With the world moving more and more in the direction of trade protectionism and war, it is worth remembering the origin of the fallacies upon which this movement is based.Michel Montaigne, the sixteenth-century minor politician and writer, is credited with the illogical view that trade and exchange result in one person winning and the other losing. Today this view is called “zero-sum thinking.” The fallacy is the foundation of former President Donald Trump’s...
Read More »Migros moves ahead with downsizing plans
Keystone / Michael Buholzer Migros is slimming down further. A buyer has been found for Melectronics, the Group announced on Tuesday. The retailer also intends to divest further subsidiaries. This will result in additional redundancies. This content was published on June 18, 2024 – 15:57 As is well known, the retail group Migros wants to free itself from its complicated structures and become leaner. Migros has now found a buyer for Melectronics: It is...
Read More »The Plot To Destroy Our Children
Last week, a conversation with a waitress disturbed me a lot. She told me that she was homeschooling her sixteen-year old son, who is autistic, because she was afraid that he would be subjected to “tranny” propaganda and encouraged to “transition” to being a woman. Even worse, he might be put in touch with “doctors” who would mutilate him by injecting him with hormones and even castrating him, all without his parents’ knowledge. You might think the waitress was...
Read More »The Fallacies of Conservative Protectionists
In responding to economic fallacies that mainstream free traders make, the American Compass makes some of their own.The American Compass—headed by Oren Cass, who once staffed Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign—is the modern descendant of Alexander Hamilton. To those unfamiliar with Hamilton beyond the Federalist Papers, that is hardly a compliment.The Compass, whose writers and staffers join a long list of protectionists gunning for a future Trump...
Read More »We Spent a Billion Dollars Fighting the Houthis…and Lost
Why does it seem the Pentagon is far better at spending money than actually putting together a successful operation? The failed “Operation Prosperity Guardian” and the disastrous floating Gaza pier are but two recent examples of enormously expensive initiatives that, though they no-doubt enriched military contractors, were incapable of meeting their stated goals.Prophets of War: Lockh...Hartung, WilliamBest Price: $10.13Buy New $14.99(as of 02:45 UTC - Details)To...
Read More »Greenback Catches a Bid
Overview: The dollar has caught a bid ahead of the US retail sales and industrial production figures. It is higher against all the G10 currencies but the Swiss franc. The SNB meets Thursday. It surprised many by cutting rates in March and the same logic (low inflation, move ahead of the ECB, stronger franc) may apply now. A hawkish hold by the Reserve Bank of Australia has not done much for the Australian dollar, which is little changed on the day. The greenback...
Read More »This Week’s Mania: Reservations!
When something valuable is mispriced at say zero, speculators appear to grease the wheels of commerce while earning a little something for themselves. This is all well and good until the government steps in to put a stop to the speculator’s arbitrage. The real issue is, “There were just too many diners for too few restaurants,” Appointment Trader founder Jonas Frey told Bloomberg. “I believe we’re serving a need. That’s why it worked.” A thriving market for New York...
Read More »Unsuccessful DEI Efforts Meet Legislative Opposition in Tennessee
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....
Read More »Civilization Depends upon Economic Freedom
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....
Read More »No Honor Among Government Thieves: The Evil of Asset Forfeiture
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....
Read More »