Day: January 12, 2021

Last week’s massive social media purges—starting with President Trump’s permanent ban from Twitter and other outlets—was shocking and chilling, particularly to those of us who value free expression and the free exchange of ideas. The justifications given for the silencing of wide swaths of public opinion made no sense and the process was anything but transparent. Nowhere in President Trump’s two “offending” Tweets, for example, was a call for violence expressed explicitly or implicitly. It was a classic example of sentence first, verdict later. Many Americans viewed this assault on…

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What clear-eyed mortgage underwriter would sign on to a thirty-year loan at less than 3 percent? After all, in Las Vegas, for instance, the unemployment rate in November was 11.5 percent, second highest in the country. The city’s main engine, tourism, has been stymied by covid. But, as if there were nothing wrong, nothing to see, or no risks to consider, new home sales are on the verge of being the highest in 2020 since the historic housing-boom year of 2007.  “Heading into the final month of 2020, the housing…

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Claims to a definite amount of money, payable and redeemable on demand, against a debtor about whose solvency and willingness to pay there does not prevail the slightest doubt, render to the individual all the services money can render, provided that all parties with whom he could possibly transact business are perfectly familiar with these essential qualities of the claims concerned: daily maturity and undoubted solvency and willingness to pay on the part of the debtor. We may call such claims money-substitutes, as they can fully replace money in an…

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According to a left-wing propaganda narrative that you can read in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and similar outlets, the violence in Congress that occurred in the afternoon of January 6 was the culmination of a long series of outrages by President Donald Trump. When he lost the November election to Joe Biden, he could not accept his loss. He kept making baseless claims that he had won the election and accused Biden supporters of using fake ballots and rigged voting machines to inflate the totals for Biden. He kept filing…

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Even some libertarians are under the delusion that regional free trade agreements are motivated by a desire to reduce trade barriers. In reality, states form trade associations to increase their bargaining powers on a global scale. As such, trade agreements are merely tools to promote the agenda of elites. Although Americans may be uninterested in the parochial affairs of Caribbean states, a recent trade dispute among members of the regional trade bloc Caricom aptly demonstrates the ironic effects of agreements purporting to advance trade. Essentially, here we see an international “free trade”…

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Gary Galles Gary M. Galles is a Professor of Economics at Pepperdine University and an adjunct scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His research focuses on public finance, public choice, economic education, organization of firms, antitrust, urban economics, liberty, and the problems that undermine effective public policy. In addition to his most recent book, Pathways to Policy Failures (2020), his books include Lines of Liberty (2016), Faulty Premises, Faulty Policies (2014), and Apostle of Peace (2013). Source link

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Corporate cost cutting sets the stage for future gains in profitability and productivity, and there is no resulting “paradox of thrift” requiring easy money policies to “fix” the problem. Original Article: “Why the Corporate Paradox of Thrift Isn’t Really a Problem” This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.   Source link

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For people who remain mystified as to how populists like Donald Trump get elected, they need not look much further than this. Original Article: “Larry Summers Reminds Us That Federal “Stimulus” Mostly Exists to Help Wall Street” This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.   Source link

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Economics is an animating science. Economics is treated by many as an arid field of mathematical modeling. Human beings are treated as data in the model, almost the way physics regards atoms and molecules. This approach to economics doesn’t help people much; it doesn’t help us understand the world, and isn’t helping us build a better future. Austrian economics is humanistic; it treats humans as people, pursuing their hopes and dreams, frequently changing, seldom predictable, and never acting like data in a model. That’s why we see our brand of…

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