Being a government means never having to say you’re sorry. And it also means you get to blame everyone else for all the problems you’ve caused.
This week at mises.org, we explored how deeply indebted governments blame the ones who lend them money, while government prosecutors blame entrepreneurs, businesses, and “white collar crime” for other problems in the economy. And surges in drug prices, we’re told, have nothing to do with government control of the drug market.
Lackluster new jobs data and continued surges in home price inflation confirm that the distortions of the Fed-induced boom continue to add up.
But even with all the bad news, the miracles of the market place point toward a brighter future. This week on Mises Weekends, Rod Martin, a co-founder of PayPal and world renown philosopher-capitalist, joins Jeff for a wide-ranging interview covering such topics as the refugee situation in Europe, unrest in the Middle East, and why some cultures are more prosperous than others. Martin contrasts the difficulties world governments have in confronting global macro-crises with the hope and resilience of technological innovation and entrepreneurship.
Indeed, Ludwig von Mises would have easily understood how market innovations outpace government innovations, since Mises, whose birthday we celebrated this week, pioneered our understanding of how government intervention cannot achieve the goals it tries to achieve. Be sure to see this never-before-published essay by Bettina Bien Greaves, and this newly-discovered recording of a Mises lecture from 1962.
In case you missed any of this week’s Mises Daily and Mises Wire articles, take a second look:
- The Reality Behind the Numbers in China’s Boom-Bust Economy by Yonathan Amselem
- Drug Shortages, Price Gouging, and Our Broken Health Care System by Michel Accad
- The Coming Corporate “Crime Wave” by William L. Anderson
- Luwig von Mises, Genius? by Bettina Bien Greaves
- Governments Turn to the UN to Avoid Paying Their Debts by Nicolás Cachanosky
- The Military Gravy Train: Full Speed Ahead by Andrew Syrios
- The Silent, Slow, Stubborn Revolution Carmen Elena Dorobăț
- College Athletics: Public Institutions Are the Real Sham By Jonathan Newman
- The Real Estate Crisis in North Dakota’s Man Camps by Mark Thornton
