“The science and evidence in Roland Emmerich’s anticipated blockbuster Independence Day may be flawed and the posited scenario may be impossible as far as we know, but the movie has the potential to do a lot of good. It will raise awareness of the possibility that a race of hostile aliens may someday attempt to exterminate humanity. What’s more,
It is probably safe to assume that the so-called Third World has always been difficult for those in more developed Western-style countries to understand. There have been several recent efforts with ground-level views of problems in these areas. Hernando De Soto and Jim Rogers have both written books in recent years that show many facets of
With JP Morgan’s acquisition of Bank One, America can claim to be the home of two banks with assets in excess of $1 trillion each (the other being Citigroup). On a list traditionally dominated by foreign banks, US banks will now claim two of the top three spots. The US banking system is also becoming more concentrated, according to Minneapolis Fed
The following article is from the April issue of The Free Market, available to members of the Mises Institute. Debt is an institution in American government, long established and widespread. A cursory glance at debt statistics will quickly show that there has been a lull in the truth about debt, namely, that it cannot grow indefinitely at the rate
Athanasios Orphanides’ recent Fed paper touches on aspects of Japan’s extended economic slump (his basic thesis: the BOJ should have done more). This paper served as a reminder of the inadequacies and limitations of mainstream analysis in explaining Japan’s long economic winter. Fortunately, though long unrecognized and unappreciated by the
Since the Second World War, the deep-seated enmity between France and Germany, whose governments waged war against each other thrice in less than a century, has been exhausted. Restrained from resuming their fratricidal tendencies by the bonds of the corporatist European Coal and Steel Community, eventually superseded by the European Union (EU),
About 23 years ago, reluctant Republican legislators acquiesced to increasing the statutory ceiling of the federal debt (then $1 trillion) at the behest of President Ronald Reagan, who assured congressmen that the measure would be a one-time event. The pledge has of course been broken repeatedly; America’s sovereign debt stood at $6.9 trillion as
For a government as vast and powerful as America’s, $60 billion is hardly a substantial amount of money, considering it boasts a large populace and economy to plunder; such a sum is a mere three-fifths of what the U.S. Army alone requested for fiscal year 2005. In the case of the Philippines, an erstwhile vassal of America, $60bn is an exorbitant
It is a sign of the times when the Chinese government, which was just granted market economy status by debt-laden Argentina, takes America to task over its gaping budget and trade deficits. When interviewed by the Financial Times , published Nov. 22, Li Ruogu, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, admonished Washington not to blame
Some of the worst attacks on our personal freedom come in the form of edicts as to whom we can trade with, and whom we must make war on. This is referred to by the famous dictum attributed to Bastiat: “When goods are not allowed to cross borders, armies will.” The truth of the dictum has been demonstrated in history, both ancient and recent, time
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.