SNB & CHF

As long as states are around, money will never be sound. But first, some clarity. Sound money, per Ludwig von Mises, has two aspects: It serves as a commonly accepted medium of exchange, while also making it difficult for governments to meddle with it. We can see immediately that sound money is nowhere to be found in today’s world. All the current rhetoric about banks and their systemic risks are about money that’s subject to political expediency, the kind that...

On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop discuss the global moves being made against the US dollar. The regime's decade long weaponization of money and banking has both international rivals and historical allies looking for alternatives. Ryan and Tho discuss what that means for Americans, and what may come next. [embedded content] Recommended Reading "World needs to end risky reliance on U.S. dollar: BoE's Carney" (Reuters, 2019):...

Because his actions were so outrageous, perhaps it is impossible to satirize the former president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, but perhaps I can describe him. As a shout-out to all my neighbors in the Asia Pacific, let us not forget the Sun Tzu tradition to “know the enemy.” For an analysis of the Zimbabwe hyperinflation, see Jayson Coomer and Thomas Gstraunthaler’s article in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. Below, I draw similarities between Mugabe’s...

Thanks to their adoring media, politicians create crises and then blame businesses for them. And the political "solutions" are worse than the original problems. Original Article: "How Politicians Use Regulations to Deflect Blame" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.  [embedded content]...

Left Is Not Wokeby Susan NeimanPolity Press, 2023; 155 pp. There is much to dislike in this book. Susan Neiman, a former philosophy professor who now heads the “Einstein Discussion Group” in Potsdam, is a socialist who has good things to say about Communist East Germany and parrots every anticapitalist cliché in the book. I have blasted some of her work in earlier reviews. In Left Is Not Woke, though, she makes some good points, and I’m going to concentrate on them...

Bob is joined by guest Peter St. Onge to discuss how SVB's CEO, as well as Bernie Madoff, had key positions advising the Fed and SEC. Then they discuss how we should think about central banks losing money. How the SEC was Charmed by Madoff: Mises.org/HAP389a Bob's Understanding Money Mechanics: Mises.org/HAP389b [embedded content] [embedded content]...

One excuse that political elites give when they drag nations into war is that the conflict was "inevitable" or "unavoidable." Ralph Raico knew better. Original Article: "The Outbreak of World War I: A Libertarian Realist Rebuttal" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.  [embedded content]...

Credit Suisse, one of the fifty largest banks in the world, has joined the long list of Western banks over the past two decades that have been rescued from the brink of failure and subsequently acquired by a larger financial institution. After comments from the chairman of the Saudi National Bank triggered the evaporation of almost a third of the megabank’s market capitalization, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced the creation of a new facility to preemptively...

The Mises Wire depends on unaffiliated contributors for a significant proportion of its content. We welcome submissions from everyone, regardless of educational achievements and other credentials, so please send us your essays! We’re looking for short articles that approach real-world economic issues from an Austro-libertarian perspective (read: not just theory). We also accept history and sociology pieces that make use of Austrian or libertarian ideas. Radicalism is...

Keynesian economists claim that cutting costs in a business slowdown is counterproductive. As usual, the Keynesians have it backward. Original Article: "Does Cost Cutting Undermine Economic Growth?" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.  [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter