Tag Archives: 6b) Mises.org

Since the end of the Cold War, the US has overthrown Haiti’s government three times. In 1991 to remove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power. In 1994 to put Aristide back in. In 2004 to remove Jean-Bertrand Aristide again, followed by an invasion of Marines. This, followed by a 15-year United Nations occupation of the country. 20,000 American troops would bolster that occupation after the 2011 earthquake.The multinational occupation of the country introduced...

Maybe he was born with it; maybe it’s amphetamine.  Iconic Maybelline slogan aside, the consensus is that Dark Brandon was doped nicely for his State of the Union address.We have been seeing signs that old Joe is medically prepped for major public appearances.  His shrill voice and barely suppressed rage is familiar to many of us who have elderly demented friends and relatives.  The man is suffering, no doubt.The Bidens have staked a claim on public welfare, via...

On Wednesday, the House is set to vote on a bill introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) that would ban or force the sale of the social video-sharing app TikTok. The bill is based on concerns that the Chinese Communist Party effectively controls ByteDance, the app's parent company. Last Friday, President Joe Biden endorsed the legislation and promised to sign it into law if Congress passes it.The vote comes nearly a year after the RESTRICT Act, the last major...

One of the most dangerous things that a government can do is present a glossy picture of the economy at a time when families and small businesses are suffering. Governments are always optimistic, but sending euphoric messages tends to backfire, especially when the situation for the middle class is complicated.In the United States, the Biden administration’s message of “the strongest economy in decades” is not just an exaggeration; it may anger voters who suffer the...

Many economic pundits predict that the United States and much of the world is either in a recession or about to enter one, depending upon one’s definition of the term “recession.” This brief essay is not intended to be a comprehensive explanation of what causes such economic cycles but rather the proper way to end them as quickly as possible.Disequilibrium in the Stages of ProductionA recession is merely the name for economic dislocations. The stages of production...

Last week President Biden delivered a dark and angry speech meant to convince the low percentage of Americans who still feel positive about his presidency that everything is fine and will only get better if he is re-elected for a second term.Unfortunately we have come a long way from the optimism of a Ronald Reagan, who won a second term partially on the popularity of his “Morning in America” campaign commercials. Reagan was far from a perfect president, but it was...

If one follows news relating to the economy, they surely have come across certain mainstream rhetoric in support of the Federal Reserve System. Everyone is familiar with the typical claims that the Federal Reserve strives for maximized employment and low inflation, and that the Fed is the regulator of the banking industry. But king of them all is of the supposed political neutrality of the Federal Reserve.The Federal Reserve itself touts its elevation above the petty...

Leftwing academics claim that blacks in America are oppressed. They call for reparations and affirmative action programs to help them. But these people are hypocrites and liars. How do we know this? When a black person doesn’t share their views, they act ruthlessly. Such people have to be eliminated. The ‘woke” left doesn’t care about blacks or anybody else who doesn’t parrot their views. Roland Fryer found this out the hard way.Who is Roland Fryer? He is a brilliant...

One of the first laws of economics—in fact, the condition that makes economics possible and necessary—is scarcity. On page one of Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell wrote, “Without scarcity, there is no need to economize—and therefore no economics.”While defining scarcity and its critical role in economics, I like to ask my students in a Christian school a question to tease this out: Would scarcity have existed in the Garden of Eden?Apparently Bob Murphy has tackled just...

One would guess the folly of rent control regulations needn’t be explained any further. If rents are held in place by government edict, landlords have no incentive to maintain apartment units to attract renters, the housing stock ultimately deteriorates, and homelessness increases. But, as Bloomberg reports, “Tougher rent control, returning worldwide, destroys $75 billion in property value. Cash-strapped tenants cheer as they maintain a foothold in the city.”That was...