For years a growing number of self-identified Austrians have been warning that the USD’s days as the world’s reserve currency are numbered. For example, I myself recently wrote: I believe that the U.S. dollar, U.S. Treasuries, and the U.S. stock
Archive for August, 2014
The Cycle of Dependency Can be Broken
People respond to incentives. We all know this, and it is the basis for a great majority of economic policy decisions. The behavioralist school has increasingly argued in favor of “nudge” policies to induce people to behave as government would
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The Moral Blindness of Government Agents
Reprinted from Liberty.me Those of us who have watched the scenes in Ferguson, Missouri, have been stunned at the brutality of the police. Most striking is their presumption that they have total control, that people are mere subjects, that all
The War on Airbnb
The web startup Airbnb is finding itself in hot water lately. A peer-to-peer service that matches renters with rentiers, the company is under attack by entrenched lodging businesses such as hotels. It’s easy to see why. The company, which is
Contra Krugman, Europe Shows Benefit of Lean Government
The great thing about Paul Krugman is that you just need to let him tie the rhetorical noose with which he hangs himself. The funniest example is when he asked a group of Canadians in a live forum whether they liked
Flight of the Liberals
Voting with your feet has long been an important part of the democratic process. When the laws of a town, state or even country become oppressive, citizens should be free to leave and seek more favorable conditions elsewhere. Yet while
Elizabeth Warren’s 11 Commandments
Reprinted from Mises.org In a recent speech of which Politico claims absolutely energized the “Progressive” left, Elizabeth Warren laid out her so-called 11 Commandments of Progressivism. In what follows, I will first give Warren’s “commandment,” and then explain how each so-called commandment cannot
An Intuitive Guide to Intellectual Property
These days, everyone and their mother seems to have an opinion on intellectual property. This has its positives and negatives. The positives are that the more people are aware of the issues affecting society, the more likely they are to
Want to Hurt Pensioners? Expand Public Pensions
Ask yourself the following questions. Do you feel as though you have insufficient funds to retire? Would you like to have more money for your retirement? Would you like the government to provide more savings programs or income supports for
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The Perfect Banking System
Reprinted from the Carl Menger Center for the Study of Money and Banking he perfect banking system, like the perfect monetary system, is one which serves the needs of consumers and savers, and not the needs of the government. It
IMF: Risk of Another Housing Crash
The International Monetary Fund is warning that the world is at risk of “another devastating housing crash.” This is true for instance for Australia, Belgium, Canada, Norway and Sweden,” he said. In the wake of the global recession central bankers
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CBO Thinks Millions of Americans Aren’t Going to Sign Up for “Affordable” Care
In June the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) updated its forecasts regarding the “individual mandate” component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “ObamaCare.” Recall that the individual mandate is the tax levied on Americans who commit the
World Reserve Currencies: What Happened During Transition?
Reprinted from EconomicReason.com The decline of the US dollar hegemony is ever so clear today and this article aims to provide the reader with what exactly happened during past periods of reserve currency transitions. Historically, when a reserve currency transitioned
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Check out Mises Cuba
Mises Institutes are popping up all over the world! A recent article at Forbes highlighted this worldwide movement. Check out one of the newest: Mises Cuba!
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Poloz is Gonna Leave ‘em Low
As Janet Yellen talked about the possibility of raising interest rates, Poloz’s comments followed with a definite no. We’re already bumped up to 1% and Canadian markets tend to react to American news anyway. Instead adding more speculative fire to
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The Happiness Problem
In the ongoing march of scientism, the flawed worldview that everything in life is ultimately reducible to numbers and equations, researchers have been increasingly interested in attempting to measure people’s happiness in order to determine which economic and social policies
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Piketty’s Capital: Wrong Theory Destructive Program
This essay is available for sale as a Kindle book on Amazon.com for 99¢. Go to http://amzn.to/1nsDDLP. Prelude to Piketty: The US Government’s Assault on the American Economic System Over the course of several generations, the US government has
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Fifth Austrian Conference - November 17, 18th, 19th
Special Announcement – Fifth Austrian ConferenceWe are thrilled to inform you that –besides our outstanding list of Key Note Speakers(http://bit.ly/1BJvsFx) – the following scholars have already confirmed their presence at the FifthInternational Conference “The Austrian School of Economics in the
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Quebec Unions Fight Tooth and Nail for their Lavish Pension Plans
When unions see/feel that their “entitlements” are “under attack”, they fight tooth and nail to keep them. We saw how ugly it can become in Michigan in the midst of the debate for right-to-work. However, it’s likely to be very
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CBO Keeps Reducing Its Estimate of ObamaCare Benefits
I’ve been following the wonkish analysis of the Affordable Care Act-abbreviated as the ACA or often referred to as “ObamaCare”-from the beginning. I’ve noticed that even though most Americans think it grants “universal coverage” the same way that anybody can walk
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