Remember the movie Groundhog Day ? The protagonist, played by Bill Murray, is stuck in a cycle where he relives the same day, February 2, every time he awakens in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The same events happen throughout the day, time and time again. The events agitate Murray’s character, but he falls into a rhythm. Knowing
A currency is only as safe as the bank that stores it. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the recent turmoil in the bitcoin community. One the primary advantages of bitcoin , perhaps even the greatest advantage of the cryptocurrency , is the ability to do away with traditional banking institutions. By providing an option to transfer payments
Global debt now exceeds $100 trillion, according to the Bank of International Settlements. Over the past five years, debt has increased by about $30 trillion. What’s more, governments have been the largest issuers . Low interest rates have attracted governments to the appeal of using debt to fund public projects today. As the saying goes, there’s
By Ron Paul Officially, US debt stands at more than $17 trillion. In reality, it is many times more. The cost of the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq may be more than six trillion dollars. President Obama’s illegal invasion of Libya cost at least a billion dollars and left that country devastated. The costs of US regime change efforts in Syria
Today at the Circle Bastiat Ron Paul offers sage commentary on the Ukraine where he asks and answers with a resounding NO, “ Can we afford the Ukraine ? A good follow up appears in the Wall Street Journal where William Easterly argues that both U.S. and private aid is misguided and misspent. Too much ‘aid’ supports tyrants and is contra-productive
It’s not just the auto industries of Canada and the United States that are plodding along towards a slow demise. The auto industry in Australia will soon be a piece of history, according to Iain Marlow writing for The Globe and Mail. With the pullout of General Motors’ owned Holden by 2017, Australia will be the only other G20 country (along with
Over at Mises Canada I explore the following unfortunate facts concerning Canadian debt: Household debt to GDP in Canada is around 95%, higher than at any time in recent history. In fact, this statistic is up nearly 20% since the global credit freeze of 2008. Government debt is not doing much better. It too is higher than it has been for 14 years,
After last week´s decision by HSBC to halt its policy of not honoring large withdrawal requests by depositors comes news of the Russian bank “My Bank” implementing its own run-protection measure. “My Bank”, one of Russia´s top 200 lenders by assets, has introduced “a complete ban on cash withdrawals until next week.” In my discussion of HSBC´s
The first issue of the Journal of Prices & Markets is now available as a paperback. Published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada , JPM is a journal that seeks to improve the understanding of the role of markets in the economy. The inaugural issue includes articles and reviews by Walter Block, Pete Boettke, Ben O’Neill, George Bragues,
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.