“The market economy involves peaceful cooperation. It bursts asunder when the citizens turn into warriors and, instead of exchanging commodities and services, fight one another.” So Ludwig von Mises begins a short chapter in Human Action called “The Economics of War.” While brief, the eleven pages (pages 817–28 in the scholar’s edition) are
When Silicon Valley Bank and other banks failed earlier this year, the debate over the sustainability of fractional reserve banking resurfaced. Under fractional reserve banking, banks keep only a fraction of customers’ deposits in reserve. The difference is bank credit, such as government debt, mortgages, business loans, and many other kinds of
The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, claiming that it wields monopoly power in online retail. According to the FTC, Amazon “is a monopolist that uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power.” Here are some of the strategies included in the official complaint :
For some reason, the Fed continues to publish the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP), in which Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members guess the trajectory of macroeconomic indicators like gross domestic product, the unemployment rate, and price inflation. They also take a stab at forecasting their own policy decisions over the next few
Bank stocks are still floundering after they took a major hit in March of this year, coinciding with the failures of Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic Bank, and Signature Bank. KRE, a regional banking ETF, is down 27 percent year-to-date, while KBE, an ETF with large banks, is down 16 percent year-to-date. Quarterly earnings will be reported by
Jonathan Weil at the Wall Street Journal reports that Republic First Bancorp (not to be confused with First Republic Bank, which failed earlier this year) is in trouble . It is suffering the same kinds of problems that sank Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank in March 2023. What’s funny is that even though Republic First
Last year, Joseph Salerno cautioned against the use of year-over-year CPI inflation rate calculations . This way of calculating the annual inflation rate is backward looking, because the most recent monthly rate is heavily outweighed by the previous eleven months’ rates. In contrast, calculating the annual inflation rate by compounding and
Recorded at the Mises Circle in Fort Myers, Florida, 4 November 2023. Includes audience question and answer period. Special thanks to Murray and Florence M. Sabrin for making this event
Mises’ work explains how laissez-faire economies have incentives to be peaceful with each other, and how, inversely, tariffs and protectionism create isolation, instability, and war. His words are especially prescient today as conflicts rage and tensions between superpowers continue to rise—mirroring the rise in state power across the globe. Dr.
As war rages in the Middle East, we are reminded of what Mises wrote in 1949 on warfare and its awful effects. Original Article: Mises on the History of Warfare
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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.