Much Ado about Nothing in the Art Market
The recent sale of an invisible statue for £13,000 is symptomatic of the thoroughgoing financialization of our economy. Investors have become ever more obsessed with the symbols of economic reality and less concerned with underlying economic facts. Original Article: "Much Ado
Review: Niall Ferguson’s Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Niall Ferguson, the celebrated British historian now at Stanford’s Hoover Institution has spouted his own version of that age-old riddle. In
The Fed’s Power over Inflation and Interest Rates Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
It is widely held that the central bank is a key factor in the determination of interest rates. By popular thinking, the Fed influences the short-term interest rates by influencing monetary liquidity in the markets. Through the injection of liquidity,
The Policy and Politics of Cancer Care, with Ted Okon
Our guest is Ted Okon, a nationally recognized expert on the policy and politics of cancer care. Mr. Okon has testified before Congress on cancer issues and is frequently on Capitol Hill discussing the nation’s cancer care delivery system. SHOW NOTES Ted
Is Guaranteed Basic Income the Solution to Robots Taking Our Jobs?
The automation doomers assume that when jobs are eliminated by automation in one place, that the number of jobs are permanently gone. For this to be true, there would have to be no growth in the need for labor elsewhere. Original
Can States Nullify Federal Gun Laws?
In June 2021, Missouri passed a new law stating it would not assist in the enforcement of federal gun laws. Tho and Ryan discuss how states can use strategies like this to resist federal laws within the states. Marijuana legalization
The Tyranny of the Minority Is Just as Dangerous as the Tyranny of the Majority
In a previous installment, I pointed out that in On Liberty, John Stuart Mill advocated for minority opinion to be specially “encouraged and countenanced,”1 and thus that Mill was not an absolute free market thinker where opinion is concerned. Mill suggested
Juneteenth
On June 19th, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger brought profound news to the people of Galveston, Texas as he read out General Order Number 3 that said – “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation
What Did Bob Learn? Part 3 of 3
Bob concludes his series on areas where he’s changed his mind. This episode covers the economics of climate change, fractional reserve banking, the US gold standard, his notorious inflation bets, Nelson Nash’s Infinite Banking Concept, and the God of the
El Salvador Blazes the Path to Bitcoinization
An unbanked population, an economy dependent on remittances, and dollarization. These combine to make El Salvador a perfect case study for bitcoinization. Original Article: "El Salvador Blazes the Path to Bitcoinization" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated