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“Like a post office, a central bank does useful things. That fact that it does useful things does not make either institution efficient, at least not in its present-day form as a government agency. By “efficient” here I mean “better
“Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the libertarian-leaning congressman and failed 2008 GOP presidential candidate, has been suspicious of the Federal Reserve since before first entering Congress in 1976. In a 1981 article that mentioned the then-obscure legislator, United Press International reported
“In my despair about the hopelessness of finidng a politically feasible solution to what is technically the simplist possible problem, namely to stop inflation, I threw out in a lecture delivered about a year ago a somewhat startling suggestion, the
“Now is the time to examine the proper functions of the Federal Reserve System–especially those of the Board–and make systemic changes. The popularity of US Rep. Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Fed taps into a great pent-up frustration about
“Congress is on a spending binge. With all the calls for bailouts, economic stimulus and other assorted handouts, there is a real risk of inflation in our future. If we do have a rapid inflation, it’s likely that Congress, as
Our friends at the Cato Institute hosted their 27th Annual Monetary Conference: Restoring Global Financial Stability on November 19th, 2009. Go here to find the list of speakers and listen to their thoughts on the subject.
“With the massive increases in federal spending, inflation is one of the risks that awaits us. To protect us from the political demagoguery that will accompany that inflation, let’s now decide what is and what is not inflation. One price
The Mises Instute’s Austrian Scholar’s Conference discusses the transition to sound money. Atlas would like to thank Bradley Jansen for providing the link.
In something of a reversal of the usual government policies to keep prices high, the government of Venezuela is going to great lengths to keep prices low, even in the face of inflation. According to CNN, The Venezuelan bolivar currency,
“Inflation is a tax on financial assets. This tax is paid by those unlucky investors, corporations, and foreign central banks that hold financial assets denominated in the currency that is inflating. A simple way of thinking about inflation as a
“Though circumstances and times change, the basic principles of economic progress and sound market order do not. There is no mystery about them. They involve sound money, low taxes, property rights, making it easy for businesses to be set up,
“Even as the Dow sits above 10,000, the public remains justifiably anxious about the state of the economy. The Federal Reserve has worked overtime to convince the public that it has saved the economy from a meltdown, but with unemployment
“Let’s go back to the gold standard. If the very idea seems at odds with what is currently happening in our country — with Congress preparing to pass a massive economic stimulus bill that will push the fiscal deficit to
Murray N. Rothbard was the consummate scholar in several fields. From my first meeting with Murray Rothbard, attending Ludwig von Mises seminar at New York University, more than forty years before the sadness of his death, I knew him longest as an economic historian.
“Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke spent most of his speech to the American Economic Association on Jan. 3 responding to the critique that easy monetary policy during 2002-2005 contributed to the housing boom, to excessive risk taking, and thereby
“There are significant parallels between the Roaring 1920s and the Bullish 1980s. Both decades were characterized by a policy-induced artificial boom that ended with an inevitable bust. The Federal Reserve had a hand in both episodes, keeping the interest rate
“This essay reinterprets the gold standard by applying the monetary theory of the balance of payments to the experience of the two most important countries on it, America and Britain. Before explaining, testing and using the theory in detail, it
“This government is now on a gold basis; that is to say, the nation stands pledged to redeem all its debts or obligations in gold. This is not the result of arbitrary legislation on our part, but a necessity imposed
“This uptick triggers the Sahm Rule, a real-time recession indicator, suggesting that the US economy is in, or is nearing, a recession.” ~Peter C. Earle
“Thanks to a complex web of CSR initiatives, aid and development programs, progressive intergovernmental agencies, and the do-good posturing of political elites, businesses will further be ensnarled to ESG.” ~Kimberlee Josephson
“The prospects for market liberalization in the EU aren’t good. We can expect more business as usual, if with some important marginal cuts (notably on the EU’s aggressive and expensive environmental agenda).” ~Nikolai Wenzel
“We have seen the rise of the military-industrial complex, the creation of the national security state, and a bloated military that is second to none, but with a price tag to match.” ~Andrew Byers
“Overturning Chevron should encourage lower courts to police agency assertions of power more closely, but it will not constrain the administrative state so long as Congress persists in enacting broad, poorly written statutes.” ~Jonathan H. Adler
“The American edition of her memoir is a warning Liz Truss extends to Americans — don’t let the administrative state get out of control and do your level best to reduce the powers it already has.” ~Iain Murray
“The arrogance of those who wish to unleash the dogs of antitrust on CurrentlyDominant, Inc. prevents them from asking important follow-up questions.” ~Donald J Boudreaux
“Minimum wages and workplace regulations protect some people, alright, but not the workers. Instead, these rules protect anyone who provides a substitute for the labor that workers bring to the table.” ~Art Carden
“If you care about poverty, then you should encourage positive views about high levels of wealth. A country with people who think positively about the wealthy is more likely to implement market reforms which will make it easier for people to generate wealth.” ~James Hartley
“Instead of taking two percent (say) of the liquidated value of the wealth, the state would simply take ownership of the wealth, in place… In a relatively short time, the government literally takes substantial ownership of all successful private businesses.” ~Michael Munger
“The bottom line is that fast food prices are high because demand for fast food remains high, despite those higher prices.” ~Jon Miltimore
“Prices today are 8.9 percentage points higher than they would have been had the Fed hit its 2-percent inflation target since January 2020.”
“Perhaps Trump’s goal is simply to eliminate the federal income tax. If so, then he should advocate for doing that and only that. Eliminating the income tax would, in fact, make Americans richer in after-tax dollars.” ~David Hebert
“Raising economic growth prospects through policy is difficult. But Britain is now so far behind the United States and the technological frontier, that removing self-imposed barriers to growth could have delivered a meaningful boost to the country’s GDP level.” ~Ryan Bourne
“Blaming high housing prices on private equity because they ‘bought up all the available homes’ is like blaming high food prices on grocery stores because they bought up all the available food.”
“The battle for safeguarding individual rights over financial information and freedom from undue government control must encompass all forms of financial transactions, whether digital or physical.” ~Nicolás Cachanosky
“Regulations often have significant compliance costs and operational challenges. The regulatory burden can stifle innovation and deter investment, particularly in industries struggling with economic headwinds.” ~Vance Ginn
“Those of us who want to keep government small and strictly limited — and, hence, who want individuals to make whatever peaceful choices they wish — are far outnumbered by individuals who distrust markets to deliver enough of the goods to enough of the people.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux
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