Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

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Total Employed Workers Fell Again in November as Savings and Incomes Fall

2022-12-05

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2022-12-05

Total employed workers fell for the second month in a row in November, dropping nearly 400,000 workers below the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020. According to new employment data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, the current population survey shows employed workers fell to 158,470,000 in November, down 138,000 from October's total of 158,608,000.

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The Fed Is Not “a Good Idea that Became Corrupt”: It Always Was Corrupt

2022-12-03

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2022-12-03

There’s an idea rooted among some libertarians that the Federal Reserve was originally a sound institution but has grown corrupt. As a bankers’ bank, it was fine, they believe, but not as the monster it has grown to be. If we could only go back to the Fed’s founding charter, all would be well.

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Renewables and EVs in the Grip of Lesseps Syndrome

2022-12-02

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2022-12-02

Most people are familiar with the Panama Canal, but they probably don’t know the first effort to build the Panama Canal, spanning almost a decade, was by France. Facing considerable initial naysaying and ridicule, Ferdinand de Lesseps had the acumen and drive to construct the Suez Canal. Success was realized after overcoming many obstacles and difficulties. Naturally enough, France turned to him to build a sea-level canal in Panama.

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Deflation Is Not a Problem: Reversing It Is

2022-12-02

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2022-12-02

The yearly growth rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell to 7.7 percent in October from 8.2 percent in September. Note that in October 2021 the yearly growth rate stood at 6.2 percent. Some experts are of the view that it is quite likely that the momentum of the CPI might have peaked.

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On Secession and Small States

2022-12-02

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2022-12-02

The international system we live in today is a system composed of numerous states. There are, in fact, about two hundred of them, most of which exercise a substantial amount of autonomy and sovereignty. They are functionally independent states. Moreover, the number of sovereign states in the world has nearly tripled since 1945.

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Who Really Owns Big Digital Tech?

2022-12-01

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2022-12-01

By now it should be perfectly clear that the most prominent Big Digital companies are not strictly private, for-profit companies. As I argued in Google Archipelago, they are also state apparatuses, or governmentalities, undertaking state functions, including censorship, propaganda, and surveillance.

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Who Pays Wealth Tax: The Rich or the Poor?

2022-11-30

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2022-11-30

The Spanish government’s announcement that it plans to introduce a new “solidarity tax” on the wealth of those who possess over €3 million has again brought to the fore the debate about taxes levied on wealth and capital. The issue is not merely that the announcement is highly politicized in what is already, de facto, a preelection period, nor that it could disrupt the fiscal autonomy of Madrid, Andalusia, and Galicia.

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Money-Supply Growth in October Fell to a 39-Month Low. A Recession Is Now Almost Guaranteed.

2022-11-29

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2022-11-29

Money supply growth fell again in October, dropping to a 39-month low. October's drop continues a steep downward trend from the unprecedented highs experienced during the thirteen months between April 2020 and April 2021. During that period, money supply growth in the United States often climbed above 35 percent year over year, well above even the "high" levels experienced from 2009 to 2013. 

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Grabber Video

2022-11-29

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Grabber Video

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College Loans and Hazlitt’s Lesson: Ignoring the Larger Picture

2022-11-28

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2022-11-28

As of 2022 the national student debt reached $1.6 trillion with the average student loan debt at about $28,000. Many former college students are discovering it is difficult to pay back such a large amount of debt. This is especially true of students that graduate with fruitless degrees like sociology, for example.

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The Great Gold Robbery of 1933

2022-11-26

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2022-11-26

[Originally published August 13, 2008] It's been 75 years since the federal government, on the spurious grounds of fighting the Great Depression, ordered the confiscation of all monetary gold from Americans, permitting trivial amounts for ornamental or industrial use.

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The Near Collapse of the UK Pension Sector Exposes Failures by Financial Regulators

2022-11-25

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2022-11-25

In an earlier article, I explained that the collapse in the long-dated UK government bond (or gilts) market on September 28 that followed the ill-fated Kwarteng “mini budget” of a few days earlier had exposed a hitherto underappreciated problem: UK pension schemes were massively exposed to changes in long-dated gilts rates.

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The REAL Solution to the Coming Economic Crisis

2022-11-22

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2022-11-22

My previous article demonstrated how the free market solves a boom-bust crisis and is the only solution, its effectiveness depending upon the magnitude of the crisis and, more importantly, how much the government intervenes in response. The bigger the problem created by the Fed, the greater the crisis and the more government intervenes, and the slower the economy recovers.

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Relying on Experts: A Proven Path to Failure

2022-11-21

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2022-11-21

The warning lights on the dashboard of your car suddenly light up. You naturally take it to a mechanic to diagnose and repair. Cars are complex. You don’t have the time or accumulated expertise to figure out what is happening or to fix it. We rely on experts daily.

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The Housing Boom Is Already Over. Get Ready for Even Higher Prices.

2022-11-19

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2022-11-19

As mortgage rates have risen this year, the demand for home purchases has fallen. That has spelled trouble for the home construction business. Homebuilder confidence dropped for the 10th straight month in October.

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What I Learned from my Grandfather about Money

2022-11-18

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2022-11-18

When I was a child, my mother and I would take the Long Island Railroad to Brooklyn to see relatives a few times a year. My grandfather was always outside in front of the apartment house in Park Slope, where he and my aunts and uncles lived. Upon seeing him, I would run down the sidewalk to greet him, but before I could say “Hi, Grandpa!,” he would without fail press a shiny silver dollar into my hand.

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World War I: The Great War Was also the Great Enabler of Progressive Governance

2022-11-17

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2022-11-17

Commentaries about World War I frequently discuss causes and consequences but almost never mention the enablers. At best, they might mention them approvingly, as if we were fortunate to have had the Fed and the income tax, along with the ingenuity of the liberty bond programs, to finance our glorious role in that bloodbath.

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Why “Greedflation” Isn’t Real

2022-11-16

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2022-11-16

Even as price inflation slows and we move past June’s peak, progressives continue to push the concept of “greedflation”—that this year’s price inflation is caused by corporate greed and price gouging. This is inaccurate, based on bad economics, and it blames a consequence of the problem rather than the problem itself.

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Economic Calculation and the Great Reset

2022-11-16

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2022-11-16

A grand plan is advanced by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Its name, “The Great Reset,” conveys the scope of this undertaking. Among its many audacious goals, it will “offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons.”

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Joe Biden and the “Transformational” Presidency

2022-11-14

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2022-11-14

Much is made of the failure of Republicans to make predicted gains in the recent midterm elections, but, as Ryan McMaken has pointed out, Congress plays a much-diminished role in national governance to the point that even had the so-called Red Wave actually occurred, it is doubtful that much would have changed regarding Joe Biden’s presidency.

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