The Idea of Making a ‘Trillion Dollar Coin’ Is Still Dumb

The Idea of Making a ‘Trillion Dollar Coin’ Is Still Dumb

Here we go again. Every few years in Congress there is a purely political battle over the debt ceiling. We're supposed to be horrified and worried that the U.S. might default on some of its debt. Some commentators will insist the U.S. has never defaulted, and that default be a disaster. (That's wrong, by the way. The U.S. has defaulted before.) But these debt ceiling debates always end the same way. Congress ends up increasing the debt ceiling and the U.S.'s national debt continues to spiral upward. During all the theatrics over the debt ceiling, however, many strange ideas are put forward...

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Joe Biden Is Lying About the Jobs Numbers

Joe Biden Is Lying About the Jobs Numbers

The personal savings rate is near seventeen-year lows. Credit card debt is at record levels. Millions of prime-age workers have quit the job market, and full-time employment continues to wither. On the other hand, the Biden Administration wants you to think things have never been better. Last week, following the release of December's jobs data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Biden crowed that “Real wages are up in recent months...and we are seeing welcome signs that inflation is coming down as well." Biden concluded by saying "it's a good time to be a worker in America." Unfortunately,...

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Where Have All the Working Men Gone?

Where Have All the Working Men Gone?

Last week, CNN featured a story called "Men are dropping out of the workforce. Here's why" The article went on to tell us virtually nothing at all about why so many men are leaving the workforce. Although as many as seven million men have stayed out of the workforce for varying reasons, the CNN piece was really about how more women are joining the workforce, and how wonderful it is that more women are working in "male dominated" fields. The fact that more women are joining the workforce, however, tells us nothing about why men are leaving. Indeed, the CNN piece offered only one reason to...

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How COVID Lockdowns Shifted Population Growth

How COVID Lockdowns Shifted Population Growth

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has frequently bragged that Florida is in high demand among people looking to relocate. In a new report released this week from the Census Bureau, it seems that he's been correct. According to the Bureau's report: After decades of rapid population increase, Florida now is the nation’s fastest-growing state for the first time since 1957, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2022 population estimates released today. Florida's population increased by 1.9% to 22,244,823 between 2021 and 2022, surpassing Idaho, the previous year’s fastest-growing state. In...

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Self-Determination for Thee, But Not for Me

Self-Determination for Thee, But Not for Me

Opponents of secession in the United States often choose from several reasons as to why they think no member state of the United States should be allowed to separate from the rest of the confederation. Some antisecessionists say it’s bad for national security reasons. Others oppose secession for nationalistic reasons, declaring that “we”—whoever that is—shouldn’t “give up on America.” Antisecessionists Believe Self-Determination Leads to “Bad” Laws One of the most popular reasons to oppose secession is that opponents believe people will pass “bad” laws in places allowed to live under their...

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Once Again, the Pentagon Failed an Audit (Shocker!)

Once Again, the Pentagon Failed an Audit (Shocker!)

In November, the Pentagon announced it had failed yet another audit. In spite of the fact that the Department of Defense has had years to get its act together, the Pentagon still doesn’t know how it spends or maintains its trillions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-funded assets and income. As Breaking Defense noted last month: The Pentagon has failed its annual audit for the fifth year in a row, an expected result that nonetheless represents something of a disappointment for an effort that officials hoped would continue steady, if incremental, year over year progress. . . . The Pentagon has...

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Repeal All Laws Against the Phony Crime of ‘Seditious Conspiracy’

Repeal All Laws Against the Phony Crime of ‘Seditious Conspiracy’

On Tuesday, a District of Columbia jury convicted Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs of seditious conspiracy in relation to the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol building. Three other defendants were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other felonies. Convictions of seditious conspiracy represent a political victory—not just a legal one—for those who have long insisted that the January 6 riot was no mere riot, but an organized armed rebellion of some sort. This claim has been key in the administration's ongoing vague claim that "democracy"—however defined—is somehow "at...

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Search for Easy Money Fueled FTX-Crypto Collapse

Search for Easy Money Fueled FTX-Crypto Collapse

The collapse of the crypto exchange FTX may prove to be a canary in the coal mine of the easy-money-fueled crypto bubbles. FTX’s collapse has exposed just how little due diligence is actually taking place among investors, who are apparently willing to put large amounts of cash in whatever looks like the hottest new thing and promises—without convincing evidence—big-time returns. Indeed, FTX seems to be a textbook example of how many investors are easily hoodwinked by media narratives about the latest investment genius who has magically discovered some new way of delivering unprecedented...

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Ryan McMaken

Ryan McMaken is the editor of Mises Wire and The Austrian. Ryan has degrees in economics and political science from the University of Colorado, and was the economist for the Colorado Division of Housing from 2009 to 2014. He is the author of Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre.



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