Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

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The Left Is Now Telling Us (Ukrainian) Nazis Aren’t So Bad After All

2023-10-11

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2023-10-11

Members of the Canadian Parliament recently applauded a Ukrainian member of the Nazi Waffen-SS during World War II. Apparently, it's now okay to be a Nazi so long as you're fighting the Russians. Original Article: The Left Is Now Telling Us (Ukrainian) Nazis Aren't So Bad After All

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Is It Just War or Unjustified Slaughter of Innocents?

2023-10-11

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2023-10-11

Saturday the world was rocked by the outbreak of war in southern Israel as Hamas fighters crossed out of Gaza, taking hostages and killing Israeli civilians. The political leader of Hamas says the attacks were in response to the Israeli treatment of Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque last week. But other reports indicate that the attack was planned for weeks with the help of the Iranian government and was meant to mark the fiftieth anniversary of...

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Mark Thornton Explains the Yield Curve, “Soft Landings,” and Today’s Bubble Economy

2023-10-10

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2023-10-10

[In recent months, Senior Fellow Mark Thornton has been covering today's economy in detail in his Minor Issues podcast, so we asked him some questions about where the economy is headed now.] Mises Institute: You’ve become notable for the idea of the “skyscraper curse,” which is an illustration of how an inflationary economy can lead to more and more gargantuan construction projects. The projects keep getting bigger (and taller) until the bust...

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Haiti May Have Won Independence, But It Is Not Independent of Chaos and Poverty

2023-10-10

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2023-10-10

Haiti famously won its independence from France during a slave revolt, but being independent has not brought political stability or prosperity. Instead, Haitians struggle to get by in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Original Article: Haiti May Have Won Independence, But It Is Not Independent of Chaos and Poverty

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Spending More Taxpayer Money on Foreign Policy Boondoggles Has Solved Nothing

2023-10-10

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2023-10-10

Whether you’re a conservative or libertarian, the notion of government shutdowns is no longer an alien concept considering that Washington managed to add a whopping $1 trillion to the gross national debt in a matter of three months—a large percentage coming from interest expenses alone. Another record for our national debt has been broken again, with $275 billion added onto the national debt in a single day. How we solve this issue is a question...

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Can We Find a Basis for Private Property Rights?

2023-10-10

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2023-10-10

While Murray Rothbard believed that self-ownership formed the basis for private property rights, other philosophers disagree. Original Article: Can We Find a Basis for Private Property Rights?

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How To Prevent the Boom-Bust Business Cycle

2023-10-10

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2023-10-10

I recently wrote about how the Federal Reserve has made the economy of the United States much worse than it would have been without their bureaucratic central planning over the past century. While the Fed’s disastrous track record is widely acknowledged even by Fed apologists, they point out that life was not perfect before the Fed either. They correctly note that there were business cycles before the creation of the Fed. So, even though inflation...

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Get the US Out of the Middle East

2023-10-10

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2023-10-10

The ongoing conflict between the state of Israel and Hamas escalated considerably on Saturday. A group of armed fighters—presumably of Hamas—broke through the Gaza-Israel border barrier and launched what is sure to be a short-lived invasion of southwestern Israel.  At least 700 Israeli citizens—most of them apparently civilians—were killed, and more than one hundred were taken hostage. The Israeli state quickly retaliated with widespread bombing of...

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How Paper Money Turns Governments into Predators

2023-10-09

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2023-10-09

Aside from stealing your life savings and launching depressions, one of the nastier features of paper money is what it does to governments. In short, paper money transforms governments from parasites to predators. Once a government can print what it likes, it no longer needs taxes. Meaning it no longer needs us. We saw this in living color during the covid lockdowns. Just imagine a world without a central bank where, in the first days of the...

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A Government Shutdown Is not the Problem. Public Debt Is the Problem.

2023-10-09

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2023-10-09

There are hundreds of headlines all over the news warning of the negative impact of a government shutdown. The negative impact on GDP, according to Bloomberg, is estimated at 0.5% of the quarterly annualized rate if the shutdown lasts for two weeks. Obviously, that is an annualized rate, not the overall hit. The last government shutdown lasted between December 22nd, 2018, and January 20th, 2019, and the United States economy still grew at a 2.2...

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No, Governor, Rights Are NOT Government-Issued Privileges That You Can Suspend

2023-10-09

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2023-10-09

The recent executive order by New Mexico's governor suspending gun rights in part of the state demonstrates not only her ignorance of the law, but also her greater ignorance of the origin of rights. Original Article: No, Governor, Rights Are NOT Government-Issued Privileges That You Can Suspend

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Police Mergers Are Not the Answer, but Privatization Is

2023-10-09

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2023-10-09

Out of Pennsylvania’s twenty-five hundred municipalities, about half (1,279) have no police department as of 2013. Since 2013, twenty more municipalities have disbanded their police departments, opting for police coverage by the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP). On top of that, 420 municipalities only provide part-time coverage (no 24/7 coverage), requiring the PSP to “pick up the slack” so to speak. This may seem shocking, but this is the...

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Why the Fed’s Tight Rate Stance Damages the Economy

2023-10-09

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2023-10-09

In the wake of bad news on inflation, the Federal Reserve is pushing up interest rates. However, a Fed-induced higher rate is not the same as an interest rate decided by the market. Original Article: Why the Fed's Tight Rate Stance Damages the Economy

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Inflation: Government’s Insidious Form of Theft

2023-10-09

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2023-10-09

While court economists such as Paul Krugman insist that inflation is government's way of ensuring full employment, in reality, inflation is one of the many ways governments steal from productive people. Original Article: Inflation: Government’s Insidious Form of Theft

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Mises Institute’s Abolish the Fed Documentary

2023-10-09

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2023-10-09

In 1996, we produced a documentary titled Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve. For the next ten years, we distributed copies all around the world, to our students, our members, and the public. Thousands of people were introduced to the evils of the Fed and central banking. At that time, not many people or organizations were calling for the abolition of the Federal Reserve. The Mises Institute was. And that hasn’t changed. Eventually, the...

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Government Is the Hidden Hand Directing the Culture Wars

2023-10-09

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2023-10-09

Recent data from the Pew Research Center shows that from 1994 to 2022, Americans’ views of opposing political parties became increasingly negative. In 1994, only 21 percent of Republicans and 17 percent of Democrats held “very unfavorable” views of the other party. In 2022, that category rose to 62 percent for Republicans and 54 percent for Democrats. If we include those who hold “unfavorable” views, then over 80 percent of both Republicans and...

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Welcome to the Twenty-First Century American Bankruptcy Show

2023-10-07

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2023-10-07

As the US economy sours, look for a wave of new bankruptcies. The Fed cannot pull any rabbits out of its monetary hat this time. Original Article: Welcome to the Twenty-First Century American Bankruptcy Show

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Cultural Appropriation: The Nontheft of Something No One Owns

2023-10-07

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2023-10-07

Progressives have created a new thought crime: cultural appropriation. However, one cannot appropriate something that is not owned by anyone else. Original Article: Cultural Appropriation: The Nontheft of Something No One Owns

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Hometown Entrepreneurs in Mississippi

2023-10-07

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2023-10-07

In this week's episode, Mark looks at the "Home Town" entrepreneurs in Laurel, Mississippi, who have done so much to turn around the fortunes of their poor and struggling hometown. Mark points out that this is going on all around us, but is seldom recognized—except in the isolation of forgotten small towns. Entrepreneurs make the good of the world we live in, and can help fix the problems that we face. Be sure to follow Minor...

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Is There Inflation in Government-Financed Goods and Services?

2023-10-07

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2023-10-07

Official inflation statistics are biased. Substitution effects and quality changes are problems that cannot be resolved objectively, even with the most sophisticated statistical methods. It may be that the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) overestimates inflation. There are also good arguments for a downward bias. It may also be that the errors in measuring consumer price inflation are negligible. However, even if official statistics show...

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