This much is clear: the massive buildup of debt through the system of fiat money and fractional reserve banking with a central banking as the money printer of last resort cannot conceivably be paid off. It will have to be defaulted in one way or another: either through an outright (nominal) default, or by inflating the dollar down to zero value.
Detroit News : “Economist Keeps Vested Interests Honest”: “Detroit got a little safer for the vested interests on Monday. That’s the day David Littmann, Comerica’s irrepressible economist, retired after nearly 35 years. His official job was to advise his bank about future economic trends, but sometimes it seemed his real job was speaking the truth
Bloomberg finds economists to refute Christopher Westley on Mises.org. Yes, they argue that disasters can generate economic growth so long as they are predictable and frequent. Broken and destroyed property is usually replaced using better technology, they say. Using this logic, the federal government should spur greater growth and technological
David Holcberg, of the Ayn Rand Institute , published U.S. Should Not Help Tsunami Victims [Our money is not the government’s to give] . In response, James Taranto, of the Wall Street Journal ‘s slandered the ARI . The Ayn Rand Institute’s Holcberg argued that: Every cent the government spends comes from taxation. Every dollar the government hands
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born 2,111 years ago yesterday. According to Anthony Everitt, he was “an unknowing architect of constitutions that still govern our lives.” John Adams said of him, “All ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher combined.” Thomas Jefferson said the Declaration of Independence was based on “the
There was a very good article in the NY Times today that serves as a kind of postscript to David J. Heinrich’s essay WSJ’s Taranto Slanders Ayn Rand Institute . Carol Adelman writes, in her article “ A High Quality of Mercy “ that the claim that the U.S. is “stingy” in foreign aid completely discounts the remarkable level of private aid that flows
Foreign aid worsens the situation faced by victims of natural disasters, perpetuates misery and suffering for years afterward, and provides governments with additional tools of oppression. The current Tsunami crisis makes it critical to review Murray Rothbard’s “ Doing God’s Work in Somalia ,” a detailed account of how foreign aid caused further
Joel On Software writes about why Computer Science college students should learn microeconomics: Why should CS majors learn econ? Because a programmer who understands the fundamentals of business is going to be a more valuable programmer, to a business, than a programmer who doesn’t. That’s all there is to it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve
A fascinating movement that has been swelling for weeks via the blogosphere is the “Not One Damn Dime” campaign. Here is one of a thousand postings of this. The idea is to withhold all spending on January 20, Inauguration Day, in protest against the Iraq War. The question is whether this is an effective campaign or whether people who oppose the
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.