Daily economy news from the American Institute for Economic Research: data, stories, research, and articles touching on economics, politics, culture, education, policy, opinion, technology, markets, healthcare, regulation, trends, and much more.
1920-21 and the Great Depression
Put differently: the 1920-21 episode was, in fact, a severe, though not particularly long, recession. Allowing the money supply to fall isn’t painless. Allowing the money supply to fall in an environment of severe downward wage rigidity is VERY “not painless.” The 1920-21 episode doesn’t demonstrate that deflation is harmless. It DOES demonstrate that if you have deflation, it will be less bad if you have nominal wages that are flexible downward. That recession is the best example of why Hoover’s wage policies were such a mistake.
What Has Government Done to Our Money?
What Has Government Done to Our Money? Murray M. Rothbard Copyright 1980 by The Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Gold Standard as a “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval
In this article we argue that during the period from 1870 to 1914 adherence to the gold standard was a signal of financial rectitude, a “good housekeeping seal of approval,” that facilitated access by peripheral countries to capital from the
Sound Money Essay Contest
Sound Money Essay Contest * The Deadline for The Essay Contest has been extended! Submit your essays to SoundMoneyProject2009@AtlasNetwork.org on or before January 15th, 2010. A Monetary System for the Free Society The Atlas Economic Research Foundation is proud to
“To Prevent Bubbles, Restrain the Fed”
“The U.S. cannot afford to have another lost decade. Or to see the dreams of another generation of Americans who had been told to take responsibility for their financial health by investing in the stock market dashed by failed monetary
“Why Private Banks and Not Central Banks Should Issue Currency, Especially in Less Developed Countries”
“Nationalization of currency is largely taken for granted today, but it shouldn’t be. Adam Smith praised private currency for the benefits it had brought to his native Scotland. Most economists would agree that a legally enforced government monopoly is generally
“Free-Market Money: A Key to Peace”
“Free-Market Money: A Key to Peace” Steven Horwitz The Freeman, 58 (1), January-February 2008: 13-15.
“Money: How it works and why”
“Money: How it works and why” Steven Horwitz part of the “Key Concepts in Free Markets” series, Fraser Forum, Vancouver, BC: Fraser Institute, April 2009, pp. 16-17. http://www.fraseramerica.org/commerce.web/product_files/KeyConcepts_Money_US.pdf
The Real Meaning of Thanksgiving: The Triumph of Capitalism over Collectivism
This time of the year is when we gather with our family and friends and enjoy a Thanksgiving meal together. What is less appreciated is that Thanksgiving also is a celebration of the birth of free enterprise in America.
Prices Stable in May: Time to Cut Rates?
“M2, the most commonly cited measure of the money supply, is up 0.53 percent from a year ago. Since real income and population are growing faster than this, current M2 growth also suggests money is tight. But this is speculative.” ~Alexander W. Salter
AIER’s Everyday Price Index Unchanged in May 2024
“The recent data, combined with the deceleration in core CPI in April, suggests the resumption of disinflation. But policymakers have indicated a need for several months of reduced price pressures before considering interest rate cuts.” ~Peter C. Earle
The Super Market
“Something that you can purchase with income you’ve earned with just a few minutes of your work-time is something that includes the work-effort of thousands or millions of strangers.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux
Protectionists Are Wrong: Free Trade is the Path to Prosperity
“Consumers and producers in America are better off with more domestic and international trade. As we don’t want to produce everything we consume daily, trading with others is the most efficient way to meet our needs.” ~Vance Ginn
Government Failure in One Lesson
“Perhaps the easiest way to explain government failure in one lesson is to remember that there is no such thing as ‘the state.’ Instead, essential decisions about resource use will be made by political actors.” ~Michael Munger
AI Eases Its Own Labor-Market Transitions
“Not long ago, search engines like Google were not understood by the masses, which forced people through experience to learn how to ‘Google’ webpages in the proper way. Submitting a search query is similarly a new language to learn, just like prompting a language model.” ~Samuel Crombie and Jack Nicastro
Trade Deficits: Accounting Masquerading as Economics
“Reducing ‘imports’ would not, in fact, increase GDP at all. At best, doing so would leave GDP unchanged since we would be adding less to consumption, investment, and government spending while subtracting equally less from imports.” ~David Hebert
Politicizing Monetary Policy Won’t Fix the Fed’s Failings
“Even if one thinks Trump is well-suited to make interest rate decisions (and there is little reason to think he is), it does not follow that Trump’s proposed solution would improve monetary policy.” ~Nicolás Cachanosky
The Dollar and its Domestic Enemies
“The greatest threat to the soundness and utility of the US dollar comes not from shadowy figures in faraway lands, but from unremarkable apparatchiks carrying out the edicts of US officialdom.” ~Peter C. Earle
No, Biden’s Protectionism Isn’t “All About National Defense”
“Evidence from America’s past… lends no support to those who insist that, absent higher tariffs and subsidies, America will probably be unable to maintain the industrial might she needs to defend herself militarily.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux
Governments Shouldn’t Be In the Lending Business
“When government officials approve and guarantee loans, lenders don’t have to worry about taking the loss. They can be very generous, pursuing what they regard as socially beneficial goals, and never worrying about the losses the taxpayers will have to bear.” ~ George Leef
Defense Manual for The War on Prices
“The book advocates for a substantial policy shift toward minimal governmental interference, allowing market mechanisms to function unimpeded. Sadly, we are moving in the opposite direction.” ~Vance Ginn
Confounding the Case for Oil and Gas Collusion
“Oil is produced and sold in a global market. Even true cartels like OPEC don’t have total control over prices. It comes down to supply and demand.” ~Alexander W. Salter
Our Kids Have No Economic Immune Systems
“Kids are told they can do anything, that they are personally mighty and important. But they never have the experience of everyday effort and failure.” ~Michael Munger
Governments, Not Markets, Impel ESG
“Prominent financial institutions have backpedaled on ESG, with net outflows from ESG funds. This divestment suggests that financial institutions may have overestimated market demand for ESG.” ~Daniel Sutter and Allen Mendenhall
The Sixties’ Toxic Legacy
“Woke-friendly corporations, billionaires, foundations, and individuals with impressive foreign ties are demonstrating the effectiveness of funding campus radicals…echoing similar anti-Western, violent hate-marches throughout Europe and elsewhere.” ~Juliana Geran Pilon
Dollar Dominance, Dollar Dependence
“Skeptics to the global monetary hegemon have long called for its demise — on causes of design or ideology, theory or empirics. And for decades, they have been proven wrong.” ~Joakim Book
Biden’s Latest Student-Loan Bailout
“What the Secretary purports to exercise in the proposed rule is no ‘discretionary’ authority appropriate to the executive branch; it is full-blown legislative authority, treading into the appropriations domain constitutionally reserved to Congress.” ~Jack Fitzhenry and GianCarlo Canaparo