Spoken Mises

Fed officials present the current housing slump as the outcome of irresponsible lending by mortgage brokers and various other mysterious forces. On this logic it is the role of the Fed to monitor the situation in the housing market and, if required, to interfere in order to prevent the housing slump from spilling over to the rest of the economy. Frank Shostak suggests that what we are currently observing in the housing market is the deflation of the housing bubble, which could be a precursor to a widely spread liquidity crunch. The creation and deflation of the bubble is the result of the Fed's boom-bust monetary policies.

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What Caused the Liquidity Crunch? (1.62 MB)

You might feel anger and even hatred. You might want to curse out your boss. You might plan a lawsuit (which seems to be everyone's first reaction). Instead, you need to do something completely counterintuitive, writes Jeffrey Tucker. You need to thank your boss for having had confidence in you and for giving you the opportunity to work there. You need to say this as sincerely as you can. And when you see your boss at the grocery store or sports event in the future, you should bound up to him as if he were an old friend and thank him again.

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How to Handle Getting Fired (1.66 MB)

Jittery stock markets, an economy drunk on credit, and politicians calling for varieties of dictatorship: what a sense of djà vu! Let us recall, writes Lew Rockwell, that the world went bonkers for about ten years way back when. The stock market crashed in 1929, thanks to the Federal Reserve, and with it fell the last remnants of the old liberal ideology that government should leave society and economy alone to flourish.

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It's the 1930s All Over Again (1.21 MB)

Even though Scorsese may share the left-wing political opinions typical of Hollywood, writes Paul Cantor, The Aviator in many respects celebrates the spirit of free enterprise and, more generally, embodies a kind of libertarian philosophy. One may profitably interpret the film in terms of concepts derived from classic defenders of the free market such as Adam Smith and also draw on the work of the Austrian school of economics, one of whose chief representatives is Ludwig von Mises. The emphasis in Austrian economics on the special role of the entrepreneur and his ability to deal with the risk and uncertainty endemic to economic life makes it particularly relevant to understanding The Aviator.

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Flying Solo: The Aviator and Libertarian Philosophy (12.23 MB)

Henry Hazlitt was one of a very special breed, an economic journalist who not only reported on economic and political events in clear and understandable language, but also made contributions to economics. Bettina Bien Greaves writes that "he was easy to approach; his manner was pleasant, not aloof or overbearing. He was of average height. His features were regular, and he wore a mustache. He dressed appropriately for a journalist working in midtown Manhattan in his day — in suit and tie. He was modest, always thoughtful of others, and one of the kindest and most gracious men I have known. His friends called him Harry, and in time I too came to call him Harry. I was proud to have him as a friend."

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Remembering Henry Hazlitt (2.48 MB)

Ben O'Neill examines the difference between private and public decision making. Government solicits the views of the relevant "stakeholders," identified by the bureaucracy. Who are these stakeholders? Why, they are the people and groups that have a stake in the decision of course. And when we say "a stake," we must be a little selective. After all, government spending is paid for, at least in part, by the myriad of taxes that are stolen from virtually every person in the population. And since we do not wish to take a complete census of the population, we must therefore limit ourselves to only some stakeholders, or more precisely, to those stakeholders who have the biggest stake in the decision.

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Why Government Can't Make Decisions Rationally (1.29 MB)

Gloom and doomers have often been wrong, but not always. Crises do happen, writes Rober Blumen. In recent years, a number of countries have had their currency collapse or have defaulted on foreign debt. Recall the Asian contagion, the Mexican peso crisis, the Russian ruble crisis in 1998, and the Argentine banking crisis. America is not inherently immune from such a crisis. Perhaps we have one unfolding now in the sub-prime sector, though there is still debate about whether it will remain contained there or will spread. Either way, the laws of economics apply to America as well anyplace else.

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The Financial Apocalyptics Are Back (3.65 MB)

An old economics joke goes like this, writes Frank Shostak. A person is walking along and says to an economist, look, there is a $20 bill on the sidewalk. The economist disputes it without looking, on grounds that if it were there, someone else would have already picked it up. It's funny but it is also not far from describing a widely held view that financial asset markets always fully reflect all available and relevant information, and that adjustment to new information is virtually instantaneous.

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Are Profits Purely Random? (1.61 MB)

A hysteria of sorts has been generated by reports that some of China's products lack quality control. It's incredible to think how historically insular this frenzy appears in light of the history of modern China, which was the laboratory of one of history's great central planning catastrophes. Following collectivization of land, Mao decided to go further to dictate to the peasants what they would grow, how they would grow it, and where they would ship it, or whether they would grow anything at all as versus plunge into industry. This would become the Great Leap Forward that would generate history's most deadly famine.

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The Death Camp of Communist China (3.45 MB)

An authority on international law examines around thirty cases of modern wars, beginning with the Korean War and ending with Iraq. The pattern of mendacity has remained constant in these fifty years. In each instance, he shows, the administration's account has been blatantly false. Often, for example, it is claimed that we must intervene to protect American citizens at risk in a foreign crisis; but it turns out that almost all of these Americans have left the scene before our expeditionary forces arrive.

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The Long History of Lies for War (2.29 MB)