Back in 1997 Gregory Bresiger penned a piece for the Free Market tearing apart the notion of “socially responsible investing” (SRI). Managers focused on social issues instead of profits will perform poorly as resources are diverted to unproductive uses. Bresiger looked to close the argument with this seemingly absurd proposition: But SRI funds do
[ Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis • By James Rickards • Portfolio, 2011 • 304 pages] The talk is all about jobs, jobs, jobs in Washington and on the campaign trail as the unemployment rate continues to be elevated and long-term unemployment is higher than ever. Since getting government out of the way isn’t an option, late last
Floyd Norris writes for the New York Times that it’s 1980 all over again. Discussion of gold has gone from nonexistent a decade ago to the question of whether its price is in bubble territory, and now a policy question in the Republican primary. Ron Paul has been stumping for a return to the gold standard for decades, and the populace has finally
Wall Street traders, like high-stakes poker players, are a different breed. The constant pressure, the appetite for risk, the ability to think and react in split seconds, all the while calculating odds in their heads that most can’t do with an HP12C. “These guys are a pretty weird bunch,” Dr. Paul Zak says. “They’re very rational and very
To the minds of most environmentalists, the ham-hand of government is needed to protect wildlife. Private property be damned — the government must step in, otherwise every species on the planet will be hunted into oblivion, or human development will gobble up all remaining wildlife habitat, leading to the complete extinction of all species.
There’s plenty of blame for the financial crisis being spread around. Those on the left say Wall Street wasn’t regulated enough, while those on the right claim government mandates required lenders to make bad loans. The argument is made that the Federal Reserve was too loose, while the other side says Bernanke wasn’t loose enough. Some blame
It’s often thought that the technology sector is the least regulated and therefore has been the most productive during the past couple of decades. Famously, Bill Gates had no interest in politics. “In the beginning, Microsoft tried to ignore the powerful political forces arrayed against it, hunkering down in Redmond, Washington, to focus on its
What everyone who pays attention already knows hit the front page the other day: Social Security will exhaust its reserves by 2033. That’s 3 years sooner than previously projected, and, most importantly, a scant 21 years away for those hoping to retrieve some of what they put in over the years. The Social Security Administration is kind enough to
When most people think of starting a business, or contemplate others doing so, the common belief is that a person should go into a business they have knowledge in — not just something they know about, but something they know lots about. But is expert knowledge of a particular industry really a prerequisite to opening a new business in that
The right instructor can change a student’s life. I know. It happened to me. Looking through the course catalog at UNLV years ago, I noticed the class “EC 742 — History of Economic Thought. Instructor: Rothbard.” I didn’t know who Murray Rothbard was. I hadn’t ever heard of Austrian economics. I didn’t know what a libertarian was. I was in my late
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.