“Everywhere life’s illusions are all of the same sheer stuff; variety is a trick of refraction.” --Garet Garrett, Where the Money Grows , 1911 Popular delusions pepper human affairs both past and present. And perhaps nowhere is such folly so liberally sprinkled as in matters of money--particularly when it comes to the nature and the consequences
President Bush is right to recognize the fruitful role of America’s private, faith-based “armies of compassion.” For many reasons, such groups are far more effective in solving social problems—poverty, homelessness, and illiteracy, to name a few—than are government programs and bureaucracies. They treat the whole person, which means they get to
Politically oriented monetary policies and business cycles are the inevitable by-products of a central bank, the ultimate favored banking institution which is viewed as a savior by some politicians facing elections. After the elections comes the bill: Inflation runs amuck. The nation goes into a painful recession, or the stock market crashes.
In ages past, the money markets of the world used to obey well-known classical rules. Whenever a country suffered substantial current-account deficits, for instance, its currency faced devaluation pressures. In recent months, this rule seems to have lost its force. The United States suffers huge deficits while the dollar sparkles in strength. And
It is a mystery to many people why currencies fluctuate against each other. To the average tourist, there seems to be no obvious reason why their dollars or yen or whatever should be worth less or more when they return to the same destination a year later. Even at a theoretical level, it does not seem that currencies should fluctuate. They are
On June 27, citing the downturn in economic activity, the Fed announced that it had lowered the target for the federal funds rate by 0.25 percent, to 3.75 percent. Since January, the U.S. central bank has lowered its target by 275 basis points. Can aggressive lowering of the federal funds rate prevent the U.S. economy from falling into a
The Free Market 19, no. 1 (January 2001) According to the dictionary, the word “wanton” means undisciplined or unruly, with connotations of self-indulgent, arrogant recklessness, and a disregard for justice or the rights of others. The word goes back to Middle English, being a combination of the words “wanting” or “wane,” meaning a lack of, and
The Free Market 19, no. 8 (August 2001) One thing that has achieved Holy Writ with economists and politicians is the Consumer Price Index, or the CPI. Each month, people from Alan Greenspan to traders at the New York Stock Exchange to the economist in the Economics 101 prison await the latest announcement from the US Department of Labor that
The Free Market 19, no. 9 (September 2001) One of many pastimes of government bureaucrats is forcing foreign banks to cough up tax information on US citizens. This is a disaster for the cause of privacy, the right of contract, and freedom itself. If the campaign, which has been going on for years, finally succeeds, it will mean the end of bank
The Free Market 19, no. 11 (November 2001) We will never resort to a bailout, said the Bush administration concerning the financial failures of the Argentinian government. That was one week before the same administration arranged an $8 billion line of credit for the same government. Nobody believes it is going to do much good. By once again
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.