Congress will hold hearings tomorrow where Congressman Weiner plans to grill Goldline executives over their gold business. Specifically Weiner thinks they are charging too high a markup on the gold coins they sell, charging an average 90% markup on the coins they sell. Unfortunately, a quick check of the Goldline website and a few of their
The Dubai tower, the tallest structure in the world, will be open on Monday amidst much concern and security. The tower actually set the record for the highest structure in the summer of 2007 sending a crisis signal for the skyscraper index. Since then Dubai has had to borrow $25 billion from its neighbors to keep the lights on. It would seem that
[A paper given at the “Birth and Death of the Fed” conference , Jekyll Island, Georgia, February 26–27, 2010. An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Floy Lilley, is available for download .] In February of 2004, I published an article entitled “Greenspam.” The general lesson was not to listen to Greenspan’s deceptive testimony. Delete it from
[An MP3 audio file of this article, read by the author, is available for download .] “In his first thirty days, he did more to bring liberty to Americans than any president since Thomas Jefferson repealed the Alien and Sedition Acts.” All presidents worry about their popularity. They try to bolster it through impassioned rhetoric, free stuff for
[ Speech given at The Economic Recovery: Washington’s Big Lie , the Supporters Summit for the Ludwig von Mises Institute, October 8, 2010.] Ben Bernanke, the man who purports to be the savior of the economy today, was actually deeply involved in creating the housing bubble, encouraging people to invest in toxic assets, and orchestrating the
[ Watch the interview with Mark Thornton on Prop. 19. An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by the author, is available for download .] Proposition 19 in California would have legalized marijuana, but it fell short. Victory seemed almost a foregone conclusion for many; after all, it is California. For millions, both in California and
[Edited transcript of a Mises Circle speech given on November 13, 2010, in review of Joseph Salerno’s Money: Sound and Unsound .] Joseph Salerno, my friend and colleague at the Mises Institute , published a book this year entitled Money: Sound and Unsound . The book consists of 26 chapters, which were based on articles he wrote in publications
Quarterly GDP increased by 2% at an annual rate which means it increased by ½ of 1% for the quarter. Almost ¾ of that growth was the result of building inventories so we are left with about 1/2 % at an annual rate or .14% for the quarter. If the buildup in inventories represents correct entrepreneurial insight regarding better business in the
From Turkey’s English Daily As the Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek have amply shown, creating money out of thin air, flooding the economy with cheap credit, and keeping interest rates artificially low – as Western banking systems have been doing more or less continuously for decades, and particularly so in the years
A University of Georgia student passed himself off as a veterinarian. He managed to get a job with a private company, but was quickly discovered and dismissed. He then got a job as a supervisor of meat inspection with the US Department of Agriculture and lasted for four years! The USDA ignored tips that he was a fake and was only dismissed after
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.