Anyone who wants cuts in the size and scope of government should be concerned and frustrated with the policies of President George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress. Government spending has increased enormously and the federal budget has plunged ever more into deficit. Protectionism, regulation and government power are on the rise, and
Signs of a “new era” in housing are everywhere. Housing construction is taking place at record rates. New records for real estate prices are being set across the country, especially on the east and west coasts. Booming home prices and record low interest rates are allowing homeowners to refinance their mortgages, “extract equity” to increase their
Economists of an Austrian bent just can’t take off their analytical spectacles, even when undertaking simple life activities like driving from here to there. Fortunately, this unusual way of looking at events and institutions yields fascinating results, as with a recent commute that nicely illustrated the universal truth that governments cause
AP : “Housing construction cooled last month as the number of housing projects builders started plunged 13 percent. The decline is the biggest in nearly 11 years and it takes housing starts to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.77 million units, the lowest level since May 2003. The Commerce Department also reports that a sign of future
Hayek biographer Lanny Ebenstein, writing on Hayek-L , draws our attention to a 1980 Hayek interview in which Hayek says: I’m afraid Mrs. Thatcher is following the advice of Milton Friedman. He is a dear friend of mine and we agree on almost everything except monetary policy. He thinks in terms of statistics, aggregates and the average price
The U.S. Treasury is recalling some 30 year bonds, five years prior to their maturity. This provides them with a $500+ million dollar saving, but what happens to bond holders? It seems that the “bellweather” bond—an indicator of good and bad policy—is disappearing quicker than first thought. Has the Treasury ever made such a recall in the
The Eagle Is Grounded - While America works to protect intellectual property, everyone else is innovating: In the late 1960s, the US cargo shipping industry was in trouble. The 2,000-vessel fleet that ruled the seas after World War II had dwindled to fewer than 900. New technologies - containers, automated loading - were taking hold on foreign
While Wal-Mart has turned to the ballot in a number of cities and towns to win the right to build its giant emporiums, the Inglewood initiative is significantly different. The proposal would essentially exempt Wal-Mart from all of Inglewood’s planning, zoning and environmental regulations, creating a city-within-a-city subject only to its own
Gregg Easterbook believes he has discovered a paradox (”Higher productivity... may lead to fewer jobs”) but he has only resurrected an old fallacy, exploded by Bastiat among many
Is this really a technical problem or have producer prices risen so much that they created a technical problem to manipulate the index? from the press release: As announced on February 17, the release of the Producer Price Index (PPI) for January 2004 has been delayed from the originally scheduled date of February 19, 2004. In addition, as
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.