Mortgage Companies Cash in on Pandemic Relief
The nation’s billionaires are catching plenty of grief for profiting from the pandemic. All they are guilty of is providing services people wish to pay for. Nothing wrong with that. Then there are the mortgage companies. It turns out they
Biden Is Trying to Seize Control of Local Land-Use Regulations
In recent years, there’s been a push to move zoning decisions further from the local level. In 2019, Oregon passed House Bill 2001, making it the first statewide law to abolish single-family zoning in many areas. By expanding the state
The Value of Taking Risks
Curiosity and Its Twelve Rules for Liveby F. H. BuckleyEncounter Books, 2021xx + 228 pages Frank Buckley, a Canadian-born lawyer who teaches at the Scalia School of Law at George Mason University, has given us in this remarkable book a philosophy
Matt Asher Talks to Jeff Deist about the Reality of Post Covid America
Matt Asher is an investor, writer, and host of The Filter podcast. He has a background in journalism and statistics. Matt Asher: My guest today on The Filter is Jeff Deist. Jeff is president of the Mises Institute, where he serves
Consent of the Governed?
What gives some people the right to rule others? At least since John Locke's time, the most common and seemingly compelling answer has been "the consent of the governed." When the North American revolutionaries set out to justify their secession
Understanding the “Private” in “Private Security”
Recently in the pages of the Mises Wire, Jason Morgan argued that private security isn’t enough in terms of ensuring personal security and that America needs militias. While I agree with much of the spirit of Dr. Morgan’s essay, there
Governments Are Failing at Their Most Basic Duties—While Promising Free Stuff
Three city blocks were systematically burned to the ground as hundreds of the local police stood by and viewed the violence. They were obeying orders not to harm the arsonists. The National Guard was called, adding more armed watchers. A
Why Big Business Ends up Supporting the Regime
Policymakers know they hold immense power to regulate and punish firms that don’t play ball. Industry leaders know this too. So it’s likely both sides will indeed end up “playing ball." The Democrats in Congress want comprehensive regulation of social media
People Change Their Minds. That Doesn’t Make Them Irrational.
According to a relatively new field of economics called behavioral economics (BE), emotions play an important role in an individual’s decision-making process. On this the Nobel laureate Vernon Smith writes, People like to believe that good decision making is a consequence
They Don’t Hate Gold Because It’s Gold. They Hate It Because It’s Not Government Money.
That gold was used as money in the past is merely a historical fact. But the fact that gold was a form of private money, and thus not easily manipulated for government schemes, made it a target of countless intellectual