The Free Market 21, no. 2 (February 2003) Late last year, in a move that gives even politics a bad name, the Federal Reserve announced yet another cut in its key interest rates. Around the same time, Fed Governor Ben Bernanke gave a speech praising the power of alchemy to lower the price of gold, and, similarly, the power of the Fed to print as
The Free Market 21, no. 3 (March 2003) When some left-wing activists recently began their What Would Jesus Drive? campaign against sport utility vehicles, the first reaction of most folks—and especially libertarians—was a simple, “Are these people really serious?” It turns out, unfortunately, that they indeed were serious, or at least serious
The Free Market 21, no. ( 2003) When I heard of the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia , one of the first things that came to my mind was how little effect it had upon the lives of ordinary people—as compared to the Challenger disaster of 1986. I was sitting in the stands at a YMCA youth basketball game, and from what I could tell, the
The Free Market 21, no. 6 (June 2003) In recent newspaper columns, Paul Krugman of Princeton University and Lawrence Kudlow have sounded deflation alarms. The solution to combat falling prices, they argue, is for the Federal Reserve System to increase the money supply. References to “the money supply” are misleading and dangerous, for they
The Free Market 23, no. 7 (July 2003) No one can argue about the current moribund economy, complete with falling stock prices, nonexistent profits, layoffs, airline bankruptcies, and exploding federal and state budget deficits. People certainly have argued about the cause of this downturn, but few people have accurately pointed out why there is
The Free Market 23, no. 8 (August 2003) It has finally come down to this: Martha Stewart must go to prison, or at the very least be forced to step down from her position as CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. The US Attorney’s office in New York City has obtained a grand jury indictment on obstruction of justice charges against Stewart as a
The Free Market 24, no. 5 (May 2004) A popular economics textbook that I once had to use while working as an adjunct professor had a section on government regulation in which the authors likened it to the placement of a stop sign at a busy intersection or a rule that was meant to prevent individuals from behaving dishonestly. The authors were
The Free Market 24, no. 10 (October 2004) I recently became a heart patient, something that a former collegiate distance runner finds hard to accept. One day, I am of the belief that I am invulnerable to heart disease, and the next day finds me in a cath lab having angioplasty to unblock three arteries, a sobering turn of events. My article,
The Free Market 26, no. 8 (August 2005) The US Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision overturning the obstruction of justice verdict against Arthur Andersen Company comes too late to save the firm or the jobs of thousands of employees who found themselves out of work when the government destroyed the firm three years ago. Indeed, the Andersen
The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000) Until a few months ago, the sum of my experience with Latin America had been a few trips to border cities like Juarez, Nogales, and Tijuana. Beyond that, I had to depend upon Dan Rather, the New York Times, and various social activist groups to find out what was true about life South of the Border. All had a
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.