Those who have (wisely) not been following the “decolonization” debate may be surprised to learn that decolonizers characterize reason and rationality as cultural constructs that ought to be rejected, as these are said to be “based upon epistemological assumptions deeply rooted in the Western philosophical tradition” and therefore “perpetuate hegemonic thinking.” The decolonizers argue that reason and rationality ought to yield to “other ways of knowing” that are...
Read More »Week Ahead: BOE and RBA to Standpat, Political Anxiety Runs High, Giving the Dollar a Lift
Under other circumstances, the softer than expected US inflation readings and the subsequent sharp drop in US interest rates would have weighed on the US dollar. Instead, the greenback managed to do well, especially against the euro, sterling, and Japanese yen. The 0.6% rise in the Dollar Index was the biggest gain in two months. The Fed's hawkish hold, with the median dot shifting to one cut this year from three in March (and last December) means that some other...
Read More »AI: “Existential Crisis” or Excuse for Cronyism?
Several months ago, I was on a long car trip with my dad, and we listened to a podcast that gave some commentary on the following headlines from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal: “AI Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn” and “AI Poses ‘Risk of Extinction’ on Par with Pandemics and Nuclear War, Tech Executives Warn.”Obviously, this was in the wake of new AI technologies like ChatGPT and others. This is also not a new issue. In 2017, the Wall...
Read More »Economic Status Report: AI and the Fed
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 »Ron Paul Scholars Seminar 2024
2024 marks the fourth class of the Ron Paul Scholars Seminar. If you are a student interested in peace and prosperity, a non-interventionist foreign policy, the Liberty movement, and in making contacts in your peer group who are not stuck in the mental prison of our political duopoly, please consider applying to be a 2024 Ron Paul Scholar. This year’s event will take place on Friday, August 30.The Ron Paul Scholars Seminar is a one-day, interactive foreign policy and...
Read More »Has Interventionism Jeopardized America’s Future?
President George Washington famously warned against entangling alliances in his farewell address to Congress. However, now more than ever, it seems that escalations across the globe are tempting the United States to become increasingly involved in other countries’ dilemmas. American citizens and legislators must remember part of what made the American experiment so unique and resist those temptations. Here’s why.The US defense budget is unjustifiable. In 2021,...
Read More »The Quest for Lebensraum
Adam Tooze’s The Wages of Destruction (2006) has remained since its publication one of the most influential studies of the Nazi economy. Tooze, an economic historian who teaches at Columbia University, writes from a leftist perspective and does not appear to be familiar with the work of Ludwig von Mises, but the interpretation he offers of the aims of Nazi economic policy is the same as that of Mises. In what follows, I will first discuss Mises’s analysis and then...
Read More »The Quest for Lebensraum
Adam Tooze’s The Wages of Destruction (2006) has remained since its publication one of the most influential studies of the Nazi economy. Tooze, an economic historian who teaches at Columbia University, writes from a leftist perspective and does not appear to be familiar with the work of Ludwig von Mises, but the interpretation he offers of the aims of Nazi economic policy is the same as that of Mises. In what follows, I will first discuss Mises’s analysis and then...
Read More »Self-Inflicted Wounds in Europe and Japan Help the Greenback Shrug Off the Drag of Lower Rates
Overview: The dollar is bid. What makes its performance standout is that it is taking place as US rates have fallen. The US 10-year yield is near 4.20%, the lowest in more than two months. The two-year yield is near 4.67%. It has fallen every session this week for a cumulative decline of more than 20 bp. It is not so much that constructive developments took week, but that Europe and Japan are suffering from self-inflicted injury. Macron's call for snap elections in...
Read More »Tackling Robert Reich’s First Two “Economic Myths”
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....
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