Poor People in Developing Countries Find Alternatives to Commercial Banking
Banking is a complicated process for working-class people who fail to comply with anti–money laundering regulations. Know your customer (KYC) requirements mandate prospective clients to provide their source of funding and possible employment history. Such policies make it difficult for working-class entrepreneurs
Subsidizing Higher Education Is Not Creating Widespread External Benefits
Contrary to the claim that taxpayer subsidies for higher education provide great social benefits, these subsidies actually are a wealth transfer from the less-well-off to wealthy people. Original Article: "Subsidizing Higher Education Is Not Creating Widespread External Benefits" This Audio Mises Wire is
The Fed’s Portfolio Is Nonexistent: The Fed Does Not Invest. It Destroys Investments
Economists and pundits mistakenly call the Federal Reserve System's security holdings a portfolio. It is anything but. Original Article: "The Fed’s Portfolio Is Nonexistent: The Fed Does Not Invest. It Destroys Investments" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Why Madison and Hamilton Were Wrong about Republics
The debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists in the late eighteenth century was fundamentally a debate over whether or not Americans wanted or needed a large national state. Thus, in their effort to push ratification of the new constitution, the Federalists
How Fast Should the Money Supply Grow?
As Murray Rothbard wrote, inflation is not an increase in prices. It is, instead, an increase in the supply of money in circulation. The distinction is important. Original Article: "How Fast Should the Money Supply Grow?" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored
The Fed’s 2% Inflation Target
Mark Thornton explains the target as another smokescreen that was originally intended to stabilize monetary policy, currencies, and exchange rates, but has become a justification for inflation and central bank manipulation. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues.
The Forgotten Lessons of Government-Enforced Race Relations
On April 23, 2003, in South Side Chicago, Reverend Jeremiah Wright cursed America for treating blacks as less than human. Such harsh rhetoric should not seem surprising given the US government’s history of involvement in race relations. Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
How Government Spending Hurts the Economy
[In this chapter from Man, Economy, and State, Murray Rothbard explains how government employees consume productive resources, while both taxes and government spending distort the economy.] For years, writers on public finance have been searching for the “neutral tax,” i.e., for
The Economics of American Gerontocracy
With Yale economics professor Yusuke Narita suggesting mass suicide—seppuku—as the answer to Japan's rapidly aging demographics, Jeff and Bob take a hard look at the economics and humanity of greying America. Richard Hanania, "Gerontocracy Versus Western Civilization": Mises.org/HAP383a Bob on opting out
Good Causes, Brand Trust, and Profits: Why YouTuber’s Private Charity Is Wrongly Criticized
No good deed goes unpunished claims the old proverb, and twenty-four-year-old YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson’s recent charity act of helping one thousand blind people see again has the world divided on the moral circumstances surrounding his private charity. Some would go