We have a habit on our trading floor of playing Bob Dylan whenever the markets start selling off. We hardly ever play Dylan these days. Though I consider the Nobel Laureate something of a personal classical liberal icon, I don’t […]
Author: Mises
A Mixed Hero: A Libertarian Reassessment Of Elon Musk
Many libertarians seem to love to hate Elon Musk these days. His crime is to live off the public purse. His companies would be bankrupt without green subsidies and cheap government loans and contracts. He seeks out favorable terms from […]
Violence: How It’s Different From Market Exchange
The analysis in chapter 1 was based on the logical implications of the assumption of action, and its results hold true for all human action. The application of these principles was confined, however, to “Crusoe economics,” where the actions of […]
Why Police Prefer Drug Raids Over Investigating Violent Crimes
Last year, I reported on a case in which the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Kansas had raided the home of a law-abiding, middle-class family in Kansas. The officers, arrayed in SWAT gear, terrorized the family and searched the house […]
Help Wanted: Lenders With No Experience To Make Risky Mortgages
They’re back. Subprime mortgages. And loan brokers are needed to start making them. Kirsten Grind, who, by the way, wrote a wonderful book about Washington Mutual (WaMu) entitled The Lost Bank, writes for the Wall Street Journal, “Brokers willing to […]
Why The “Experts” Can’t Agree About Fed Rate Hikes
It’s amazing how the same set of economic data can create two very different opinions on the overrated Fed rate hike issue. In two Bloomberg opinion pieces last week, we see the stark difference: Tim Duy: It’s Way Too Early […]
When Will The European Super-Bubble Pop?
France’s new president can’t keep the European Union together. In early May, France elected globalist darling Emmanuel Macron. His victory gave the EU a short-term boost. However, it did not change the fundamental problems with Europe’s artificial mega-state. Doug Casey agrees: The […]
There’s More Debt, But Not More Wealth
We’ve been playing two games to mask insolvency: one is to pay the costs of rampant debt today by borrowing even more from future earnings, and the second is to create wealth out of thin air via asset bubbles. The […]
Are Highly Paid People Just Lucky?
One of the most influential theories in contemporary political philosophy is “luck egalitarianism.” The late G.A. Cohen stated the position in this way, in his Rescuing Justice and Equality (Harvard, 2008): People with greater-than-average talents and abilities should not in justice […]
Ludwig von Mises Understood “Meme Magic”
One of the most consistent themes through the works of Ludwig von Mises is the role ideas play in shaping society. As he wrote in Theory and History: Thoughts and ideas are not phantoms. They are real things. Although intangible […]
