Since mid-2009 the US has been enjoying a virtual recovery courtesy of a rigged inflation measure that understates inflation. The financial Presstitutes spoon out the government’s propaganda that prices are rising less than 2%. But anyone who purchases food, fuel, medical care or anything else knows that low inflation is no more real that Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction or Gadhafi’s alleged attacks on Libyan protesters or Iran’s nuclear weapons. Everything is a lie to serve ... (more)
In a recent article for The Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard considers a recent IMF paper that, in his words, has "begun to acquire a cult following around the world." This working paper, written by Jaromir Benes and Michael Kumhof, applies an almost century-old solution to what many consider a broken banking system today. According to Evans-Pritchard, this propo... (more)
One of the ten planks of the Communist Manifesto demands imposition of “A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.” Another mandates the “Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.” A third calls for “Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.”
The first two of those provisions makes the third inevitable. A cen... (more)
Oct. 24 - Veteran investor Marc Faber predicts some countries will have to leave the euro zone within five years and warns the S&P could plummet 20 percent from its recent highs in 2013.
What do you think of copy-cats? Are they stealing property from the creator? Co-author of the book, The Knockoff Economy, Kal Raustiala, says no.
"A lot of innovation grows out of imitation," Raustiala tells Reason TV's Paul Detrick. "So it's not so much riding on the coattails as it is standing on the shoulders."
After the bust of 2008, well-connected corporations and banks lobbied for and received many billions in bailouts from the government. The public was outraged. The term "crony capitalism" came into new prominence as a designation for capitalists who live off the taxpayer.
But how far do we want to take this language? In a mixed economy, no one is untainted by some association with government. And in a paper-money economy, every existing enterprise is compelled to ride the waves of ... (more)
In an Onion spoof of a typical TED talk, the speaker explains a profit opportunity he has costlessly discovered.
For more serious discussion of costless discovery, the metaphor of entrepreneurial opportunities, and alternative Austrian attempts to understand the entrepreneurial function, see this and this.
25 years ago, on another Monday in late October, the financial world seemed to disintegrate in a heartbeat. Though the 205 point drop in the Dow last Friday (the technical anniversary of the '87 Crash) was somewhat reminiscent of its 108-point drop on Friday, October 16, 1987, the real action in '87 was on the Monday that followed. And while this Monday is not nearly as black, it is important that we use the opportunity to recall the circumstances that nearly sent the stock market into cardiac ... (more)
That's the message from some financial advisers, who are telling wealthy clients that the remainder of 2012 amounts to a last-chance sale on federal tax rates. Taxes are set to rise in January in the U.S., pushing the top rate on dividends to 43.4 percent from 15 percent and the top rate on capital gains to 23.8 percent from 15 percent.
Even if Congress averts the so-called fiscal cliff of tax increases on investments, income and estates, pressure to reduce... (more)
Ever wonder what life would be like without capitalism? Join The Fund for American Studies on a journey to an alternate universe -- one where capitalism no longer exists. You may find it's not quite what you expected. For more information, visit http://www.LifeWithoutCapitalism.org.
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And just think how much better it could be if some five trillion wasn't siphoned out of the economy every year to fund mass murder and socialism. - Chris
Journalists, politicians and economists all seem to agree that the biggest economic issue currently worrying voters is unemployment. It follows then that most believe that the deciding factor in the presidential race will be the ability of each candidate to convince the public that his policies will create jobs. It seems that everyone got this memo…except the voters.
According to the results of a Fox News poll released last week (a random telephone sample of more than 1,200 regis... (more)
Last year, the Boston branch of the Federal Reserve put out a working paper which contained detailed data on the declining trend of economic mobility in the United States. According to the paper, the percentage of Americans who reside in the lowest income quintile and move up either to the middle quintile or higher has been in decline over the past three decades. This statistic should be alarming as it is indicative of stagna... (more)
More signs that the writings of Hayek, Mises, and modern Austrian economists are beginning to have some influence even in places where it might be least expected despite the efforts of Professors DeLong and Krugman to discredit these ideas.
Ayn Rand's novella Anthem, the ebook of the week in the Laissez Faire Club, is a story about a government that hates, fears, and bans technology precisely because it wants to keep the people enslaved in a primitive state of being. Preposterous right? Wrong: this is going on every day right in the United States, as the regulatory machine continually wrecks technological advances, past, present, and future. This article discusses two such cases.
A month ago, I presented the case for why Fed Chairman Bernanke would have strong motivation to launch another round of quantitative easing (QE) before the election. In short, it would save him his job. Now, I didn't predict with certainty that he would do so – only the few men at the FOMC knew that for sure – but it seemed likely. Shortly thereafter, Bernanke not only announced more stimulus, but promised to keep it flowing to the tune of an additional $40 billion a month until conditio... (more)
Can we believe any of the economic numbers that the government is feeding us these days? Most of the focus recently has been on the bizarre jobs report that the government released last Friday, but the truth is that the inflation rate is a lie too. In fact, the way that the government calculates inflation has changed more than 20 times since 1978. The government is constantly looking for ways... (more)
