Since 2008, many have complained that the European Central Bank—unlike its very active Japanese and American counterparts—remained idle in its response to the sluggish European recovery. In the fall of last year, the ECB embarked on a program of asset purchases designed to perk up prices in the Eurozone, which have been growing at levels below the
Legal recreational cannabis/marijuana/pot is almost one year old in Colorado. The Denver Business Journal recently published a retrospective containing several articles reviewing the experience. The general conclusion is that it has been a big success, not the tragedy some had predicted or claimed. The remarkable thing is that the report claims
A surprise move from Switzerland’s central bank (SNB) sent European stock markets into panic today. Although a few months ago, the public voted no in a referendum demanding the SNB keep higher gold reserves, the Swiss are returning to a more traditional stance in their monetary policies. With a €500 billion QE program coming from the ECB, an
In 2014, the US homeownership rate fell below 65 percent, which means it’s back to where it was during the 1970s and much of the 1990s. Various federal agencies have long made homeownership a priority, and have introduced a bevy of government and quasi-government programs including the GSEs like Fannie Mae, FHA-insured loans, VA-insured loans, the
Another year is under way, and we are in the midst of yet another central bank-induced credit bubble. This time, the culprit is shaping up to be the oil and gas industry. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has seen a marked rise in usage in the United States over the last six years. It represented a new and innovative way to extract hydrocarbons
The Chinese government has done the following to prop up its stock markets: 1. Cut interest rates several times 2. Cut reserve requirements 3. Prevents large stock owners of a company from selling their share for 6 months 4. Induced stock brokers to buy $19 billion of shares 5. Imposed restrictions of short selling 6. Stopped new
Volume 17, No. 4 (Winter 2014) KEYWORDS: John Maynard Keynes, marginal efficiency of capital, net present value, interest rates, central banking JEL CLASSIFICATION: E12, E22, E52, In his recent article, Edward W. Fuller (2013) compared the Keynesian Marginal Efficiency of Capital approach with the Austrian Net Present Value approach. While his
In a world of private property rights, where the contracts that derive from those rights must be honored, there would be no controversy about the rights of corporate “stakeholders.” Owners of capital resources pool them and delegate day-to-day control to corporate management as their agents. The only stakeholders those delegated agents agree to
In 2014 there was a record number of skyscrapers and super skyscrapers around the world. In addition to frenzied skyscraper building, there has also been several existing skyscraper that have changed hands at “superlative” prices in recent years. According to Bisnow : “This week’s commercial real estate banner headline was Blackstone’s reported
“See the coast clear and then we will depart.” Shakespeare, Henry VI While reading a press release today I summed up its overall message in my mind as “the coast is clear.” Then it hit me that I did not really know what this common phrase really meant. My first thought that it had to with Colonial smuggling and the American Revolution. It was
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.