recognize the existence of an inflationary problem was the widespread adoption of a stable price level as the goal and criterion for monetary policy. The extent to which the Federal Reserve authorities were guided by a desire to keep the price level stable has been a matter of considerable controversy. Far less controversial is the fact that more and more economists came to consider a...

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