Audio Mises Wire: Recent Episodes
Mises Institute
Audio recordings of Mises Wire articles, offering contemporary news and opinion through the lens of Austrian economics and libertarian political economy.
Dinesh D’Souza—a self-proclaimed opponent of “revisionist history”—reinterprets the Declaration of Independence through anachronism and equivocation, reading modern concepts of nationhood and equality back into 1776.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/declaration-and-dinesh-dsouzas-revisionist-history
Mutual aid societies once were an important part of the US social landscape. Africans can benefit from the same movements—provided their governments get out of the way.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-death-cheaper-care-mutual-aid-developing-world
In spite of the GOP's feigned dismay over Morocco's weaponization of migrants against Spanish exclaves in North Africa, US policy supports Moroccan expansionism in the region. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/us-supports-mass-migration-moroccans-spanish-territory
Statistics can be interesting and informative, but only if one can properly understand them through sound economic theory.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/inflation-and-statistics-economics-explains-them-not-other-way-around
Last week, more than 50,000 people illegally entered the Spanish exclave city of Ceuta, which normally has a population of only 80,000. Why not just open the border permanently? Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/what-would-happen-if-spain-had-open-border-morocco
Murray Rothbard realized the present system of punishment for committing crimes is both inadequate and unjust. We need to move to a system of restitution.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/i-spent-28-years-arresting-criminals-rothbard-was-right-all-along
No matter how legitimate the reasons might seem for going to war, the results are always horrific, and wars rarely, if ever, accomplish their stated purposes.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/dupes-war
After defeating the British in the American Revolution, Americans had the opportunity to set the country on a long path of freedom. They chose to empower government, instead.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/paradise-lost-government-gained
In attempts to rectify what are seen as historical wrongs against certain groups of people, western governments have embarked on programs to engage in wrongs against other groups of people. The universal principles of liberalism are supplanted by policies sure to make matters worse.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/universal-principles-liberalism-and-politics-race
The democratization of urban planning, the politicization of the environmental movement, and the no-growth movement came together to erect enormous barriers to housing construction in California.Original article: https://mises.org/misesian/how-democratic-socialism-created-californias-housing-crisis
The up and down experience with free markets in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain shows that free markets, while undermining the state, do not operate apart from state interference.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/domestic-agorism-eastern-europes-example-libertarianism-without-academic-guidance
For many years, some economists and politicians have painted income equality as a major threat to our economy and well-being. As usual, they understand neither inequality nor economics.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-much-inequality-there-depends-how-its-measured
The anti-slavery disunionists and the abolitionists were some of the most critical of slavery and the most serious about ending it. For them, decentralization and secession were potential solutions not problems in ending slavery.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/anti-slavery-advocates-disunion
Norway sits on large oil deposits, yet has managed to avoid the “resource curse” that has bedeviled so many nations that have abundant natural resources, but severely mismanage their economies.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-norway-built-worlds-largest-fund-and-thriving-economy-boot
While the democratic socialists are claiming to just want a society like they have in Denmark, their real aims are the seizure of all or most private property and especially private capital.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/yes-democratic-socialists-want-soviet-style-control-capital
Contemporary culture, with its fixation on careers, tends to downgrade the career of motherhood.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/you-know-how-happens-right
Most Americans, unfortunately, believe that we are still living in the constitutional republic created in 1787. That was five republics ago.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/spoiled-sons-liberty-surveillance-leviathan-americas-six-republics-and-myth-eternal-union
While many immigrants bring entrepreneurial skills, they often settle in US cities governed by leftists who are hostile to private enterprise.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/sanctuary-cities-leave-your-ambition-and-entrepreneurial-skills-border
The US government continues to drag down the economy with its reckless wars and massive debt accumulation. On the other side of the globe, China is pursuing a different path.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/quiet-rise-chinese-innovation
Why did so many American colonials take arms against the ruling British, even when the odds were stacked against them? Dr. Wanjiru Njoya looks into the competing ideological claims that go with analyzing the American Revolution.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/ideology-behind-american-revolution
The growing power of the centralized state loomed as the central problem for liberalism in the early nineteenth century, and the works of these three writers are a response to it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/constant-tocqueville-and-acton-enlightenment-liberalism-and-religion
While people claim they want the "virtuous" state with citizens to match, what we really get is realpolitik, whether we want it or not.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/evolution-politics-civic-virtue-realpolitik
While we speak highly of “rule of law” and the “limited state,” the unfortunate truth is that the modern state is a law unto itself. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/predatory-logic-state
Murray Rothbard saw government as a predatory, criminal entity and the Microsoft lawsuit of 1998 proved to be a classic example of government organized crime in action.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/rothbards-definition-government-organized-crime-microsoft-antitrust-case
To deny local self-determination to the Catholic Vendean rebels was to support the imperialist impulse, just as the opponents of the American revolutionaries embraced imperialism over freedom. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/vendee-french-war-national-liberation
World Cup tickets are a hot commodity with prices through the roof. Naturally, governments want to do what governments always do unsuccessfully: levy price controls.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/fifa-world-cup-price-controls-ticket-prices
The standard narrative is that policing and imprisonment are necessary tools to keep the public safe from criminals. But it also would seem that these things are useful tools for a state that wishes to dominate its citizens.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/foucault-panopticism-and-carceral-society-rise-surveillance-state
America’s elderly political class is only the most visible symptom. The deeper problem is a government built to transfer wealth from younger Americans to a caste of older, wealthier generations.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/americas-gerontocracy-goes-deeper-aging-politicians
If avoiding a repeat of the excesses of the French revolution is an important goal, we need a thorough understanding of its causes. Edmund Burke and his conservative followers don't offer this. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/what-conservatives-get-wrong-about-french-revolution
Great Britain’s “Equality Act” is not simply a civil rights bill gone too far. It is, as Murray Rothbard would have put it, a “monstrous” piece of legislation that looks to create a social and economic equality that could never exist.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/uks-monstrous-equality-act
Since abandoning socialism 30 years ago, Poland’s economy has grown, as one would expect with a market economy. However, there could be more economic freedom there that easily would translate into a booming economy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/poland-now-its-still-paper-tiger
Lolcows, part of the world of internet personalities, would seem well beyond the world of economic analysis. Yet, much of what happens can be explained by the paradigm of Austrian economics.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/austrian-perspective-lolcows
Carl Menger, founder of the Austrian School of economics, served as the tutor for Austrian-Hungary’s Crown Prince Rudolf, the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph. But Rudolph’s untimely death in 1889 would end up changing the ruling dynamics of pre-World War I Central Europe.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/carl-menger-crown-prince-rudolf-and-marginal-revolution-never-was
Austrian economics does not share the same methodology as we see in the economics mainstream. The Austrian emphasis on praxeology provides a better explanation of economic events than does the mathematically-bound mainstream.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/praxeology-within-physics-social-sciences
Intervention begets intervention. This was the case following the American Revolution, as the consequences of inflation, credit expansion, and wartime disruptions set up for the depression of 1784 in peacetime.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/depression-1784-revolutionary-inflation-and-post-revolution-depression
While Adam Smith is celebrated in some circles as the “Father of Free-Market Economics” (Austrians would disagree), his writings on the “disadvantages” of the worker are misleading.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-adam-smith-helped-create-modern-unionism
As AI becomes a more important and visible part of our lives, the movement to regulate it also grows. The standard regulation narratives—that government regulates things in the name of the public interest—clearly do not fit the facts.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/cronyism-and-regulatory-capture
Every July 4th, politicians climb podiums, flags wave, a hundred million dollars’ worth of fireworks scatter across the sky, and somewhere between the hot dogs and the stadium-rock anthems, it becomes easy to confuse the theater of freedom with the substance of it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/fireworks-regime-what-july-4th-actually-celebrates
The media tells us that the rape allegations that brought down Graham Platner’s Senate campaign just came to light. Actually, the media had those allegations for months, but sat on them to protect Platner’s campaign.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/senate-isnt-his-oyster-after-all-graham-platners-socialist-vessel-turned-out-be-leaky
"The main aim of American foreign policy is to impose the will of our ruling elite on the rest of the world." Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/war-system
Contrary to a common—and incorrect—critique of Rothbard, he was not a fanciful purist who refused to support any political movement that failed to be perfectly libertarian in every way. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-rothbard-sided-american-revolutionaries
Most readers are familiar with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They are less familiar with the 1957 Civil Rights Act.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/consolidating-federal-power-under-civil-rights-act-1957
Some people seem to think the Constitution of 1787 is pretty much the same thing as the Declaration of Independence. They're wrong.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/dont-confuse-declaration-independence-constitution
In celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we remember names like Jefferson and Washington. Unfortunately, the man probably most responsible for push this nation to independence, Thomas Paine, is mostly forgotten.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/no-paine-no-declaration
The US “celebrates” its 250th birthday today, but not everyone is celebrating. We bring back a classic from 10 years ago that is even more relevant today.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/its-fourth-july-why-am-i-sad
In the deepest sense, the American Revolution was a conscious majority revolution on behalf of libertarianism and against power.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/americas-libertarian-revolution
Jean-Luc Mélenchon—the leader of the French far-left party “La France Insoumise”—says it's no problem that the French government's debt now tops more than 100% of GDP.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/french-far-left-downplays-government-debt-order-spend-even-more
Many largely accept Jefferson’s statements about rights, liberty, consent, criminality, and the role of government, however, many come short of adopting Jefferson’s radical libertarian political convictions.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/tracing-jeffersons-libertarian-thought-declaration-independence
The dangers posed by a paper fiat currency were well-known even in the early days of the U.S. republic.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/patriotism-shouldnt-apply-debauched-dollar
As technology and AI grow more sophisticated, people commonly believe that they also are eliminating uncertainty. Nothing could be further from the truth.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-history-refuses-stay-planned
The modern state has become not only the guardian of political order but also the architect of cultural identity. We must separate culture from the state.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/culture-state-and-problem-liberty
Despite the eternal promises of members of Congress, government office space is rapidly deteriorating. Unfortunately, Congress has no plans to deal with the problem. All of this is easily explained by Austrian economics.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/surprise-surprise-government-capital-stock-deteriorating
This decision—as with birthright citizenship in general—will increase political conflict over the presence of foreign nationals—both legal and illegal—within the United States.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/birthright-citizenship-ruling-will-create-more-conflict-over-immigration
Money did originate from the state, no matter how many times contemporary monetary theorists might claim otherwise.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/backwards-history-money
With its new ruling in Trump v. Cook, the Supreme Court demonstrates it does not understand central banking or the Fed. Clarence Thomas, however, saw through the Fed's lies. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/supreme-court-and-supreme-fed
It is important to change our political culture, which treats "democracy," or the "right" to vote, as the supreme political good.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/libertarian-critique-birthright-citizenship
While Bitcoin in its early days promised freedom from the tyranny of fiat currency, those days are gone. Instead, Bitcoin owners are now satisfied if its value goes up against the dollar.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/bitcoin-not-freedom-delusion-digital-escape
Comparing Sanders to fascism may seem unusual, but it should not be forgotten that the main leaders of Italian fascism, including Mussolini, were initially socialists before they became fascists.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-bernie-sanderss-ai-bill-fascistic-and-dangerous
What role does the Constitution play when one state has a different understanding of “American values” than another? Unfortunately, the responses have been inconsistent, depending upon which “values” one wishes to promote.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/calhouns-answer-abolition-petitions
Mainstream economists claim that understanding and observing reality is not really “doing economics.” Instead, they believe that all we need are abstract theories that predict events well. But over time, financial markets must bend to the real world.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/state-financial-markets-tells-us-what-investors-really-believe
On this July 4, Americans will celebrate 250 years of independence. However, what are people really celebrating, freedom or a militaristic regime?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/july-4-will-you-be-celebrating-founders-or-status-quo
Pandemics offer an alleged challenge to libertarians, as some argue that governments should have the power to order quarantines and impose vaccine requirements. It turns out that statism makes things worse—and that free markets offer the best solutions.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/hantavirus-market-versus-government-disease-control
While the pundits are insisting that the late Alan Greenspan was a committed free market adherent, his actions throughout his career spoke differently. In today’s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon exposes Greenspan for what he was: an opportunist.Original article: https://mises.org/friday-philosophy/greenspan-great-opportunist
Were stronger central government under the Articles of Confederation and a central bank really necessary to win the American Revolution, as conservative nationalists of the era claimed?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/myth-nationalist-victory-articles-confederation-and-bank-north-america
The famed "Custer's Last Stand" at the hands of Native Americans defending their villages is a reminder of the brutality of the US war against the Plains Indians. History tells us that the "heroic" George Armstrong Custer was really the "reckless" Custer who died underestimating his foe.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/little-bighorn-anniversary-remember-custers-crimes
The common belief is that intellectual property rights must be in place, otherwise, entrepreneurs would be reluctant to face uncertain profitability. Well, entrepreneurs already face uncertainty and act, anyway.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/intellectual-property-versus-unrealized
Democratic Socialists are winning election after election and will have a number of representatives in Congress. What will happen to our society as they continue to gain power? The answers are not encouraging.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/democratic-socialists-one-vote-one-time
Long before modern economics, the Greek philosophers were laying the groundwork for understanding human cooperation in a social setting, helping to give birth to economic thinking.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-greek-merchants-and-philosophers-discovered-economics
Murray N. Rothbard was a system builder in the mode of Ludwig von Mises, Frank H. Knight, and F. A. Hayek. Social, economic, and political problems are intertwined and complex and require a grand theory to address them. For Rothbard, the unifying theme of social theory was liberty.Original article in The Misesian: https://mises.org/misesian/murray-n-rothbard-toward-science-liberty
The intellectual path from Ancient Greece to modernity is littered with the path of numerous philosophers, movements, and events, both peaceful and violent that have shaped thinking throughout the ages.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/scholasticism-enlightenment-liberalism
Modern historians rarely have told the truth about the history of capitalism, and especially in the early days of the Industrial Revolution. It is time to set the record straight.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/lies-damn-lies-and-history-capitalism
On the day Greenspan died, this 2001 essay by Joseph T. Salerno deserves a second life. It documented what the mainstream refused to see: that Greenspan replaced economic theory with intuition, replaced analysis with data-worship, and called his guesswork a science.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/greenspans-empty-talk
Greenspan served as an especially important cog in this machine by increasing the Fed’s prerogatives within the global economy.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/alan-greenspan-dies-100
As Ryan McMaken recently pointed out, the original constitutional republic created in 1787 no longer exists. Joseph Solis-Mullen asked if the US is now in its Sixth Republic.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/sixth-republic
Progressive elites insist that we “trust our government” when they are in control, but why should we? In fact, we should no more trust government than Charlie Brown should have trusted Lucy to hold the football.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-you-shouldnt-trust-bureaucrats
Systems do not collapse when they finally become unstable; they appear stable until the moment their failure can no longer be ignored.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/why-stable-systems-fail-illusion-institutional-control
As technology advances, progressives believe that this time, all of their social engineering and attempts to establish socialism will finally come to fruition. They are in for a rude surprise.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/institutional-closure-why-managed-directivism-breeds-its-own-collapse
The president has declared that he loves inflation. What economic fallacies is he likely adopting that leads to this conclusion?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-us-president-loves-inflation
While China’s economy has boomed, many people wrongly associate that success with the Chinese government’s industrial policies. Intervention has created many problems there—just as it has done elsewhere.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/chinas-industrial-policy-ambition-inefficiency-and-cautionary-tale-america
Among the key men involved in the American Revolution and the following periods, we find an oft-repeated concern that may seem foreign to us today—the threat of standing armies. This reality became concrete in the Newburgh conspiracy in 1783.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/american-revolution-and-danger-standing-armies
While Graham Platner has become controversial because of his reckless past and violent behavior, the real objection to his being elected a US Senator should be to his reckless socialist proposals that would have disastrous consequences.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/oppose-graham-platner-his-socialism-not-just-his-outrageous-behavior
Names for historical periods like "Renaissance" and "Enlightenment" did not descend to us out of the heavens. Historians and propagandists of centuries past created these names, often for political purposes. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/middle-ages-enlightenment-and-propaganda
Because government monetary authorities have been interfering with interest rates for decades, investors have no more confidence in the bond markets, as they expect more interference and more unpredictability.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/bond-market-sell-welcome-titanic-effect
Once we look beyond a small shift in rhetoric and emphasis, there is, so far, no reason to believe that the Fed is headed toward anything other than business as usual. Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/fed-holds-interest-rate-steady-and-warsh-buys-time-new-task-force-scheme
Sure, the earnings average was up year over year, but prices increased more than earnings did. In fact, price inflation hit a 38-month high in May.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/real-wages-fell-second-month-price-inflation-surged
Economists like Harold Demsetz and Ronald Coase based their property rights views on utilitarianism. Murray Rothbard based his on justice.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-justice-mattered-rothbard
When inflation surges, the first thing on the government's agenda is for the Federal Reserve to try to force up interest rates. However, as Frank Shostak writes, that might not be the best strategy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/raising-interest-rates-does-not-counter-inflation
Prediction markets, while obviously imperfect, still work well because people voluntarily put their money where their beliefs are. Naturally, the government wants to shut them down.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/fear-signal-why-state-urgently-wants-bind-prediction-markets
Unfortunately, the Pope does not understand the role that monetary inflation plays in fueling AI's excesses. If he did, he might lead a necessary anti-AI spiritual alliance for sound money. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/sound-money-artificial-intelligence-and-pope
In spite of repeated claims from the Federal Reserve that monetary policy is at least moderately restrictive, there is no sign of any slowing in money-supply growth.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/april-money-supply-growth-hit-49-month-high-and-prices-soared
Regulatory systems are infamous for creating “traps” in seem to be impervious to reform. Regulators seek to “drain the swamp,” but, instead, find themselves up to their necks in alligators.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/moloch-regulatory-state
Before the Nat Turner Rebellion and the rise of militant abolitionism in the North, there were more anti-slavery societies in the South than in the northern states.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/abolitionist-movement-antebellum-south
Egalitarian interpreters of the Declaration not only empower the centralized state but promote a view of “equality” that shares a common ethical error with slavery itself—that legal castes of humans may be created and enforced against the liberty of others.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/declaration-independence-versus-egalitarianism
Not surprisingly, the present government is rapidly politicizing artificial intelligence. We don’t have to look far for disastrous results.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/ai-creative-destruction-and-politicization-economic-change
The covid lockdowns were useless for public health, but they vastly strengthened government’s stranglehold over our lives. We cannot allow this to happen again.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/potential-lockdowns-polarization-and-what-should-be-done
Despite attempts to whitewash its past, progressivism was a poisonous ideology from the beginning. One of its worst legacies is eugenics, which not only created social strife in the US, but also was exported to Germany, where the Nazis embraced it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-american-progressives-influenced-hitler
Contrary to the myth that kings routinely ruled over cowed subordinates by "divine right" in the Middle Ages, civil governments of the period faced countless institutional obstacles to the exercise of power.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/medieval-europeans-paved-way-freedom-west
The current free-for-all in Division I NCAA sports is not the product of a free market, but rather is chaos being imposed by the courts and government agencies. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/anarcho-tyranny-killing-college-sports
As AI continues to grow, we are told to fear private transactions and to depend on the state for safety and security. The reality is that we need to fear the state and what it will do to us as technology becomes increasingly sophisticated.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/were-freaking-doomed-without-freedom-state-rule
This key decision of the Continental Congress matters because the way a war is fought affects the outcomes; the choice to fight like a state means either losing or winning like a state.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/charles-lee-alternative-george-washington-youve-probably-never-heard
According to the University of Michigan’s latest Index of Consumer Sentiment, a record number of Americans have negative views of the economy. This is yet more evidence that the American people are dissatisfied with their economic condition.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/federal-reserve-why-people-are-unhappy
Time is a unique resource in economics because we cannot create more of it and are subject to its limitations. Ludwig von Mises and the Austrians understand the role of time in economic better than most other mainstream economists.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/subjective-nature-time-bergson-mises
Thanks to the Fed’s creation of asset bubbles, the US economy is producing many billionaires. However, the savvy entrepreneur is becoming increasingly scarce.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/great-disconnect-when-wealth-and-productive-ability-diverge
Can a communist system flourish under a liberal government? Bernie Sanders says yes, but Melanie Armstrong, author of Chicken in a Strange Way, gives a resounding no.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/economic-calculation-and-southern-california-beach-girl
Government economic policies reflect abstract ideas of what agents wish reality were like. Praxeology is not beholden to abstract economic fantasies.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/praxeology-antidote-hyperreality
The financial analyst Richard Daughty, whose pen name was Mogambo Guru, passed away four years ago, but while he was alive, he produced spot-on criticisms of the US government and its inflation rocket fuel booster, the Federal Reserve System.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/remembering-mogambo-guru
As socialists gain power in American cities and states, they look to destroy the creation of wealth and to tax the wealth-creators into oblivion. We know how these scenarios end.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/crazy-wealth-tax-proposals-california-and-new-york-city
The latest rage among defense contractors is the rise of the high-tech “neo-primes,” firms which supposedly will apply “smart” militarization. History and reality tell us, however, that these companies soon enough will be as bloated and corrupt as their contemporaries.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/beware-neo-primes
Did the Declaration of Independence carry a hidden message of abolition of slavery? Justice Clarence Thomas and historian Harry Jaffa believe that, but legal scholar Wanjiru Njoya holds that such an interpretation pushes the envelope too far.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/justice-clarence-thomas-harry-jaffa-and-declaration-independence
The Appalachian region, while always relatively poor, had strong families and institutions that held things together. In the aftermath of the expansion of the welfare state and the shrinking of the iron, steel, and coal industries, we have seen social breakdowns and increasing drug addiction.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/sedation-appalachia
The recent primary defeat of Thomas Massie will deprive this country of a free-market and anti-war voice. How should libertarians respond?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/defeat-thomas-massie-where-go-hereSee also "Post-Massie America" (Power & Market Podcast) and "Massie Defeated in Kentucky Primary" by Ryan McMaken.
Viewing the Declaration of Independence as the act that created one consolidated American nation is a common historical anachronism, which projects a later nationalist understanding backward onto the founding era.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/creating-nation-declaration-independence-and-nation-anachronism
In contemplating the life and career of Ludwig von Mises, one is struck by the nobility and grandeur, the high courage, of his lonely and lifelong struggle on behalf of truth and laissez-faire. But what led Mises to pursue his lonely and seemingly doomed struggle until the very end?Original article: https://mises.org/articles-interest/mises-and-role-economist-public-policy
The Federal Reserve continues to destroy the economy’s savings base through a combination of artificially low interest rates and inflation. This war on savings will not end anytime soon.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/there-no-reprieve-feds-war-savings
What inspires us about the life of Mises, writes Lew Rockwell, is not his victimhood but his triumph over evil.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/heart-fighter
In attacking progressivism in a recent speech, Clarence Thomas has been pilloried in the media and by politicians and academics. However, Thomas was correct: progressivism has brought one disaster after another, all the while empowering the worst of state actors.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/justice-clarence-thomas-right-about-progressivism
For too long, people have thought of the airwaves and waterways as “public” property that is best controlled by government. However, Murray Rothbard and others held that one could apply the institution of private property to both.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/who-owns-airwaves-and-sea
As I see it now, there are really two economies—two distinct systems of producing and exchanging wealth. Or rather, two systems that purport to do these things, though only one of them really produces anything, and the other is organized by a peculiar form of exchange.The first is what is called the trade economy—the one summed up in the phrase "the free market." The other might be called "the tax economy."Original article: https://mises.org/free-market/two-economies
Public goods theory often assumes what it seeks to establish, namely, that the state is the indispensable precondition of production, even though the state itself depends upon prior production for every resource it possesses.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/public-goods-circular-argument
The White House leaks that a deal is almost done. Markets surge. Insiders profit. The deal collapses. Repeat. Now the markets barely move. Nobody believes it anymore. A government that cries wolf this many times eventually finds itself alone.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/when-our-word-no-longer-good
The popular pastime of modern democracies of punishing the diligent and thrifty, while rewarding the lazy, improvident, and unthrifty, is cultivated via the State, fulfilling a demo-egalitarian program based on a demo-totalitarian ideology.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/democracys-road-tyranny
Mamdani’s election is not the cause of economic decline. Instead, New York City’s slide into chaos has been ongoing for many years, and Mamdani promises to make things even worse.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/big-apples-woes-are-not-just-result-one-election
Remembering Murray Rothbard on our imperialistic wars: "The true principle of isolationism is that the government should be isolated and people who trade, interchange, and engage in voluntary travel, migration, and so forth should be allowed to peacefully do so."Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/murray-rothbard-war-and-isolationism
Historically, many sovereign states have granted separatist cultural and ideological groups political autonomy as a means of avoiding full secession. The US legal system prevents this.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/us-constitution-now-suicide-pact
Zohran Mamdani’s proposal reflects a growing belief that economic problems can be solved through public ownership and political management. But a grocery store is still a business governed by costs, and economic reality regardless of who owns it.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/economic-problem-behind-zohran-mamdanis-government-grocery-plan
Social contract theory was used to critique a form of the state, but was also used to legitimize the modern nation-state.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/great-reversal-how-social-contract-theory-became-state-apologetics
Buc-ee’s—the roadside travel phenomenon—seems to cater to the extremes in our society. Either customers love shopping at the place or it is yet another symbol of capitalist oppression.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/buc-ees-free-market-triumph-or-simply-capitalist-oppression
While upholding the radical ideal, Rothbard combined idealism with realism, scholarship with accessibility, and boundless curiosity with commitment to truth.Original article: https://mises.org/articles-interest/murray-n-rothbard-legacy-liberty
Economics is far more than what people see as “the economy.” It is the central organizing factor for civilized society.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/economics-sociological-foundation-civilization
Washington is pursuing industrial policy again, this time being an attempt to form a minerals consortium with other countries to secure minerals vital to US manufacturing. No doubt, this initiative will end up on the ash heap of bad policy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/minerals-consortium-will-result-malinvestment
The US fiat monetary regime not only has given us inflation and boom-and-bust cycles, but it also is the main contributor to the out-of-control government spending and debt accumulation.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/causes-uncontrollable-us-public-spending-and-debt
The standard line among most economists is that deflation is as bad or even worse than inflation. In reality, the economy needs deflation now more than ever.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/deflation-bad-economy
Last week’s CPI report, and this week’s PPI report both showed price inflation surging to multi-year highs, and not just on oil prices.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/price-inflation-accelerates-wars-and-deficits-expand
What might be the process of a society moving from being unfree to being free? Here is one scenario.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-society-chooses-freedom-unfree-world
Murray Rothbard is one of the all-time greats in Austrian economics and libertarianism. When studying his achievements, we immediately see that Rothbard is a giant whose shoulders free-market scholars should aspire to stand on.Original article: https://mises.org/misesian/why-rothbard-relevant-ever
While Republicans have promised robust economic growth to accompany their tax cuts, reality has been different. That is because Republicans increased government spending at the same time, dragging down the economy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/gop-fiscal-follies
With some simple logic and using Hobbes’s own presuppositions and arguments, we can internally critique Hobbes’s argument for the state, namely, that the state solves none of the problems he presents.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/hobbess-self-defeating-theory
In the year since Donald Trump’s “liberation day” in April 2024 fewer Americans are now working, and inflation-adjusted hourly earnings are still below where they were in 2021.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/job-market-has-only-gotten-worse-trumps-liberation-day
In 1871, the “discovery” of marginal economic analysis soon took a wrong turn, moving towards quantification, data, and mathematics. It is time to “rediscover” the margin, this time the margin as explained by Carl Menger.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/todays-ais-show-marginal-revolutions-unfinished-business
As the economy faulters, socialists are getting elected, promising free goods and services and an end to the chaos. Even when they make things worse, however, they will still gain political power.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialists-are-reaping-bountiful-political-harvest-while-they-create-havoc
Governments take valuable things like paper and minerals, stamp something on them, and call them money, in the process rendering these things almost worthless. Something is wrong with this picture.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/cost-money-coinage-fiat-power-and-quiet-corruption-value
In this article from 1950, Murray Rothbard suggests some of the less bad ways of financing military operations. Hint: monetary inflation and taxing savings and investment are among the worst.Original article: https://mises.org/articles-interest/economics-war
Karl Marx not only misunderstood value and production, but he also was wrong about large-scale and small-scale property owners.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/marx-was-wrong-about-necessary-ruin-small-landed-property
Who would join a radical minority movement, and commit him- or herself for life to social obloquy and a marginal existence, for the sake of 20% more bathtubs, or 15% more candy bars? Who will man the barricades either physically or spiritually, for more peanuts or Pepsi?Original article: https://mises.org/articles-interest/duty-natural-outlaws-shut
The recent death of Paul Ehrlich reminds us that his crackpot overpopulation theories still are with us, even as they are being regularly discredited.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/depopulation-wont-save-us-or-planet
To complain against the state’s actions, argues Hobbes, is to ultimately complain against yourself because you originally authorized the state through social contract and the state represents you!Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/hobbess-state-why-are-you-hitting-yourself
Entrepreneurship is a voluntary undertaking that causes change by providing value. No force, no threats, and no coercion are involved. It is market action fully in line with our libertarian ideals. And it provides alternatives, and produces variety.Original article: https://mises.org/misesian/how-change-world-entrepreneurship-versus-politics2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/AudioFree
California has been seen as the nation’s “Promised Land” for many years, but in the past 25 years, people have left due to high housing costs and high taxes. The state’s future is about to become a lot worse, as socialists are rising in power here.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/where-california-went-wrong2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/AudioFree
Of course the president, like everyone, frequently protests his desire for peace. Everyone does this. And I think we may assume he is quite sincere about it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/president-goes-war2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/AudioFree
If executed perfectly, this swap allows the Fed to neutralize a shrinking money supply by swapping $2 trillion in mortgages for $2 trillion in government debt. Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/mbs-slope-n-swap
Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History more than 30 years ago, believing that the fall of the communist bloc would lead to a more peaceful world. We are still waiting for that moment of peace.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/fukuyama-was-wrong-history-did-not-end
The populist “victory” of the Trump administration is perhaps the best evidence yet that a strategy of “vote harder” is simply not going to lead to any significant change in the power of the regime.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/vote-harder-why-secession-only-answer-american-megastate2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray's 100th birthday—and we're celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/AudioFree
Philosopher Matt Zwolinski has declared libertarianism to lack any coherent standards. Zwolinski’s confusion is the result of his rejection of libertarianism as outlined by Murray Rothbard and others based upon free markets based on individual rights.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/libertarianism-incoherent
The government created a market for stolen goods, paid criminals cash for five months, watched robberies spike, arrested everyone at a mafia-themed party, then called it a success because arrests went up. The robberies they subsidized didn't count.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/when-federal-government-subsidized-robberies
The recent DOJ indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center might be controversial, but what is not controversial is that the SPLC engaged in conduct that was more reminiscent of the Ministry of Love in 1984 than protecting someone’s civil rights.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/justice-department-indicts-ministry-love
Gold markets have been volatile, to put it mildly, and the drama isn’t over. Unfortunately, governments are so involved in the gold markets that true market prices are hard to find.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/precious-paper-problem-divergence-western-bullion-markets
In the late 1800s, American finally went in search of empire abroad, taking land by force and subjugating people who simply wanted their captors to leave.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-america-chose-empire
When the recent NFL draft was held in Pittsburgh, city officials declared bus fares would be free so fans would pack the auditorium where the draft was held. Who would have thought that making scarce goods free would bring about chaos with the bus riders?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/nfl-draft-and-public-buses
It's not enough for an ideology to merely have a "good argument." Historical conditions must also combine to delegitimize the regime and its institutions. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/battle-ideas-paves-way-radicals-and-revolutionaries
As the US is involved in yet another pointless war, we would do well to remember the real costs of war, how it strips us of our liberties, and destroys our futures.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/remembering-costs-war
The bulk of the US gold reserves held in Fort Knox are made up of impure “non-standard” bars that don’t qualify for use in international settlements.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/ft-knox-full-impure-gold-unfit-international-transactions
The UK does not have an energy problem, it has a freedom problem.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/freedom-upsets-patterns-deregulation-argument-westminster-will-not-have
Luck egalitarians fallaciously declare property and wealth to be illegitimate or at least suspect due to a mysterious, unquantifiable force called luck. Their arguments fail even if what they claim about luck is true.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/luck-fallacy-and-luck-egalitarianism
The old republic is gone. The constitutional order of the Jeffersonian years—i.e., the so-called "American experiment"—was swept away long ago.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/we-are-living-fourth-american-republic
The dearth of child-bearing in western countries like the US is seen as a political crisis. Yet, if there is any place in our lives where government should stay out, it is in the area of childbirth.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/tragedy-socialized-fertility
The Trump administration’s downsizing USAID has brought the usual claims: that without US aid, millions of poor people around the world will die of starvation and disease. Not surprisingly, the claims are exaggerated.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/usaid-funded-aid-programs-abroad-mainly-was-jobs-program-progressives
There are fuel protests in Ireland, which are not surprising given the havoc Trump’s Iran war has caused in oil markets. They also should be protesting against the government policies that make the situation worse.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/fuel-protests-ireland-their-lights-and-shadows
Despite support from some economists in the free market camp, fractional reserve free banking is doomed for failure, as Murray Rothbard pointed out.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/case-against-free-bankers
"There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom."Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/revolution-was
The right of self-determination is the right of the inhabitants of every territory to decide on the state to which they wish to belong.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/right-self-determination
Under a system of private ownership, in which the government's only function is to protect property rights, it is immaterial where the frontiers of people's country are drawn.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/economic-causes-war
While there is a public uproar about China having access to the work of American scientists, there is a bigger issue at stake: Is science “owned” by “the public”? If not, why are we so worried about the Chinese?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/if-science-public-good-let-china-pay-it
Whether rates go up or down, neither outcome will be pleasant, leaving a bondholder caught between the Unthinkable and the Unimaginable.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/those-big-beautiful-bonds
Had the United States pursued a policy of economic freedom with respect to energy production over the last thirty years, the conditions for OPEC’s success as a cartel would never have been present in the first place.Original article (September 18, 2001): https://mises.org/mises-daily/free-markets-would-be-opecs-undoing
We are told that it takes “eternal vigilance” to protect our freedom. But what if the entity taking away our freedom has the weapons and the “law” on its side?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/problem-eternal-vigilance
We are reminded time and again that prices emerge from subjective valuation, not objective criteria.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-chicken-isnt-just-chicken
The anti-meat movement has influenced government policy well beyond anything close to the truth about meat. From the discredited food pyramid to government funding of “lab-grown meat,” government aids the activists who are making our lives worse.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/next-food-pyramid-lab-grown-meat-and-new-moral-orthodoxy
With President Trump demanding people in the armed forces as well as in other government offices do his bidding no matter what the law might be, it is time for people to learn the lesson of Captain Vere.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/god-bless-captain-vere-when-constitutional-duty-yields-institutional-power
Our own Jonathan Newman had the opportunity to sit down with a Federal Reserve governor. The central banker's answers to Newman's questions were evasive and riddled with contradictions. It seems there is not much behind the Fed's technocratic veneer.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/look-behind-feds-curtains
The conservatives finally got their populist victory for middle-American working-class voters. The result is more federal spending, more federal power, and Israel-first foreign policy. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-trumps-populism-failed
Just as, for them, liberty must be the highest political end, peace must be the highest end of foreign policy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/libertarians-must-never-warm-warfare-state
A foreign policy that seeks to maintain a global empire is entirely incompatible with the laissez-faire, free-market system at home that many hawkish self-described libertarians claim to support.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/rothbard-was-right-libertarians-must-never-warm-warfare-state
President Trump is not only angering Iranians and most of Europe. He also is making new enemies in both North and South America. Perhaps it is time for policy reset.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-foreign-policy-latin-america-and-caribbean-needs-strategic-reset
According to Rothbard’s first law of incidence, “no tax can be shifted forward.” That is, the person or company paying the tax cannot make the buyer pay the tax. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/who-pays-hormuz-toll
In dealing with the question of why the United States, a country founded on liberty, turned into a militaristic behemoth, Ralph Raico looked to the work of historian Arthur Ekirch for answers.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/raico-ekirch-and-tragedy-american-militarism
Ludwig von Mises Mises argues in Nation, State, and Economy that nationalism is compatible with economic and political liberty if it is peaceful, based on self-determination as an individual right.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/peaceful-nationalism-foundation-economic-liberalism
Economics has its own four-letter words. Although they are not obscene, socialists and statists would find them so.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/four-letter-economic-words
Those who invoke Jesus for socialism face a tension: if the power to end suffering creates a moral obligation, then the Jesus who healed many but not all appears, by that standard, either unwilling or unable.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/jesus-and-christian-socialists-problem-evil
As the socialistic Canadian medical system runs aground, the government actively promotes physician-assisted suicide as a way to save the system and promoting “die with dignity” at the same time.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/assisted-suicide-logical-outcome-government-controlled-medical-care
The Trump administration continues its bellicose war against Iran, destroying opportunities for prosperity through meaningful commerce along the way.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/war-and-trade-restrictions-fallacious-paths-national-security-and-prosperity
While Tax Freedom Day is mid-April, Rothbard’s measure of the government's fiscal burden reveals that Americans don’t truly start working for themselves until June 5, over seven weeks later.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/tax-freedom-day-underestimates-how-long-you-work-government
It took centuries to end the idea that taxes kept the privileged class in comfort and financed their wars. But now we're told taxes = civilization.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/taxation-robbery
There is no shortfall of liquidity in financial markets. In fact, there is so much that inflation has become a way of life for market participants. This is not a good thing.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/artificial-liquidity-brings-inflation-shocks
In this time of war and uncertainty, we should expect to see the prices of precious metals rise and fall and the only certainty will be uncertainty.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/precious-metals-work
All too often, judges allow sentiment to override the Constitution. While they might refer to a “living Constitution,” what they really mean is that they don’t permit the law to get in the way of their worldviews.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/danger-allowing-good-intentions-override-constitution
Mises described the problem, Hayek proposed the direction, Kirzner explains why the market will not stop. And the market, as so many times before, has already found the first step.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/ex-nihilo-no-more
John Williamson, who passed away five years ago, is known for creating what was called the “Washington Consensus,” which was an attempt to bring a liberal economic order to poor countries looking to transition from socialism to capitalism.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/memory-creator-washington-consensus
As the Marxians do not admit that differences of opinion can be settled by discussion and persuasion or decided by majority vote, no solution is open but civil war.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/marxism-vs-majority
Late last year, German lawmakers passed new legislation paving the way for military conscription.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/germany-restricts-emigration-prevent-young-men-escaping-military-draft
People readily line up on one side or another of great economic debates. How do they choose which side to take?Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/why-i-side-ludwig-von-mises
President Trump’s current war with Iran not only is creating economic havoc around the world, but it is also bleeding US taxpayers. There are no good outcomes here.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/state-wars-bleed-nation-death
In studying history, it is key to avoid definitional anachronism—failing to note how a word has changed over time and assuming the present meaning was the same in the past. This is often the case with the word currency as used in colonial America.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/note-currency-colonial-america
For 150 years, Thanksgiving has been primarily an apolitical holiday that's really about family fun and eating a huge meal.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/thanksgiving-celebration-domestic-life
The first English settlers in America learned a hard lesson about socialist economics in the early years of their new colonies as they faced starvation. Once they embraced free enterprise, however, they had something to be thankful for.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/thanksgiving-celebration-free-enterprise
From the perspective of the state, the ideal society is one composed of single parents raising a small number of children in irreligious households.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/families-are-key-building-alternatives-state
In the wilderness of the New World, the Plymouth Pilgrims had progressed from the false dream of communism to the sound realism of capitalism.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/thanksgiving-celebrating-birth-american-free-enterprise
Is minarchism an antidote for the growing statism and socialism infecting our body politic? Think of it as “statism lite.”Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/minarchism-worst-kind-state-idolatry
The rent is too high. However, government interference into rental markets has been the main reason rents are so high in the first place.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/government-intervention-not-blackrock-blame-housing-crisis
Cheney was an architect of both Iraq wars, and he was a perennial supporter of the American surveillance state, torture, and more. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-i-wont-be-mourning-dick-cheney
We must realize that the two most powerful motivations in human history have always been ideology and economic interest, and that a joining of these two motivations can be downright irresistible.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/origins-welfare-state-america
Inflation is not just an economic phenomenon. It also undercuts the foundations of a civilization, leading to the breakdown of society itself.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/road-de-civilization-inflation-and-moral-erosion-society
Roger Williams, the Baptist minister whose libertarian views ran afoul of the Massachusetts Bay Colony authorities, should be honored as one of this country’s early libertarians.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/roger-williams-exemplar-americas-soul
The revolutionaries include the pamphleteer writing in his study, the journalist, the agitator, the organizer, the campus activist, the theoretician, the philanthropist. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/meaning-revolution
The government “shutdown” and the so-called threat to the food stamp program may be abated for now, but we need to understand why this program has metastasized in recent years. James Bovard tells us why.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/food-stamps-and-federal-war-self-reliance
November 11 was once known as Armistice Day, the day set aside to celebrate the end of WWI. In this essay Rothbard discusses the war as the triumph of several Progressive intellectual strains from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/rothbard-world-war-i-triumph-progressive-intellectuals
We libertarians may be anti-state, but that we are emphatically not anti-society or opposed to the real world, however contaminated it might be. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/resisting-evil
The dystopian futuristic movie Elysium portrays a terrible future in which only the rich have medical care while the poor suffer on an overpopulated, polluted planet. The film’s theme—that only huge wealth transfers can bring medical care to low-income people—is fundamentally flawed.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/dystopia-misdiagnosed-how-rich-drive-health-innovation
If Hobbes is right about human nature, then he is wrong about the state as a solution. Ironically, his key arguments for the state are actually key reasons against it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/hobbess-accidental-case-against-state
While giddy socialists are proclaiming that Zohran Mamdani's electoral victory is the beginning of a socialist takeover of the U.S., the Democratic Socialists of America have a long way before they can complete their stated mission.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/election-mamdani-what-it-means-and-what-it-doesnt-mean
When studying praxeology, something as trivial as the recipe for chocolate cake can become a way to better teach us Austrian economics.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/recipes-rothbard-what-chocolate-cake-can-teach-about-economics
Murray Rothbard’s view of the origins of World War II has an important lesson for us today.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/murray-rothbard-and-world-war-ii-origins
Henry Hazlett wrote in Economics in One Lesson that each generation has to relearn economic fallacies that government employs when implementing bad policies. New Yorkers are about to learn a lot of new lessons.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/all-means-elect-mamdani-and-watch-his-socialist-laboratory-work
Trump's team is citing the fentanyl crisis to justify its escalations near Venezuela. But virtually all illicit fentanyl is made and smuggled thousands of miles away. If war or regime change in Venezuela is good for the American people, why hide the true motivations?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trump-administration-lying-us-another-war
The food stamp program is a way for Pepsico and the Coca-Cola company to legally rip off the taxpayers.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-food-industry-lobbyists-keep-food-stamp-gravy-train-going
For more than 60 years, the US government has enforced a trade embargo against Cuba, ostensibly to force the communist government into collapse. The only thing that has collapsed, however, is the logic in the US policy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/brief-history-enduring-american-embargo-against-cuba
September’s fiscal surplus was not thanks to tariff revenue. In truth, it was thanks to Americans paying more in income tax. Tariffs were only 5.7 percent of revenue.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/no-tariffs-did-not-cause-septembers-budget-surplus
Despite the change in the White House, critical race theory is still with us, dominating the academic sectors and being ingrained in progressive culture. We need to better recognize what it is and how it works in order to better refute it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-recognize-critical-race-theory
No one doubts that the US is a politically and culturally divided nation. Contrary to much of public opinion, politicians like Donald Trump did not cause the crisis. Instead, as Lawrence Mead writes, they are a symptom of the government's assault on our culture.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/recognizing-roots-current-us-political-turmoil
As a true market entrepreneur, as opposed to a political entrepreneur, James J. Hill successfully built a transcontinental railroad, outcompeting his government-subsidized competitors.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/myth-robber-barons-james-hill-versus-crony-competitors
Once again, the Trump administration’s “dealmaking” on international trade has blown up, this time pulling the rug from under US soybean farmers. This isn’t the first trade policy fiasco, nor will it be the last.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/america-hurts-farmers-and-discounts-chinas-soy-imports-while-providing-crutch-argentina
The concept of “planned obsolescence” makes no economic sense and is often an excuse for governments to harass and shake down innovative entrepreneurs. Much of so-called planned obsolescence is really entrepreneurship at work improving products for users and consumers.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/myth-planned-obsolescence
“I see that you are preparing the groundwork for supporting Nixon,” Rothbard wrote Meyer. “Again, for shame! Is this what conservative principles are coming down to...?"Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/new-rothbard-letters-show-his-early-opposition-both-nixon-and-reagan
There have been four gold busts under the fiat dollar money regimes since the “freeing” of the gold price in March 1968. Will the current gold boom end in a similar bust?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/what-will-next-gold-bust-look
The US Constitution as originally written and understood no longer exists. The first wave of “progressives” reinterpreted it to their liking before later generations of progressives finished the job.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-progressives-broke-constitution-and-praised-themselves-it
Popular views of capitalism and free markets are not shaped by the facts, but rather by anti-capitalist intellectuals and the media.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/popular-media-romanticism-and-statist-insinuation
The yearning for a state-controlled system is not born of compassion for others but rather of infantile selfishness.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/economics-and-infantilization-culture
When politicians intervene in the economy, they often do it in the name of mitigating “greed” or “profiteering.” While they can pass laws regulating prices and the like, they cannot repeal economic laws. Instead, they can only make things worse.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/exploiting-moral-unseen
Sen. Ted Cruz was recently interviewed by Tucker Carlson, with Cruz advocating “regime change” in Iran. However, Cruz doesn‘t know enough Iranian history to make any qualified judgment on Iran or its people.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/iranian-history-ted-cruz-doesnt-know
Why is the Trump administration levying tariffs? Are they for tax purposes? Protecting domestic industries? Bargaining chips for international deal making? The administration and its supporters have floated mutually-exclusive reasons for these policies, making the confusion worse.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-tariff-policies-are-schizophrenic
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have toured the country calling for massive government takeover of the economy and other socialist initiatives. For socialists, Sanders and AOC have become the new “Keepers of the Secret” of making socialism viable.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/are-bernie-sanders-and-aoc-new-keepers-secret
During 2024 taxpayers were on the hook for $1.13 trillion in interest on the debt. That’s nearly $7,400 for each of the 153 million people who file tax returns.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/interest-paid-us-debt-soars-and-trump-pushes-new-costly-war
Amtrak subsidies keep many of Amtrak‘s routes alive despite the fact that ridership is down on many of them. These subsidies guarantee that Amtrak will be a second-rate, undercapitalized passenger railroad system.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/ending-subsidies-amtrak-will-benefit-rail-travelers
Despite Trump‘s campaign promises and despite DOGE‘s so-called reputation of cutting government waste, the new administration is spending money faster than the supposed spendthrift Biden administration. This is Machiavellianism at its best.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trump-doge-and-machiavellians
This brief historical sketch brings us to how the American and Israeli militaries of today have adopted a nineteenth-century-style war of extermination against what they consider to be another “lesser race.”Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/american-israeli-nineteenth-century-ways-war
The free market replaces the struggle for survival found in the animal world with social cooperation in which everybody benefits. Capitalism is a system of peace, not war.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/ludwig-von-mises-peace-and-social-cooperation
Rumor has it that the Federal Reserve was able to resist the president‘s demands to enable funding of the Korean War. However, a look at the record demonstrates conclusively that the Fed bowed to Harry Truman‘s wishes to do what it has done for a century: finance America‘s wars.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/did-fed-achieve-independence-during-korean-war
President Trump's so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is more of the same: big and bloated. It adds billions to the federal deficit and does nothing to deal with the government‘s ruinous debt. Naturally, the Republicans support it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/one-bloated-brobdingnagian-bill
David Brady, Jr. reviews The Magic Coin by Dr. Jonathan Newman, a children‘s book that explains money in a way that even modern adults can understand.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/magic-coin-and-renewing-interest-monetary-policy
The transatlantic slave trade from Africa is a well-known chapter in the history of slavery in the Western Hemisphere, but much lesser known is the enslavement of Native Americans. Many of them were shipped to plantations in the Caribbean where they were worked to death.Original article: Truth or Consequences
The transatlantic slave trade from Africa is a well-known chapter in the history of slavery in the Western Hemisphere, but much lesser known is the enslavement of Native Americans. Many of them were shipped to plantations in the Caribbean where they were worked to death.Original article: Enslavement of Native Americans in the Caribbean
Amtrak is always on the verge of reviving intercity rail traffic in the US, or at least that is what politicians want us to believe. The truth is that the case for defunding Amtrak has never been stronger.Original article: Why Elon Musk Is Right: The Case Against Subsidizing Amtrak
Mainstream economists define inflation as the increase in an imaginary “price level” that is relatively neutral in its effects. Austrian economists, however, know better, as they realize that the effects of inflating the money supply are anything but neutral.Original article: Inflation: Looking Beyond Aggregates
William Nordhaus coined the term “Political Business Cycle” a half-century ago. The idea was that government authorities, particularly the central bank, would manipulate the economy to correspond with election cycles, a practice that continues to this day.Original article: The Political Business Cycle 50 Years Later
The Trump White House has enacted tariffs in the belief that other countries are “cheating” by enacting tariffs against US goods and “manipulating” their currencies. However, with the US dollar being the world's reserve currency, the US has engaged in dollar manipulation through inflation.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/mmt-and-us-history-redefining-chartalism
A free market economy does not generate jobs or money. Instead, it creates wealth through exchange and production. Government intervention, contrary to what mainstream economists believe, does not enhance wealth, but instead destroys it.Original article: Wealth Generation and the Market Economy
Ours in an age when people panic, sometimes for good reasons but often for bad. Governments benefit from panicked citizenry, which is why we always should question those political decisions that can turn our lives upside down.Original article: Don’t Be A Panican, But Question Government Shenanigans
We know what happened on November 22, 1963, at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, but there is a lot about that terrible day we don't know. But we also know that President Kennedy challenged the National Security State. Did it cost him his life?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/jfk-and-burden-proof
From Reconstruction to George Floyd, the left‘s guilt industry has run at full speed. As Murray Rothbard wrote, it is time to stand up to those that use guilt as a social weapon.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/politics-guilt
Thanks to the endless “War Against Terror,” the US Government promoted methods of torture, including some borrowed from the sadistic torturers of the former Soviet Union. Congress stood by and let it happen.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/we-never-got-torture-congress
The Trump administration has pursued a high tariff policy, reversing the movement to lower trade barriers around the world. The justification for this policy is the presence of trade deficits with other nations. However, what if US trade deficits don't matter?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/what-rationale-behind-current-us-tariff-policy
While no one is accusing egg producers of colluding or price-fixing, from an economic standpoint, it certainly could be happening either by design or incidentally.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/how-high-egg-prices-may-resemble-high-opec-cartel-oil-prices
There are numerous critics of free markets. However, all of those critics also are consumers and they gladly depend upon free markets to satisfy their needs.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-haters-free-markets-love-fruits-free-markets
Why do cultures degenerate? At the recent Natal Conference, Robin Hanson cites biological and evolutionary factors. However, if one looks to Mises and the Austrians, we look squarely at human action that begins with the human mind and purposeful action.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/culture-degeneration-biological-or-ideological
France is facing critical shortages of a number of drugs, and one need look no further for a cause than a price control regime. Naturally, the French media and government blame capitalism and look to double down on the intervention that has causes this crisis.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/price-controls-and-drug-shortages-france-textbook-case-evils-interventionism
Dr. David Gordon reviews Mary Grabar‘s Debunking FDR, which examines Roosevelt‘s paternalistic worldview and how it shaped his political life and his presidency. Original article: https://mises.org/friday-philosophy/lord-manor
The 20th century gave us two world wars that have altered the world's political landscape to this day. We would do well to remember the main lesson from World War I: there is no “honor” in warfare. It is pure murder.Original article: https://mises.org/friday-philosophy/lord-manor
Forbes called this explosive loan situation, a “perfect storm…of heavier debt loads, higher payments, and an unforgiving economy.”Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/student-loans-new-sheriff-town
MMT uses chartalism and a few dubious examples to appeal to history to establish the theory‘s authority and validity, only to discard this element as irrelevant and unnecessary.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/mmt-and-us-history-redefining-chartalism
A free market economy does not generate jobs or money. Instead, it creates wealth through exchange and production. Government intervention, contrary to what mainstream economists believe, does not enhance wealth, but instead destroys it.Original article: Wealth Generation and the Market Economy
By their nature, free markets promote harmony between people and increase overall standards of living. This view is radically different from the ones promoted by Marxists who believe that only “class interests” matter.Original article: Free Markets Promote Peaceful Cooperation and Racial Harmony
Totalitarian bureaucracy necessitates a constant state of crisis and there is no better creator of crises than imperial machinations.Original article: Empire as the Price of Bureaucracy
No macroeconomics or monetary theory course is complete without introduction of the Equation of Exchange, or MV = PQ. However, this equation explains nothing, praxeologically speaking. Instead, it clouds our understanding of how money fits into our economy.
Original article: A Praxeological Critique of the Equation of Exchange and Neutrality of Money
The Trump team plans to tinker with government spending, but this does nothing to address the real problem which is the current inflationist monetary experiment.
Original article: Under Trump, Expect No Change to the Monetary Status Quo
Most editorialists and pundits have labeled Jimmy Carter's presidency a failure, but his activities after he left office as a rousing success. The truth is that his successful deregulation efforts have left a positive and lasting legacy.
Original article: Jimmy Carter’s Legacy Is Much More than Good Deeds Done in His Later Years
Britain‘s new Labour Government is doing what leftist governments always do: raising taxes on everyone, but pretending that only the wealthiest citizens will pay more. Middle-class British farmers are quickly finding out that the taxman is coming for them too.
Original article: Inheritance Tax Hikes Threaten Farmers’ Property Rights in the UK
A common refrain among college fans is, "The Transfer Portal and NIL are ruining college sports." But are they? Before we can answer that question, we have to be able to explain what is happening, and Austrian economics provides the best analytical tools.
Original article: Are the Transfer Portal and NIL Ruining College Sports? Explaining the Changes Using Austrian Economics
Like Santa, who gives free gifts to our children, people think of the state as providing services “for free.” However, the state cannot provide anything without first confiscating wealth from others—like the Grinch, who first stole all the presents in Whoville.
Original article: The State Isn’t Santa Claus, It’s the Grinch!
President-Elect Trump has been threatening tariffs against BRICS countries unless they abandon their plans to abandon the US dollar. While Trump may come off as being "tough" in his negotiations, he cannot bluster his way to a stronger dollar, thanks to reckless monetary policies.
Original article: Tariffs Won’t Save the US Dollar
Perhaps John Maynard Keynes' best con job was convincing people that a growing economy needs inflation, lots of inflation. As David Gordon points out, however, Ludwig von Mises eloquently explained why inflation undermines the free market economy.
Original article: The Inflationist View of History
Higher education has managed to con huge numbers of young people to take out six-figure loans in order to have the “college experience.” However, the so-called benefits to college are turning out to be a chimera, all funded by increasing indebtedness.
Original article: How the Nanny Campus Will Fight to Keep Taxpayers Hostage
The Austrian school recognizes that economic analysis is timeless and the ancient story of “The Poor Man of Nippur” provides an excellent example. From time preference to the structure of production, many of the lessons are contained in this story.
Original article: The Poor Man of Nippur and Austrian Economic Principles
One of the fallacies pushed by monetary economists is that a growing economy needs a growing supply of money in order to prevent deflation, which they claim is as harmful as inflation. However, as Austrians point out, there is no “optimum” amount of money in the economy, since prices adjust.
Original article: Should Central Banks Accommodate Increases in Demand for Money?
Fifty years ago today, December 11, 1974, F.A. Hayek gave his Nobel Lecture in Sweden. The conflict between what the public expects science to achieve in satisfaction of popular hopes, and what is really in its power, is a serious matter.
Original article: The Pretense of Knowledge
President-elect Donald Trump has declared that he will raise tariffs his first day in office. Our economy, however, does not need government-created roadblocks to trade. Instead, we need free exchange and sound money.
Original article: We Desperately Need Sound Money, Not Tariffs
The child-like obsession with buying stuff that American society is often criticized for around Christmas is a sought-after result of our government’s monetary policy.
Original article: America’s Problem with Consumerism Is the Government’s Fault
Thanks to the Fed's balance sheet and the Fed's policy on reverse repurchase agreements, it's hard to tell whether the Fed is being hawkish or dovish.
Original article: Is the Fed Loosening or Tightening? It’s Complicated.
The Cultural Revolution continues apace in this country and it is aimed at all of the old Confederate symbols from statues to the Confederate Battle Flag. With leftist progressives there can be no discussion. Any symbol from the South equates to racism and nothing else.
Original article: Marxism and the Cultural Revolution
Ralph Raico presents the fundamental political problem of the twentieth century, which remains our fundamental political problem today: How can war—given its appalling destruction—be avoided?
Original article: Ralph Raico: A Great Historian
In replying to a previous article by Frank Shostak, Douglas French writes that if an increase in the supply of gold ultimately leads to an expansion of bank credit, that is enough to start the boom-and-bust cycles, even if there is no central bank to accelerate the process.
Original article: A Reply to Shostak: Can Increases in the Gold Supply Cause a Business Cycle?
Bitcoin is many things to people and it certainly has developed into a valuable asset. It also has been used as a medium of exchange. But is it money? According to Austrian economics, the answer is “no.” At least not yet.
Original article: Bitcoiners’ Guide to Austrian Economics
"Hurry up and wait" is often the reality of medical care. We shouldn't be surprised to know that long lines and government intervention go together.
Original article: The Economics of Medical Waiting Rooms
One important difference between the Austrian and other schools of thought is the emphasis Austrians place upon purposeful human behavior. Consumption by individuals is not random, but rather purposeful action driven by subjective individual preferences.
Original article: Subjective Valuation Versus Arbitrary Valuation
Those carrying out government directives are even less bound by law than they were a few years ago, and talk about new bureaucrats is beginning to resemble the Kremlinology of the Cold War.
Original article: “Personnel Is Policy” Means the Rule of Law Is Dying
Much of the failure of American schools is due to the adherence to a flawed system of teaching students how to read. Homeschoolers often don‘t seem to have that problem, and there is a good reason why.
Original article: The Nation’s Reading Instruction Disaster
The Biden administration, and the political establishment more broadly, is scrambling to ram through policies that a majority of voters just voted against. Their actions expose that their supposed commitment to democracy is a lie.
Original article: The Establishment’s “Principles” Are Fake
President-elect Trump has promised changes in economic policies. How well they work and how they will affect us remains to be seen. Here is a look at proposals that have promise—and proposals that are likely to cause harm.
Original article: Trump’s Economic Policies: The Good, The Bad, and the Uncertain
Progressives are openly cheering the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. However, it was progressive legislation that created this healthcare crisis in the first place.
Original article: Progressivism and the Murder of a Health Insurance CEO
While the US dollar still is the world‘s “reserve” currency, its abuse by the Federal Reserve and federal government has weakened it precipitously. While President-elect Trump recognizes the threats to the dollar, is he willing to do what needs to be done to change the situation?
Original article: Can Trump Save the Dollar?
Washington has wielded the sanctions weapon against nearly a third of all nations on earth. It is time to rethink these policies, and one hopes the incoming Trump administration will do just that and change course.
Original article: The Second Trump Term and the “Sanctions Industrial Complex”
Modern academics are relentless in trying to find any nuances they can from the works of Karl Marx, but they miss the larger issues with his work. Marx was alive and active when the marginalists logically took apart his value theory, but hope springs eternal for Marx‘s supporters.
Original article: The Missing Secret
A modern misconception of antebellum slavery is that it “built the country.” Actually, the institution of slavery, economically speaking, was a deadweight loss to the US economy.
Original article: Slavery—Cronyism, Opportunity Cost, & Deadweight Loss
Some legal “experts” are claiming that the Supreme Court‘s infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision is still used in current law. That, of course, is nonsense. In fact, soon after its passage, many northern states essentially nullified “Scott” at the state level.
Original article: Dred Scott, Politics, and the “Living” Constitution
Democracy is the watchword with the ruling classes, yet a democratic political system does not protect individual freedoms. Indeed, democracy often has become the main road to socialism. It‘s time for some honest discussion.
Original article: Real Democracy Can Only Be Freedom
After spending 25 years as a columnist for the New York Times, Paul Krugman is finally retiring from that position—25 years too late, if one wishes to be honest.
Original article: Paul Krugman Rides into the Sunset
Long before the term "Critical Race Theory" was coined, Ludwig von Mises already was critiquing what he called "racial polylogism," which claims that what passes for truth depends upon racial identity. While people might hold different perspectives, truth still is truth.
Original article: Critical Race Theory and Racial Polylogism
The world is awash in debt bubbles, but politicians continue to spend, which requires even more central bank intervention—and more bubbles. Max Rangeley has edited The Age of Debt Bubbles, which details the dangers we face and how to stop the current madness.
Original article: Book Review: The Age of Debt Bubbles
A new study at UC Berkeley claims that California‘s new $20 minimum wage has had no adverse economic effects. If only that were true.
Original article: Minimum Wage Laws Can’t Repeal the Laws of Economics
In November, employed workers flatlined yet again as full-time work dropped for the tenth month in a row. Naturally, the Fed plans interest rate cuts.
Original article: Employed Workers Dwindle and Full-Time Jobs Fall as the Fed Readies More Easy Money
Marx is often portrayed as motivated by love of the working class, but, starting from the time he was a university student, he displayed contempt and hatred for the masses he deemed beneath him.
Original article: Marx’s Misanthropy
Even though the Pentagon has failed seven audits in a row, defense spending is now 60 percent higher (in real terms) than its old Cold War peak.
Original article: Slash Military Spending: “Defense” Budgets are Bigger than Ever Before
The Mises Institute is giving away copies of Murray Rothbard's classic, What Has Government Done to Our Money? and it will change how one sees our nation's monetary history. Rothbard presents a clear case for sound money as a basis for civilization itself.
Original article: What Has Government Done to Our Money?
William Rawle was a well-respected lawyer, legal scholar, an abolitionist, and a believer in the right of states to secede. He described this in A View of the Constitution of the United States of America, which many claimed to have read while at West Point prior to the Civil War.
Original article: William Rawle and Secession
In the aftermath of its recent election debacle, Britain's Conservatives have selected Kemi Badenoch as their new leader. Badenoch describes herself as an "adherent to Austrian Economics." Will it make any difference in Britain's future?
Original article: Self-Described “Austrian” Is New Leader of UK Conservative Party: Should Kemi Badenoch Give Us Hope?
These days, most federally-funded workers are “private” contract and grant workers. These jobs will quickly disappear if we‘re serious about spending cuts.
Original article: Want to Cut Federal Workers? Just Cut Spending.
It should be clear from the articles in this book that the Austrian School is thriving. Per Bylund has rendered a great service in bringing the scholarship in A Modern Guide to Austrian Economics to our attention.
Original article: New Austrian Insights
A central doctrine of the Keynesian system is the “liquidity trap” in which consumers hold money in anticipation of higher interest rates. The act of holding money allegedly promotes “underconsumption,” continuing the economic downturn. This doctrine, however, cannot withstand scrutiny.
Original article: The Keynesian Liquidity Trap Fable
In the post-Civil War South during Reconstruction, federal troops attempted to impose their will in part by pitting recently-freed slaves against southern whites. The outcome was obvious, leading to more than a century of violent racial clashes, all the while strengthening federal power.
Original article: Federal Power and Statist Racecraft
The US went to war 83 years ago today with Japan‘s attack on Pearl Harbor. It ended with Japan‘s surrender after US bombers dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The myth lives on to this day that the bombs ended the war prematurely, saving millions of lives.
Original article: Atomic Salvation: Did the Atom Bombs Save 500,000 to 32 Million Lives?
There finally is pushback against Critical Race Theory that has infected higher education and most of our other institutions. Unfortunately, CRT concepts are so embedded in our body politic that the only way to combat them is through revisionist history.
Original article: De-Bamboozling the Critical Race Theory of Court Intellectuals
The Federal Reserve says it can manipulate the money supply to ensure “price stability.” This worsens the boom-bust cycles and undermines the economy.
Original article: The Fed’s “Price Stability” Schemes Sow Economic Chaos
Created as a sop to the teachers‘ unions, the Department has presided over huge declines in student academic performances and has played a vital role in politicizing formal learning at all levels.
Original article: Why It’s Time To Abolish the Department of Education
One of the fallacies of modern academic neoclassical economics is that we can take cardinal measures of value. Austrian economists, beginning with Carl Menger, know better.
Original article: Prices Are Not Measurements of Value
In 1940, shortly after Nazi armies ran across Europe and conquered France, Ludwig von Mises and his wife, Margit, escaped to the US after a harrowing journey through hostile territory. Here is their story.
Original article: The Secret Passage: How Amzalak and Salazar Helped Ludwig von Mises Escape the Nazis
Entrepreneurs come from all walks of life and from different social and ethnic groups. Lipton Matthews reviews Jean-Claude Escalante’s From Indentureship to Entrepreneurship, which chronicles the rise of a successful entrepreneur who came from humble beginnings.
Original article: From Indentureship to Entrepreneurship
The Federal Reserve continues to be the not-so-silent partner to the government's reckless deficit spending scheme. While the Fed tries to force down interest, US bond yields are rising, as the markets recognize these bifurcated policies.
Original article: US Bond Yields Rise as Reserve Currency Status Wanes
The Austrian School of economics traces its roots to the School of Salamanca in medieval times. The scholastics of Salamanca, in turn, were influenced by the canon jurists from the University of Bologna, demonstrating the rich and historic roots of Austrian economics.
Original article: Another Merit of Medieval Bolognese Canons
Modern “antiracist” historians have pursued the myth that the virtuous North engaged in warfare with the South in order to free slaves and end chattel slavery. The historical record, however, tells a much different story.
Original article: North and South in Antiracist Revisionism
Commercial real estate in the US faces major problems despite efforts by the Federal Reserve System to prop it up. Bonds used to finance commercial real estate markets are being hit especially hard, and there is no relief in sight.Original article: Distress in Commercial Real Estate Bonds Hits All-Time High
As we see from Jamaica‘s experience, attempts by the government to be entrepreneurial misallocate resources, waste money, and achieve poor results.Original article: Jamaica and the Failure of the Entrepreneurial State
Rent control always results in housing shortages and deteriorating housing stock. Governments and activists, unfortunately, never learn any lessons.Original article: The Economic and Social Consequences of Rent Control
Mainstream economists today examine economic phenomena from a “black box” perspective in which they look at inputs and outputs without trying to understand causal mechanisms that make the outcomes possible.Original article: A Critique of Black Box Economics
Thanks to unrelenting propaganda from the establishment media, a large number of Americans are suffering from what is diagnosed as “climate anxiety.” Original article: Climate Anxiety: A Regime-Created “Illness”
We have reached this point: the government keepers of money do not even understand what money is or why inflation is harmful. To them, the real threat to the economy is “deflation.”Original article: Finding Shelter from Monetary Racketeers
Can an increase in the supply of gold cause a boom-bust cycle? Mises believed it was theoretically possible but highly unlikely. Rothbard, on the other hand, said as long as gold is money and there is no fiduciary media, such a scenario was not possible.Original article: Could an Increase in the Supply of Gold Cause a Boom-Bust Cycle?
By misusing statistics, the government claims that racial disparities are always caused by racial discrimination and that these disparities can only be rectified by state-directed outcomes. However, government programs have made things much worse.Original article: Disparate Impact Is a Legal Trick
Never forget the Christmas truce of World War I, when troops refused to be pawns of empire for one blessed day.Original article: The Christmas Truce of World War I
Modern academic economics is based upon the methodologies used to study the natural sciences. However, such methodologies are inappropriate to study economics, which must be based upon causal-realism.Original article: The Relevance of the Natural Sciences Methods in Economics
With the demise of the Biden administration, it is time to take a hard look at the DEI programs it imposed. While divisive, simple removal will not solve underlying problems.Original article: Post-Election Prospects for Ending DEI
Economist Bryan Caplan has held up the United Arab Emirates as an example of how open borders can be successful. Caplan clearly does not understand how immigration works in the UAE.Original article: Caplan’s Errors on the UAE and Open Borders
As Joseph Schumpeter noted, markets need “creative destruction” to survive and advance. However, Europe‘s Digital Market Act (DMA)—while written to ostensibly protect competition—gives the digital economy uncreative destruction.Original article: Destroying Creative Destruction: The DMA against Innovation
Critics of free markets claim that the 1980s and 90s were near-pure laissez-faire when, in reality, the regulatory state only got stronger. Original article: “NAFTA Fever” and the Myth of Government-Created Free Markets
The great free-market classical liberal William Leggett believed that Americans do not need politicians telling us on which days Americans ought to be thankful.Original article: Thanksgiving Day
Murray Rothbard wrote that egalitarianism is a “revolt against nature.” Progressives claim that inequality harms society and is morally unacceptable, but in reality, it is necessary for division of labor, which enables social cooperation.Original article: Wealth and Income Inequality Are Essential for Social Cooperation
Totalitarianism is not compatible with a functioning economic system based upon free exchange and private property. Such regimes depend upon historicism and logical relativism.Original article: Totalitarianism Begins with a Denial of Economics
Modern American culture is statist to the core. The typical school curriculum tells students that capitalism is evil and socialism is good. This only gets worse in college. Original article: Your Kids Are Already Communist, and College Will Make It Worse
While it is often framed in the media as a battle between principled conservatives and an angry, non-ideological movement focused solely on personal loyalty to Trump, the current civil war on the American right is only the latest chapter in a much older story.Original article: The Context Behind Donald Trump’s “Takeover” of the American Right
Even though DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) has taken a beating in some state legislatures, it still has a corrupting influence, especially in higher education. As Murray Rothbard pointed out, egalitarians are “at war with nature.”Original article: The Corrupt Nature of DEI
The original Mont Pelerin Society meeting in 1947 featured Ludwig von Mises, whose warnings about the dangers of socialism and totalitarianism had gone unheeded. In the wreckage of World War II, the truth of his message should have been obvious. It wasn't.Original article: The Battle on Lake Geneva—Mises vs. the Statists at Mont Pelerin
Austrian economics today needs critics. It doesn‘t need the critics (like Paul Krugman) who cannot give valid and accurate criticisms, but rather people who actually understand the concepts upon which Austrian thinking is built provide a real challenge.Original article: Wanted: Critics of Austrian Economics
While most of us know George Orwell as an authoritative critic of totalitarianism, few people know he was a committed socialist and a lifelong defender of communist Leon Trotsky. While he understood totalitarianism, he never understood socialism.Original article: The Complex Legacy of George Orwell
Mainstream economists often base their analysis upon assumptions that do not square with reality. Austrian economics, on the other hand, is built upon realistic assumptions and the acknowledgement that good economics must reflect human action.Original article: Assumptions in Economics and in the Real World
Historical revisionism is nothing new, and recent attempts to label an “antiracist” approach to history have wrongly been called “revisionist.” To better understand revisionism, one must first be grounded in reality, then apply reality-based thought to studying the past.Original article: Historical Revisionism: What It Is and What It Is Not
Progressives blame the free market for insulin prices and want to impose price controls. But, government regulation is to blame. Original article: How the Government Created Exorbitant Insulin Prices
Buchanan and Tullock‘s The Calculus of Consent influentially applies economic ideas to politics, focusing on methodological individual. However, there are a few pitfalls about which readers should be aware.Original article: What Is Consent?
The watchword among progressives this election season is: “Nothing less than our democracy is at stake.” In truth, democracy itself is not in danger, but one can accurately say that “democracy,” as practiced in the US, endangers our lives.Original article: The Limits to Public Opinion and the Failure of Democracy
Birkin bags are pricey and the producer restricts its potential buyers. Unfortunately, disgruntled customers who don’t want to follow the company’s rules are now appealing to US antitrust law.Original article: Contrived Scarcity and Antitrust Lawsuits—“It’s Not a Bag, It’s a Birkin”
Not all news from the gold and monetary fronts is bad. In fact, gold made a number of advancements in seven states, including exemptions from taxes and attempts by states to restrict Federal Reserve behavior. Gold is alive and well.Original article: Sound Money Movement Chalks Up Seven State Legislative Victories in 2024
Employing the Labor Theory of Value, Marx claimed that entrepreneurial profits arise from exploitation of workers. In reality, entrepreneurs earn profits when they correctly gauge markets. Exploitation has nothing to do with it.Original article: Entrepreneurial Profit Follows Good Decisions, Not Exploitation
Wage differences between men and women often are automatically attributed to sex discrimination against women. However, as research has shown time and again, other factors are at work. Original article: Discrimination and Opportunities for Women
Modern progressives are obsessed with collective guilt, demanding that Americans pay reparations for slavery even though it ended in the US 160 years ago. However, by employing collective guilt and collective punishment, those seeking reparations violate natural law.Original article: Slavery and Collective Guilt
The darling of America‘s political elites, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, now touts a “Five-Point Plan” that surely will extend the war and ultimately make his country even worse off. It is time to end this farce.Original article: “Victory Plan” or Deadly Delusion? Zelensky’s Perilous Five-Point Plan
While people who “prep” for disaster (called preppers) are ridiculed by political elites and their media, their actions are perfectly rational. In this article, economist Mark Thornton explains why prepping for natural disasters makes economic sense.Original article: The Economics of Prepping
The Fed lowers interest rates ostensibly to “stimulate” the economy. But while the Fed claims it is strengthening the economy, it actually weakens it through its easy-money policies.Original article: Does the Fed’s Lowering the Interest Rates Strengthen Economic Growth?
Tariffs don‘t just raise consumer prices. They also affect capital flows and, on numerous occasions, have triggered stock market crises. What tariffs don‘t bring is prosperity.Original article: A Brief History of Tariffs and Stock Market Crises
For nearly 30 years, the Fed has pursued an easy-money policy that has made the economy increasingly dependent upon the next round of “stimulus.” Reversing that policy will mean, at least in the short run, a stiff recession before the economy rebounds, which is a non-starter today.Original article: Markets Made of Glass—How the Fed Destroyed Economic Resilience
The political theorist Anthony de Jasay takes on the left‘s ideas of equality, and David Gordon is there to agree—and disagree. Jasay likens the left‘s view of equality to the Indian Rope Trick.Original article: The Indian Rope Trick
Using state power to enforce social orthodoxy is always a recipe for disaster. Radical Republican governments in the post-war South attempted to do just that, sowing seeds of hatred and discord in the process.Original article: Lessons from Reconstruction
As the Federal Reserve engineers one financial bubble after another, we are reminded that the Austrian Business Cycle Theory explains what is happening and how there is a better way. Original article: Why Austrian Business Cycle Theory Is Better than Keynesianism
Contrary to anti-freedom myths, "greedy" business owners don't decide what prices will be for goods and services. Original article: Why Austrian Business Cycle Theory Is Better than Keynesianism
While it is tempting to think of state power as being maintained by sheer force, it still needs a “theological” justification, be it secular or religious. The US state is no exception.Original article: The Political Theology That Maintains State Power
Contrary to anti-freedom myths, "greedy" business owners don't decide what prices will be for goods and services. Original article: Don’t Knock Nock
The outcry from establishment media figures following the decision by the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times to not endorse a presidential candidate shows how out of touch they have become about how much we rely on them. Original article: The Establishment Media Is Unaware of Its Growing Irrelevance
Capitalism is characterized by the private ownership of capital, coming from Lockean homesteading principles, and not from state coercion and force.Original article: Nine Months of Javier Milei as President of Argentina: A Critical Assessment
Capitalism is characterized by the private ownership of capital, coming from Lockean homesteading principles, and not from state coercion and force.Original article: What “Capitalism” Really Means
Supporters of intellectual property laws claim that people will not innovate unless they are protected by such legislation. In reality, people are more likely to be innovative when they encounter real free markets, not markets characterized by artificial scarcity.Original article: How Intellectual Property Laws Stifle Innovation
As with any other government-controlled institution, a high level of public skepticism about elections is healthy.Original article: It’s Good to be Skeptical of Elections
While men like Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises believed in “just” war, nonetheless, they did not believe that wars lead to “just” outcomes, as war leads to destruction of civilization. The outcome of the American war of secession proved that point eloquently.Original article: Peace as a Prerequisite for Civilization
Voting is controversial among Austro-Libertarians for many reasons. However, if one does choose to vote, one should understand that the state is never constrained by the voters and cannot be “reformed.”Original article: How to Vote for Liberty
The iconic Hermès Birkin bag helps illustrate Carl Menger’s “Theory of the Good,” and Ludwig von Mises’s explanation of human action.Original article: The Secret Economic Theory Behind the $100,000 Birkin Bag
There are numerous critics of the Austrian School of economics, but when their disparagements are closely examined, the so-called experts themselves are wrong. Austrians can do a better job of setting the record straight.Original article: Answering the Confused Critics of Austrian Economics
Nicolaus Copernicus is best known for his observation that the sun was at the center of our solar system, but he also made a number of astute observations about economics. Original article: Copernicus Was Also Right in Economics
So-called economic moderates claim to support free-market capitalism, but then say that markets still need “some” government oversight. Free markets, however, don't need government-based rules because markets effectively regulate themselves.Original article: Free Markets Don’t Need Government Regulation
In his failed 1896 presidential campaign, inflationist William Jennings Bryan declared that he would “not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.” But at least even Bryan favored silver money. Today‘s political candidates will crucify us on a cross of paper.Original article: Today’s Pols Are All Bryanites
Long before there was Alan Greenspan to turn the Federal Reserve into Casino Central, there was John Law, France's minister of finance.Original article: The Birth of “Irrational Exuberance”
Kamala Harris claims that she simply wants food prices to be lower. However, her de facto price fixing scheme would create food shortages and raise the real price of food. Of course, when that happens, Harris simply will blame capitalism.Original article: Kamala Harris’s Price-Fixing Scheme Would Lead to Food Shortages
In this review of Scott Horton's book, Enough Already, we see that the wars the US has waged for the past quarter century in the Middle East have been a disaster. Millions of deaths and a massive refugee crisis later, the unmistakable verdict is in.Original article: Ten Lessons on US Foreign Policy from Enough Already
There are numerous critics of the Austrian School of economics, but when their disparagements are closely examined, the so-called experts themselves are wrong. Austrians can do a better job of setting the record straight.Original article: Answering the Confused Critics of Austrian Economics
One of the important points made by Carl Menger in his 1871 Principles is that people ordinally rank their preferences, valuing some things more than others. While this seems to be a common-sense principle, it actually has important implications for economic theory.Original article: Why People Pay Higher Prices for Some Goods Relative to Others
Had Republicans not vastly expanded federal criminal law during the infamous Wall Street prosecutions 40 years ago, lawfare would not have become such a potent political weapon.Original article: If Republicans Are Against Lawfare, They Shouldn’t Have Unleashed It
David Gordon takes another look at Thomas Nagel's Equality and Partiality. While he finds some of Nagel's arguments appealing, they still are inferior to Murray Rothbard's systematic interpretation of natural rights.Original article: Nagel on Libertarianism and Other Things
Contra Marx, the laws of economics are immutable and are the same no matter what historical epoch exists. Economies cannot flourish unless market prices, private property rights, and profits and losses are unhampered.
Original article: The Manifestation of Economic Laws Across Societies and Epochs
John Maynard Keynes is the best-known economist from the 20th Century, that not being a good thing. At least he was more famous for his success in promoting his views than for his lack of success as an investor. His failures were an extension of his lack of economic understanding.
Original article: Keynes Was Not Much Better at Investing than He Was at Understanding Economics
A recent fraudulent check-kiting scheme featured on TikTok bears resemblance to some of the "free money" schemes that have been coming from the Federal Reserve.
Original article: No Matter the Form, Easy Money Is Still a Fraud
A common belief among economists is that the central bank determines what interest rates should be. But is that accurate? Indeed, there is more to the story.
Original article: Does the Central Bank Determine Interest Rates?
While the US Constitution made the US a large free trade zone, prohibiting states from erecting trade barriers against each other, it also empowered the central government to erect tariffs on goods imported from outside the country.
Original article: The Constitution’s Negative Effects on Free Trade
One sign of a fraying society is that its laws increasingly become political tools. The latest round involves Democrats trying to use criminal law in a very questionable way to try to put Donald Trump in prison, while Trump promises to retaliate if he is elected.
Original article: The Perils of Lawfare
With Europe moving toward conflict in 1938, a number of economists and other intellectuals met in Paris to try to revitalize liberalism. Ludwig von Mises also was there as a lonely voice defending laissez-faire and the free market economy.
Original article: Who Killed Liberalism? Remembering the Walter Lippmann-Mises Colloquium
When the bankers called for a central bank in the US, they claimed to only want a way to stop bank runs. It turns out that they wanted—and got—much more. The permanent regime of inflation and asset bubbles is the result.
Original article: How the Bankers Outfoxed the Politicians
In its so-called war against “hate,” the state determines who are the villains and then instructs everyone else to hate the “haters.” As one might expect, the state then engages in a campaign of vilification and intimidation against the newly-designated enemy.
Original article: The State’s War Against Hate
Legal philosopher Jeremy Waldron in his book The Rule of Law and the Measure of Property challenges the Lockean view of legitimate property ownership. David Gordon sheds light on Waldron's confusing positions.
Original article: Whose Property Is It?
As American culture becomes dominated by militant feminism, a new voting group of dissenters is arising: young male voters. These are young men that believe that the system is stacked against them, which is why Trump's populism appeals to them.
Original article: Ignore The New Power Demographic at Your Own Risk: Young Male Voters
Democracy, or at least the “democracy” that ensures the “right people” are elected, is the religion of American progressives. Despite its obvious failures, however, progressives claim that democracy is the Holy Grail of governance. Why people believe this is another question.
Original article: Why Democracy Has Such Staying Power
In its so-called war against “hate,” the state determines who are the villains and then instructs everyone else to hate the “haters.” As one might expect, the state then engages in a campaign of vilification and intimidation against the newly-designated enemy.
Original article: The Myth of the Entrepreneurial State
As Murray Rothbard often noted, freedom of association is a fundamental right, what he called a “subset of private property rights.” Unfortunately, our modern cancel culture has taken aim at this right, taking away the voluntary nature of human interaction.
Original article: Freedom of Association and Cancel Culture
Government education is a self-perpetuating monster and has been for a long time. While parents and organizations seek accountability, the dynamics driving government education point to a powerful and unaccountable bureaucracy that serves its own interests.
Original article: Mute Buttons: Two Ways the School Complex Muzzles Parents and Students
We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. If you ask when, the answer is that you cannot make a single stroke between day and night; the precise moment does not matter. There was no painted sign to say: “You now are entering Imperium.” Yet it was a very old road and the voice of history was saying: “Whether you know it or not, the act of crossing may be irreversible.”
This article appeared in a 1966 issue of Left and Right, edited by Murray Rothbard, and is a condensed version of Garet Garrett’s pamphlet, The Rise of Empire, published in 1952, and included in his collection The People’s Pottage (Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1953).
The election is upon us. We wonder whether we have to have war, tariffs, and deficit spending, regardless of whom we support. What are we to do?
Original article: The Menace of the State
The 2024 election will provide few solutions to the underlying pressures eroding American political norms. Regardless of the outcome, half the country will feel like they live under an occupational government.
Original article: No Matter Who Wins, Half the Country Won’t Believe in the Election
It is always a mistake to advocate government action, for there is no way you can fully anticipate how government will be used. Nor can you ever count on a slice of the population to be moral in its advocacy of the uses of the police power.
Original article (2004): The Reality of Red-State Fascism
One of the myths of Keynesian theory is that through monetary injections and government purchases, an economy can spend itself into prosperity. While such a scenario is economically impossible, most mainstream economists still believe it.
Original article: The Keynesian Multiplier Fairy Tale
“In 1988, Murray Rothbard wrote a great monograph called Ludwig von Mises: Scholar, Creator, Hero. I'd like to concentrate today on the third of the qualities, Mises as a hero.”
Original article: Ludwig von Mises, Hero
In the spirit of a new Cold War, Matthew Kroenig and Dan Negrea have written a new book, We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War, which tries to fuse the foreign policies of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. The result is a foreign policy Frankenstein.
Original article: We Lose, They Lose: A Reagan-Trump Fusion
Einstein's name is synonymous with brilliance, yet his great intelligence did not translate to logical economic thinking. Instead, Einstein embraced socialism, thinking that one could guide an economy like one guides a mathematical equation.
Original article: Einstein Was the Greatest Physicist but Was Economically Illiterate
While the US dollar is the world's “reserve” currency—at least for now—the reckless spending and money creation policies of the US government place the dollar in peril.
Original article: Can America Survive Global De-Dollarization?
Would America’s federal government deliberately undermine recovery efforts to try to achieve its own desired political ends? Of course.
Original article: The Regime Wants Appalachia To Suffer
As real wages decline and middle-class savings are depleted, the government expands its influence, garnering support from a substantial portion of the populace.
Original article: This Is a Slow-Motion Nationalization of the Economy
Progressives claim that the state grants us our rights, and that liberty can flourish only in the presence of a powerful state. The truth runs in the opposite direction.
Original article: The Presumption of Liberty
Vegas expected Renato “Sound Money” Moicano to lose his UFC fight against Benoit Saint Denis. Instead, he won and used the opportunity to promote the work of another Austrian economist. This time, it was Hans-Hermann Hoppe.
Original article: Underdog Moicano Wins UFC Fight, Bashes Macron in France, Promotes Hoppe
John Hasnas has written a new book outlining how societies operate with mutual cooperation and common law. According to David Gordon, it is a major contribution to libertarian social thought.
Original article: A Major Contribution to Libertarian Social Thinking
The Old Right was a principled band of intellectuals and activists, who fought the “industrial regimentation” of the New Deal. They loathed tariffs and saw protectionism as a species of socialist planning.
Original article: The Old Right Opposed Tariffs
The concept of economic calculation is vitally important to understanding our modern economy, yet few people— and especially economists—comprehend that it even exists.
Original article: Economic Calculation and the Entrepreneur
Western governments are keen on pursuing “hate crimes” and criminalizing what it calls “hate symbols.” However, these governments reserve to themselves just how one defines “hate,” which is nothing more than an attack upon free speech.
Original article: “Hate Symbols” and the Meaning of Liberty
Central to the paradigm of Austrian Economics is the action axiom. People act, and they act purposefully. That knowledge alone permits us to construct an entire set of theories that explains economic life.
Original article: Understanding the Action Axiom: How It Shapes the Structure of Society
Critics of Austrian economics often claim that real economic events are too complex to be dealt with via free markets. However, because Austrian economics is based upon understanding human action, it better explains why economic intervention routinely fails.
Original article: Simple Counters to Simplistic Critiques of Austrian Economics
Modern historians romanticize the reign of the Tudors in England, but in reality, they were brutal to their subjects and they centralized power to the detriment of the people. Governments today continue this march against freedom.
Original article: Repeating the Interventionist Excesses of the Tudor Period
When people speak of “old school economics,” they generally mean the application of economic thinking that involves what we might call “common sense.” That would include permitting a price system to work, protecting private property, and so on. But there is more.
Original article: What is Old School Economics?
While F.A. Hayek contributed much to the Austrian School of Economics, he also supported the establishment of the welfare state, believing that it was compatible with the rule of law. Ludwig von Mises, however, knew that the welfare state is the ubiquitous slippery slope.
Original article: Hayek on the Welfare State
Thanks to increasingly broad car-seat laws, a third child often requires the purchase of a larger, more expensive vehicle. At the margins, this has an effect on fertility.
Original article: Yes, Car Seat Laws Reduce the Birth Rate
Regulators with the European Union want people to believe that the “dead hand” of government regulation actually enhances competition. The only thing their actions enhance is more government power.
Original article: Ctrl+Alt+Regulate: The DMA’s Misguided Reboot of Competition
One of the outcomes of the American Civil War was the movement toward centralization of political power in Washington. The Reconstruction regime imposed upon the former Confederate states following the war was an overt attempt to further impose federal power there.
Original article: Centralizing Federal Power through Southern Reconstruction
What if we could have eavesdropped on a conversation between Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen? It might have gone as follows....
Original article: “I Have Bills to Pay,” Or Why the Fed Really Cut Interest Rates
Home prices continue to rise as the government tries to further intervene into the housing markets, all in the name of the “American Dream.” However, remember that these massive increases in housing prices began when the government decided to make housing more “affordable.”
Original article: Home Ownership Is Not the American Dream
As monetary authorities continue to inflate the money supply, they inflict more and more damage upon the currency. Unfortunately, as the economy falters under the inflationary regime, the “solution” always is to ramp up inflation.
Original article: The Present Monetary System Is Heading for a Breakdown
In the past four years, a number of monuments honoring the Confederacy have been torn down or removed. As we have seen before, however, the activism behind this movement will not stop with just taking down Confederate symbols.
Original article: The Battle of the Confederate Monuments
Remember when progressive governments outlawed church gatherings but sanctioned sex orgies? Yes, it really happened.
Original article: Covid Tyrants Partied While Demanding Lockdowns for Everyone Else
While Henri Bergson did not point his intellectual abilities toward politics, lesser men who were unscrupulous commandeered his ideas to promote their own collectivist ideologies.
Original article: Henri Bergson: The Philosopher of Life and Creative Evolution
The Ukraine war rages on and while the media and political classes repeat the “Putin started it” mantra, the evidence points elsewhere. The US government and its European allies have provoked Russia for years, hoping it would lead to an outbreak of war.
Original article: Enough Already: Stop Provoking Russia
When discussing the homeless situation in the US, Star Trek does not usually come to mind. However, one episode from about three decades ago was both insightful and prophetic in presenting what would be homelessness in San Francisco.
Original article: Past Tense—The Homeless Problem in Star Trek DS9
Ask most people why our economy is advanced, and they will likely will answer, “Technology.” Yet, technical knowledge is meaningless without capital development, and capital development is impossible without real savings.
Original article: Does Technical Knowledge by Itself Drive Economic Growth?
What does ChatGPT know about money? More than one might think. George Ford Smith asks the AI program some questions about money and gets some surprising answers.
Original article: What Does ChatGPT Know about Money?
After Trump narrowly escaped another assassination attempt, the establishment seems uninterested in the motives of the would-be shooter. Perhaps that’s because he’s echoing the same simplistic narratives about the Ukraine war and Trump that they demand we all believe.
Original article: The Second Trump Shooter Believed Exactly What the Establishment Media Wanted Him to Believe
The more things change, the more they remain the same. In our present age of inflation, we are reminded of how Diocletian and other Roman authorities ordered price controls and other measures to hold down prices. None of these edicts were successful in bringing down prices.
Original article: The Denarius and the Dollar: Price Controls Then and Now
The political zeitgeist is to embrace protectionism, leading some who support free trade to embrace open borders. However, as Murray Rothbard explained, people and societies are complex entities and what may work for trade does not work for open immigration.
Original article: Tariffs, Protectionism, and Why Borders Matter
The Fed is desperate for you to think that “this time is different.” Unfortunately, Powell can’t seem to come up with explanation of why that is the case.
Original article: The Fed Hits the Panic Button and Slashes the Fed Funds Rate
Banking systems around the world have huge effects on our lives, yet few people understand how banks work. Worse yet, even fewer understand the malign powers of central banks and how this system undermines economies. Thus, it is important to demystify these systems.
Original article: Understanding the Basics of Modern Banking
This year's presidential election is presented in stark terms of right and left, Trump on the right and Harris on the left. However, it is more realistic to say that both candidates are to the left of where electoral politics was located just a couple decades ago.
Original article: The Gradual Leftward Shift in US Politics and Economy
Many proponents of free markets have tried to cast aside the name “capitalism” as a descriptor of the market system. They should take caution before doing so.
Original article: Yes, We Should Defend the Term “Capitalism”
The Fed’s specialty is propaganda through data, with a long record of failure. This is by design. Their communication tools must work in overtime, particularly in the face of a decision like this, to avoid “spooking markets”, though this veneer is easy to see through.
Original article: An Economy So Strong It Requires Crisis-Level Fed Action
Politicians have long claimed that states are like big families, and that political regimes rule in ways similar to how parents raise their families. This is nonsense.
Original article: Why the Family Is Not the Model for the State
The standard belief is that slavery was about obtaining “cheap labor,“ yet nothing could be further from the truth. Slavery comes with high opportunity costs, which is why American slave owners depended upon several government regulations to subsidize their “peculiar institution.”
Original article: Understanding the Real Costs of Slavery: It’s Not Cheap labor
The Perfect Market Hypothesis claims that all movements in the market can be considered as random, as market players and prices adjust immediately to new information. However, market players do seek new information and seek to use it.
Original article: Do Financial Markets Immediately Provide All Relevant Information?
It is understood that Marx's theories stand entirely upon his Labor Theory of Value. If that theory is discredited, so is the scenario that leads to the inevitable triumph of communism. That fact, however, doesn't stop Marx's disciples from employing other fallacies.
Original article: New “Engels” on Marx
The common belief regarding state power is that it is always justified and there can be no questioning the state's existence. But is that true? Does state power conform to natural law or is it imposed upon subjected people?
Original article: Can the State be Justified?
Academic historians and archivists have been captured by the hard left and the DEI industry. Not only will the current trends make them bad historians, but it also makes them intolerant people. Mises knew better.
Original article: The Stewards of History Desperately Need Mises
The Salamanca School is known for important contributions to free-market economics and the Austrian School. The Bolognese jurists also made key contributions.
Original article: The Bolognese Jurists behind the Proto-Austrians of the Salamanca School
What Murray Rothbard used to call the "Old Right" stood for liberty, freedom of speech, and a free economy. Most importantly, they stood for peace, all in contrast to the "liberals" of their day and ours.
Original article: The Rebellious Old Right
When our ruling classes speak of “believing in democracy,” they are speaking of a romantic version of a form of governance that, in real life, is quite different than the sanitized version presented in our media.
Original article: Smashing the Western Illusion of Democracy
The ruling elites of the US are calling for a "return" to "Hamiltonian Statecraft" and to move away from so-called isolationism. However, there has been no time since the end of World War II that the US has been anything but aggressive in its foreign policy.
Original article: It’s Always Been Hamiltonian Statecraft
California's 2014 ban on “single-use” plastic bags was supposed to lead to less waste of plastic, which hasn't happened. Now environmentalists are demanding the state ban the same plastic bags mandated by the original legislation. One intervention begets another and another.
Original article: “Paper or Plastic?” How One Market Intervention Requires Another to “Correct” the Original One
Yet another discouraging trend in law in the UK, Europe, and the US has been the criminalization of what authorities call “hate speech.” However, much of what passes for such “speech” is innocuous at worst and historically has been protected.
Original article: The Folly of Criminalizing “Hate”
Despite claims from progressive historians that US slavery was a natural outgrowth of a free market economy, the reality is that slavery would have been much costlier without governments—federal and state—subsidizing it. It is time to set the record straight.
Original article: Governments Had a Major Role in Sustaining Slavery
Keynesians are known for using obscure and jumbled jargon to explain their fallacious ideas. The hope being that, the more confusing the language, the greater the perceived scholarship. Good economics can and should be clearly logically explained.
Original article: Conceptual Clarity in Dismantling Economic Jargon
While the world is abuzz over artificial intelligence (AI), present technologies are limited more than most people want to believe. The situation is ripe for malinvestments.
Original article: Is Artificial Intelligence the Next Easy-Money Bust?
What is the source of our rights, natural Law or the state? Unfortunately, too many people who should know better choose the latter. David Gordon makes short work of their internal contradictions.
Original article: How to Contradict Yourself about Rights
The US Armed Forces expand their footprints in the Indian Ocean, not to defend this country, but to expand military power. The Diego Garcia base has left a trail of ruined lives for those forced off their land to make room for yet another military base.
Original article: Diego Garcia and Cocos Islands: Another Example of US Imperialism
As AI continues to develop, so does the hysteria that AI will soon take over and relegate us to a dystopian future. We need to realize that, like so many other tools, AI can have good and bad uses, but it cannot control itself.
Original article: Debunking Alarmism over Artificial Intelligence
Mainstream economists speak of GDP as though it is the economy itself, however, GDP is not a good measure of economic reality. Instead, it presents a distorted picture of genuine economic activity and leads to mistaken conclusions about the economy.
Original article: Is GDP an Accurate Measure of Reality?
From 1949 to 1962, American libertarian R.C. Hoiles and Ludwig von Mises corresponded many times, discussing issues relating to state power. While the correspondence at times was acrimonious, nonetheless, it offered valuable insight into the issues we still face.
Original article: The Mises-Hoiles Correspondence: What Might Have Been
Contrary to myths of “Fed independence,” the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department work closely together to keep monetary inflation going nonstop.
Original article: Does Any Daylight Remain between Monetary and Fiscal Policy?
Despite opposition from government at every turn, homeschooling has developed into an industry with astounding resources and high-quality results. Contrast the individual educational tailoring of homeschooling versus the government's version of individual care: the IEP label.
Original article: Education: Labeling vs. Tailoring
While the Harris-Walz campaign doesn't publicize the candidates’ records on the Covid-19 lockdowns and mask mandates, voters should know what they did. Not only did the lockdowns create massive economic damage, but they led to many more deaths than lives saved.
Original article: Harris-Walz: The Ticket of Covid Tyranny
Progressive and even many mainstream economists believe that cash is a relic from the past and should be replaced with digital money. There are many good reasons why not to follow this course, and no good reasons to replace cash.
Original article: The Regime’s War on Cash Could Destroy the Economy
The TSA's record for incompetence is astounding, even for a government agency. Any complaints, as this article shows, will be seen as subversion.
Original article: Free Speech and Legislative Bans on DEI
The TSA's record for incompetence is astounding, even for a government agency. Any complaints, as this article shows, will be seen as subversion.
Original article: TSA Tyranny Goes Cutesy
How do we guard against misinformation when business firms join with government to promote things that simply are false? As Murray Rothbard noted, people still have reason and the free will to make decisions for themselves.
Original article: Praxeology and Robert Malone’s “Surveillance Capitalism”
While recent European Parliament elections have raised questions about Ireland’s role in the EU, the truth is that Ireland’s historical role in civilizing Europe reminds us that Ireland is more European than the EU itself.
Original article: Ireland, Authenticity, and the European Union
Modern egalitarians play down the idea of free will, claiming that free will is relevant only if individuals have no interference with their choices. Murray Rothbard, on the other hand, recognized that self-ownership and one's ability to engage in reason is enough to recognize free will.
Original article: Rothbard on Liberty and Free Will
Politicians and hedge funds that push “Environmental, Social, and Governance” (ESG) scores and investing do so with the notion of improving social welfare. What they fail to realize is that these concerns are accounted for in human action already.
Original article: ESG Undermines Social Welfare
It may not have been created in the lab of a mad scientist, but the euro is still a manufactured, cobbled-together currency made from a number of national monetary units. Indeed, it is the perfect Frankenstein currency.
Original article: The Euro Is a Frankenstein-Currency
Socialist regimes tend to follow the same playbook: promise much, deliver little, and, in the end, blame capitalism. Venezuela is the latest socialist entity to enter the Failed State Hall of Fame.
Original article: The Dark Spectacle of Maduro: Elon Musk, Lula, and Electoral Fraud
Herbert Butterfield, who taught history at Cambridge, had many insights on the sea changes brought about by World War I and the collapse of the Old World Order. The new order that followed, he realized, was not an improvement over what previously existed.
Original article: The Wisdom of Herbert Butterfield
The flurry of post-Watergate “reforms” supposedly were passed to counteract government abuse of citizens. Not surprisingly, the FISA program, which was aimed at reducing internal government spying became the means of massive growth of the surveillance state.Original article: FISA: How a Watergate-Era “Reform” Turned into a Mechanism of Massive State Surveillance
Modern mainstream economics bases its theories on utilitarianism. Murray Rothbard, on the other hand, saw economic law as based in natural law. Furthermore, he rejected the legal positivism of our age, again deferring to the law of nature.Original article: Natural Law and Rothbardian Liberty
A few years ago, the leftist publication The Intercept claimed that inflation only hurts the “one percent,” but is “good” for everyone else. The truth is much different, as the Fed’s inflationary policies have benefited the politically-connected crony class.Original article: Why the Crony Class Loves Artificially-Low Interest Rates—And Why You Shouldn’t
By appealing to tariffs and other forms of economic regulation, Republicans have tossed aside any commitment to free market economics. Unfortunately, their program will lead to more economic stagnation, inflation, and runaway government spending.Original article: Republicans Declare War on the American Economy
Taxing "the rich" won't make life more affordable for ordinary people. The true cause of the affordability crisis is inflation caused by central banks. Original article: Tax the Rich? Not a Good Idea
While Donald Trump is trying to appeal to homeschooling families with his Agenda 47 plan, the reality is that by offering tax breaks and subsidies, the federal government ultimately will be able to regulate homeschooling, and federal control will ruin homeschooling as we know it.Original article: The Problem with Trump’s Agenda 47 for Homeschoolers
With the US government engaged in out-of-control spending, we are looking at tax increases in the coming years. And even if Congress does not pass official tax hikes, we will see the government seizing wealth via inflation.Original article: Be Prepared to Hear More about Taxes, Taxes, Taxes
Politicians say "greedflation," and profits are what fuels rising prices, but the real culprit is fiat money creation fueled by the central bank. Original article: The Fed’s Fiat Money Is the Real Cause of Price Inflation
David Gordon reviews J.W. Rich's new book, Praxeological Ethics: An Inquiry into the Nature and Foundation of Ethics and finds much to like about this volume.Original article: Is There a Praxeological Ethics?
The Nigerian government has passed a new minimum wage law, and the usual suspects are happy because the country "is getting a raise." Economic reality, however, will set in soon enough as people find that government edicts do not create wealth.Original article: The New Minimum Wage Increase in Nigeria is a Pyrrhic Victory for Organized Labor
A recurring myth among progressives is that the state can enforce "fairness." However, given that government cannot even effectively define fairness, one doubts that the state can "enforce" what it doesn't know.Original article: Why State Enforcement of “Fairness” is Wrong
The U.S. government is spending trillions of dollars to prop up military ventures around the world. This kind of spending and exhausting of military resources cannot be sustained much longer.Original article: The U.S. military machine is unsustainable
Contrary to popular belief, China's economy depends much less on central planning than in the past. China is strong in EV development, and the success is due not to government subsidies and direction but to plain good economics.Original article: China’s competitiveness is driven by low taxation, not by industrial policy
While Kamala Harris accuses Republicans of censoring books and library materials, her press secretary, Brian Fallon, tried to censor opinion articles critical of Eric Holder and the Department of Justice during the Obama years.Original article: Kamala’s press chief tried to censor me
As the Federal Reserve manipulates the money supply and interest rates, the yield curve becomes a less reliable indicator of economic activity. The more the Fed plays havoc with the system, the more we see the boom-and-bust syndrome.Original article: The Fed Is Warping the Shape of the Yield Curve
While many are celebrating the Chevron decision that limits the power of federal bureaucracies to interpret federal law, it also may provide an opportunity to change federal policies regarding land ownership in the West.Original article: The Chevron decision may also apply to federal land policies in the West
One of the excuses for levying protective tariffs is to protect emerging domestic industries. However, this kind of protectionism, contrary to popular opinion, leaves an economy worse off every time.Original article: Protecting infant industries doesn’t help the economy
While F.A. Hayek was a promoter of liberty, his work nonetheless often failed to acknowledge just how predatory the state really is. Murray Rothbard understood that the real enemy is the predatory state.Original article: Hayekian liberty and the predatory state
While many people currently are likely to view the rule of law as simply a collection of arbitrary rules, it involves private property rights and limits on state power.Original article: The rule of law and property rights
The current trend in money-supply growth is a big turnaround from the many months of depression-level contractions we saw in 2022 and 2023.
Original article: Money-Supply Growth Accelerates as Wall Street Demands Even More Easy Money
With its focus on dismantling the administrative state, Project 2025 represents a refreshingly serious turn for the American right. However, its policy prescriptions remain frustratingly moderate.Original Article: Project 2025: The good, the bad, and the frustrating
The United States abolished its first three central banks, and this was followed by a period of immense economic growth. End the Fed? We did it before and can do it again. Original Article: The American tradition of abolishing central banks
Following the release of today’s jobs report, it seems serious cracks are now appearing in the media's narrative on our "strong" economy. Original Article: Bidenomics: New employment numbers say recession is here
When municipalities embrace new technologies, people often refer to them as “smart cities.” However, all too often these technological “revenue enhancers” are nothing more than shakedowns of local citizens.Original Article: A ‘smart city’ is a city plagued by high taxes and central planning
Libertarians have no problem dealing with how private property should be policed, but what about those areas we call public spaces? Murray Rothbard, not surprisingly, examined the issue thoroughly and had some insightful ideas.Original Article: How should government police the public domain?
With the European economy remaining relatively stagnant and government debt levels climbing to disturbing levels, it's possible that some of these countries will see another debt crisis like we saw in Greece more than a decade ago.Original Article: Is the European Union headed for another debt crisis?
Rachel Maddow, the leftwing broadcaster, tries her hand at rewriting history. Unfortunately, her tendency to see a fascist hiding behind every bush and tree clouds her writing judgment.Original Article: Rachel Maddow’s hunt for imaginary fascists
What we may call the “spending illusion” is perhaps the gravest error in the history of economic thought and has been deeply embedded in economics since the early twentieth century.Original Article: Have we been living in an MMT world since 2008?
Kamala Harris is more than a continuation of the Obama-Biden progressive interventionism at home and abroad. She's an acceleration. Original Article: Kamala Harris is awful
In the wake of the Labor Party's huge win in Great Britain, one is reminded that Labor and Conservatives are far more united in their economic and policy viewpoints than they pretend to be.Original Article: United in economic stagnation and false fears
Social justice is a nonsensical term that interferes with the attempts to find authentic justice. It is not about equality so much as it is about imposing outcomes incompatible with a free society.Original Article: Time to reject ‘social justice’ and replace it with real justice
Under the regime of apartheid, South Africa's government engaged in legal discrimination. In the new South Africa, the government also engages in legal racial discrimination in the name of "equity."
Original Article: Legal discrimination in apartheid and equity
By appealing to the self-interest of buyers and sellers, capitalism foils attempts by lawmakers to create racially constructed limits on voluntary exchange. Capitalism undermines racism.
Original Article: How capitalism defeats racism
The degrowth movement seeks to mitigate climate change by ending economic growth, which is really a move to engage in large-scale depopulation.
Original Article: The degrowth movement is antihuman, and its advocates are fine with that
More than two decades ago, the Federal Reserve joined with the federal government to make housing more affordable. The first housing bubble popped in 2008, and a second bubble is on its way to bursting.
Original Article: Are apartment syndicators incompetent or crooked? The answer is yes
Critics of capitalism claim that private enterprise gives workers the unhappy choice of either working difficult, low-paying jobs or outright starving. The claim is false and the history of capitalism tells a different story.
Original Article: The problem with ‘work or starve’
Alexander Hamilton hated decentralization, and wanted a strong central government, high taxes, and a central bank. Hamilton's legacy today dominates in Washington, DC.
Original Article: Alexander Hamilton’s poisoned legacy
The 1866 civil rights law was historical not because it promised racial equality but because it changed the legal relationship between the states and the federal government.
Original Article: The 1866 civil rights revolution
Economic laws represent the real world. They are not ideologies or objects of worship. These laws are not the product of an ideological wish list but rather explain production and exchange.
Original Article: The Limitations of Economic Laws
Instead of the usual claptrap that characterizes most graduation speeches, someone needs to give a speech that defends liberty and tells the truth about government and capitalism.
Original Article: The commencement speech someone needs to give
Commonsense safety measures are being replaced in our working culture by an impossible “no risk” standard. A culture of “can do” is replaced by the culture of fear.
Original Article: Fear is the mind killer: America’s dangerous obsession with ‘safety’
The Washington political establishment's uniform condemnation of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump does not square with the apocalyptic rhetoric they have used to describe him over the past eight years.
Original Article: The Trump assassination attempt exposes the establishment’s deceitfulness
Issues of immigration are complex. The current system of open borders, detention and expanding access to welfare is destructive to our body politic. We need to come up with a better system that protects the rights of all.
Original Article: Natural rights and the American border
Economic mythology said governments must regulate markets to prevent monopolies. In reality, it is the government regulation itself that creates monopolies, which do not emerge in free markets.
Original Article: Government regulation of competitive firms creates monopolies
While protecting “intellectual property” has a good sound to it — even among libertarians — such policies are harmful to authentic property rights. We need to pursue another path.
Original Article: The Absurdity of Intellectual Property Laws
Continued bailouts undermine the entire economy by rewarding financial failure and discouraging productive economic activity.
Original Article: How Corporate Bailouts Inflate the Money Supply
When governments seize private firms in the name of nationalization, the moves are usually politically popular. However, it doesn't take long for the nationalized firms to turn into a financial black hole.Original Article: Though popular, nationalizations ruin economies
With political turmoil creating anxiety in Great Britain, The Economist chose to describe the political situation as “anarchy.” In reality, this is political chaos, not anarchy, since anarchy is based upon social cooperation and peaceful resolution of conflicts.Original Article: Anarchy in the UK
The Biden administration is determined to do an end run around the courts and ram through yet another student loan forgiveness plan. It is not real “loan forgiveness” but just a massive wealth transfer from lower-income to higher-income groups.Original Article: Biden’s Student Loan Gift SAVE Is Simply a Wealth Transfer
Progressives promote civil rights viewpoints as being “good for the whole” of society. Yet most of the modern civil rights movements and accompanying legislation simply promote the "good" of one group at the expense of others.Original Article: Group interests and the ‘good of the whole’
Human action is not a figment of our imaginations, nor is it a social construct. Praxeology describes real and purposeful actions by people who act on what they know or what they believe to be true.Original Article: The Reality of Human Action
It’s finally clear to everyone that President Biden is not running the federal government. Yet the government is carrying on as it always has. It’s important to understand why.Original Article: Biden Is Not Running the Government. So, Who Is?
Utopians are not satisfied with imposing DEI on humans. They also want the state to treat animals as “oppressed” minorities with positive rights. Original Article: Praxeology and Animals
For all of his freedom-loving rhetoric, it is clear that Woodrow Wilson was one of the most antifreedom presidents in U.S. history.Original Article: Woodrow Wilson and Freedom
Academic elites claim that there is no objective truth, only social constructs. Thus, people can create their own reality in many areas, and everyone else is expected to accept whatever “reality” is presented—or face serious consequences.
Original Article: Reality Is NOT a Social Construct
Last week, Julian Assange was freed and the Chevron doctrine was overturned. These are huge wins for liberty. Not long ago, they felt completely out of reach.
Original Article: Julian Assange, the Chevron Doctrine, and the Case against Pessimism
For all of the claims that governments “create jobs,” in reality, government jobs come at a greater cost than any value those jobs may create. Government jobs are a burden to the economy.
Original Article: The State Does Not Create Value-Enhancing Jobs
It has been nearly eighty years since the US used atomic warfare on Japan as a way to end World War II. The legacy of that event is not one of peace but of outright madness.
Original Article: From Milk Runs to MAD to Madness
As the progressive Left expands its occupation of our institutions, the concept of truth itself becomes little more than a weapon to utilize to achieve political goals.
Original Article: Varying Interpretations of Truth, or Truth as a Social Construct
While F.A. Hayek saw human ignorance as the basis for what he called spontaneous order, Ludwig von Mises saw human reason as the basis for praxeology.
Original Article: Human Ignorance Is an Unstable Basis for Liberty and Praxeology
Many small colleges are shutting their doors, and it is largely the fault of overexpansion, government protectionism, and bureaucratic infiltration.
Original Article: Bureaucracy: The Death Knell of Higher Education
Javier Milei’s recent “snub” of Spain's political establishment during a recent visit there may have been a “violation” of diplomatic protocol, but it also was a statement that Spain’s socialism itself is uncivilized.
Original Article: Milei Snubs the Spanish Political Establishment
While President Biden’s inflationary economy continues to falter, the president proposes to outlaw bank overdraft fees, ostensibly to help lower-income Americans. Bank fees, however, are not the biggest threat consumers face; inflation and intervention are the real threats.
Original Article: Biden’s Blarney on Bank Fees
Even as the Federal Reserve continues to manipulate interest rates to “fight” the results of the business cycle, Austrian economics teaches that business cycles occur because of the manipulation. They never learn.
Original Article: The Impact of Interest Rates on Economic Growth: An Austrian Perspective
Contrary to Milton Friedman’s thesis that the decline in the money supply caused the Great Depression, the real reason was the collapse of real savings, which was due to loose monetary policies by the Federal Reserve.
Original Article: The Collapse of Real Savings Caused the Great Depression
What began as supposedly a free trade union has been turning into an authoritarian, interventionist nightmare. A recent speech by a top European Union commissioner shows the sad direction the EU is heading.
Original Article: Draghi’s Globalist EU Speech Urges Concentration of Power
Environmentalists insist on banning fossil fuels and refrigerant gasses in order to end heat waves. That means people will face future heat waves (which will always be with us) without air conditioning, bringing even more heat-related deaths.
Original Article: Banning Fossil Fuels Will Make Heat Waves More Dangerous, Not Less
The current explosion in rental and home prices is the direct result of government intervention aimed at making it easier to buy a house. Mises wrote that government intervention into the market tends to make things worse. He was right.
Original Article: It All Began When the Government Tried to Make Housing More Affordable
A common complaint is that the 1964 Civil Rights Act started in the “right direction,” valuing so-called equality of opportunity, but then went off the rails with “equality of result.” In truth, the act cannot be reconciled with a libertarian society.
Original Article: The “Equality of Opportunity” Fallacy
For all of the media ballyhoo about the CHIPS Act, it really is a page out of the old five-year plans from the Soviet Union. The CHIPS Act will have the same success as befell the Soviets.
Original Article: Chop the Federal CHIPS Act
Caitlin Clark, with her array of basketball skills, has filled arenas in her inaugural WNBA season. However, the idea of merit clashes with the leftist, egalitarian mindset that dominates in the league, and the early reaction to her success has been discouraging.Original Article: Caitlin Clark, Bullying and the Business of Basketball
Stephanie Kelton, the most visible promoter of MMT, is being derelict in her academic duties by not replying to Per Bylund’s critique of her theories in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.Original Article: Is Stephanie Kelton Failing Her Academic Responsibility?
President Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme is really Robin Hood in reverse, transferring wealth from people from lower-income groups to those who are relatively affluent.
Original Article: Joe Biden’s Reverse Robin Hood Student Debt Cancellation
Various indexes are used to determine the ease of doing business in countries around the world. Not surprisingly, the nations that allow for protection of private property and have economic freedom also are the most prosperous.Original Article: The Best Thing Governments Can Do for Business Is Get Out of the Way
The decolonization movement seeks to destroy both economics and science, all in the name of social justice. In the end, however, what they get is not justice and certainly not order, but rather chaos, and deadly chaos at that.Original Article: Decolonizers’ Assault on Science
As AI continues to develop, the prophets of doom claim that it will “take over” and create a dystopian society. Far from being an “existential threat,” AI is a tool that can be used for good or ill.Original Article: AI: “Existential Crisis” or Excuse for Cronyism?
In order to vastly expand the regulatory state, the Biden administration is using fake cost-benefit ratios to make its regulations seem less costly and more beneficial. This is clearly fraudulent, but no bureaucrat will be charged with any crimes.Original Article: The Biden Administration Uses Fudged Numbers to Justify Imposing Punitive Regulations
The case against Donald Trump was utterly ridiculous. Yet he was convicted anyway. Opponents of the political establishment need to understand why. Original Article: The Lesson of the Trump Conviction
Ordinary people cannot stop the Fed and the government from inflating the currency, but they can take measures to shield themselves from some of its harmful effects. Mark Thornton presents a few ideas on how it can be done.Original Article: How People Can Better Fight Inflation
While our political “leaders” insist that the government is “protecting” us, it offers the same kind of “protection” that mobsters offer: pay us to “protect” you, or we burn down your place with you in it.Original Article: Do You Know Who’s Hitting You?
Long before government mandates and pressure infected businesses and universities with the DEI virus, Ludwig von Mises explained how bureaucracies infect the decision-making process. Original Article: From Profits to Pandering: How Government Turned Universities and Businesses into DEI Bureaucracies
Socialists pride themselves on their supposed good intentions even as they fashion policies that create havoc and harm the people socialists claim to be helping. Ludwig von Mises called it destructionism.Original Article: The Socialist Road to Destruction amid So-Called Good Intentions
In the aftermath of Donald Trump's conviction in Manhattan—a political show trial, to be sure—David Gordon reviews Danilo Zolo’s, Victor’s Justice, which examined the Nuremberg Trials following World War II.Original Article: The Menace of Political Show Trials
The endless bubble economy has a new lending craze: loans backed by AI chips. The problem is that while the chips serve as collateral, companies right now cannot make enough revenue to cover their costs.Original Article: The Unsustainable AI-Driven Lending Boom
One of the problems in presenting economic concepts to a public audience is that too many people in the academic world do not comprehend the simple presence of opportunity cost. Original Article: Scott Galloway’s TED Talk Reveals a Basic Ignorance of Economics
What makes a libertarian society libertarian? Certainly, one must begin—as did Murray Rothbard—not only with the nonaggression principle, but also with the unequivocal protection of private property rights.Original Article: Distinguishing Libertarian Philosophy from Political Strategy
Political and academic elites claim that economic freedom is the antithesis of civilization. They claim that functioning civilization can come only from a welfare state, a nonsensical propositionOriginal Article: Civilization Depends upon Economic Freedom
Keynesian economists believe that the key to increasing economic growth is increasing the supply of money in circulation. Money, however, is a means of exchange, not a means of payments. The difference is vital to understanding economics.Original Article: Does Increasing the Money Supply also Increase Economic Growth?
The Tennessee Board of Regents for higher education is finding that their DEI efforts are not successful, and the Tennessee legislature has become skeptical. It might be better to scrap the DEI collectivist “solutions” altogether.Original Article: Unsuccessful DEI Efforts Meet Legislative Opposition in Tennessee
David Gordon reviews How to Run Wars, by Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall. Their tone is satirical, aimed at showing the folly and corruption that marks the policies of the foreign policy elites.Original Article: Coyning US into War
Robert Reich is an economic fallacy machine, and he has begun a ten-week series in which he claims to debunk economic myths. Of course, to do so, he has to create economic myths and present them as factual.Original Article: Debunking Robert Reich’s Debunking
Asset forfeiture is another term for state-sponsored theft. Reform of this pernicious policy is almost impossible because of the incentives set up by governments at all levels.Original Article: No Honor Among Government Thieves: The Evil of Asset Forfeiture
Even though our legal authorities treat smugglers as criminals, smugglers actually are promoters of liberty who usually break unjust laws. The US was practically founded on smuggling.Original Article: Smugglers: True Heroes of Liberty
Government schooling advocates are demanding that homeschoolers be regulated by public school authorities. Perhaps homeschooling advocates should be monitoring the government.
Original Article: Homeschoolers Don’t Need Government Regulation
Contra critical theorists, who claim human reason is nothing more than a social construct, reason is both understandable and universal. We cannot abandon it, for if we do, we abandon liberty itself.
Original Article: Understanding Reason Is Paramount to Understanding Liberty
The watchword in higher education today is decolonization, which depends upon what Ludwig von Mises called racial polylogism. Mises understood that polylogism undermines the very foundations of scientific thought.
Original Article: The Intellectual Poverty of Racial Polylogism
We are seeing Joseph Schumpeter's concept of creative destruction at work in higher education. The shake-up will continue.
Original Article: Creative Destruction in American Higher Education: Schumpeter in Action
Supporters of the new California minimum wage law for fast-food restaurants claim it will bolster economic opportunity for lower-income people. It actually will be a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich.
Original Article: The Consequences of California’s New Minimum Wage Law
Israel’s defenders act like Netanyahu and his allies have had no choice but to react to October 7 in the manner that they have. But that isn’t true.
Original Article: What Israel Is Doing to Gaza Is a Choice
Politicians will invoke the venerable just war theory when they believe they can manipulate the facts in their favor. In truth, it is the rare government that engages in a justified conflict.
Original Article: Why Politicians Cannot Be Trusted with Just War Theory
Contrary to mainstream economists, credit expansion that is not backed by real savings leads ultimately to an economic downturn. Original Article: Lending without Saving Brings Recession and Poverty
Do Austrian theories also apply to financial markets?Original Article: Man, Economy, and Financial Markets
Ludwig von Mises was ridiculed for his assertion that “middle of the road” leads to socialism in the end. As the federal government swallows increasing amounts of the economy, we see that Mises was right.Original Article: No, Mises Was not Wrong about the Middle of the Road
Political and academic elites have successfully convinced the public that they should fear private enterprise. However, people really should fear an out-of-control government.Original Article: They Want to Scare You with Myths of “Unhampered Capitalism”
Contrary to popular belief, regulatory agencies do not improve the quality of our lives, nor do they provide safety or security. They need to be abolished, as free markets provide their own effective forms of regulation.Original Article: The Case for Abolishing Regulatory Agencies
Despite statements from Biden and other progressives, profits in a market economy are not a form of plunder. Instead, they represent entrepreneurial gains that mostly benefit consumers.
Original Article: Profit Is Not Plunder
The decades of American and European intervention in Africa are coming to an end, and things are even worse for American interests there. Perhaps overthrowing governments and trying to dictate political outcomes wasn’t a good idea.
Original Article: Blowback in the African Coup Belt
In a recent symposium on Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty, philosopher Matt Zwolinski takes issue with Rothbard on Murray’s views of freedom and property rights.
Original Article: Zwolinski Tries to Take Rothbard to the Mat
For most Americans, the debate is about what size the welfare state should be. But why is there a welfare state at all?
Original Article: Thinking Properly about Public Welfare
Mainstream economists claim money has purchasing power because the government issuing the money has so declared. That makes no sense.
Original Article: How Does Money in Our Possession Acquire Value?
Many people are selling their gold to make ends meet. Others are buying gold as insurance against mounting price inflation.
Original Article: As the Dollar Falters, Gold Becomes Insurance, Not Speculation
Unfortunately, these assaults on the First Amendment continue to find support even among people who pretend to be in support of freedom and opposed to federal power.
Original Article: War Hysteria Fuels New Attacks on Free Speech
Despite the media definitions of the Trump trial as a “hush money trial,” the actual criminal charges are contrived and legally unprecedented. This is a show trial.
Original Article: The Hush-Money Case against Trump Is Ridiculous and Revealing
Progressive historians, journalists, and politicians claim that the Industrial Revolution and the growth of industry brought poverty and exploitation to American workers. The truth is much different, even if it is rarely heard.Original Article: The American Labor Market: Fact vs. Fiction
While Austrian and feminist critiques of neoclassical economics have some similarities, they also differ strongly on important points. Feminist critiques are based upon what Mises called polylogism, while Austrian critiques are based upon praxeology.Original Article: Can There Be an Alliance between Austrian and Feminist Schools of Economics?
Somalia is a country invented by European intervention. The region known as Somaliland ought to be free to secede from this imperialist creation. Original Article: Somaliland Needs Self-Determination
In publicly opposing apartheid, William H. Hutt saw how legal segregation kept black South Africans from pursuing legitimate economic goals. To Hutt, apartheid deprived people of equality of economic opportunity, which kept them in poverty.Original Article: State Coercion and the Injustice of Apartheid
Despite the accusations that Javier Milei is a fascist in libertarian clothes, many of his reforms have been successful in reversing some of the damage done to Argentina's economy by real fascists.Original Article: No, Milei Is Not a Fascist
Congress claims to have targeted TikTok because China's government allegedly uses it to spy on Americans. Besides dealing with a nonexistent threat, the bill gives the federal government vast new powers to misuse.Original Article: The TikTok Ban Is the Next Patriot Act
Progressives claim that profits are an unjust transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. In reality, entrepreneurs earn profits by directing resources from less valued to more valued uses to satisfy consumer needs.Original Article: Free-Market Profit Comes From Voluntary Exchange, not Exploitation
What better way to explain the relationship between higher-order and lower-order goods than with food? Here, we look at the falafel sandwich.Original Article: What Can Carl Menger Teach Us about Falafel Sandwiches?
According to a recent 60 Minutes broadcast, Russian agents are suspected of launching microwave rays at US diplomats abroad. The problem is that many of these stories are technologically implausible. Maybe skepticism is in order here.Original Article: Is “Havana Syndrome” Russian Aggression or Another Media Conspiracy Theory?
On this day ninety-one years ago President Franklin D. Roosevelt via executive order seized gold legally held by Americans, criminalizing the use of sound money. Our economy and our nation has never recovered from this act.Original Article: Fixing FDR’s Biggest Blunder: From Gold Standard to Fiat Folly and Back
Bolivia has been mired in poverty, hyperinflation, and state control of the economy for generations. It is time for a change, and the Alasitas Fair is leading the way.Original Article: How the “Informal” Economy Creates Free Markets in Bolivia
States know that treason and sedition laws are about much more than matters of law and order. They are essential components of enhancing state power. Original Article: Abolish all Treason and Sedition Laws
In this review of Edward Chancellor’s The Price of Time, Joakim Book notes that a market economy cannot function correctly when central bankers manipulate interest rates.Original Article: Artificially Low Interest Rates Are Creating Economic Chaos
A strategy for liberty must be both optimistic and realistic. Murray Rothbard understood that important point and laid out strategies and their moral justification.Original Article: An Optimistic Strategy for Liberty
Although mainstream economists hold that Adam Smith is the father of modern economics, it was Richard Cantillon that recognized the centrality of entrepreneurship in economic development. Original Article: Creating Wealth: The Cantillon or the Smith Way
In 1959, Ludwig von Mises gave lectures on economics in Argentina, where the economy was in steep decline. In the 1920s, Argentina was one of the world's wealthiest countries, but decades of Peronism and inflation started the country on the long road to poverty.Original Article: Mises in Argentina: Lessons of the Past for Today
The attempt by the mainstream economics profession to create economic literacy has turned into a movement to promote economic illiteracy.Original Article: Economic Education Has Become Economic Disinformation
While these students are right to oppose the horrific Israeli attacks on Gaza, many of the protests reflect leftist groupthink and typical higher education collectivism.Original Article: What the Campus Protesters and Their Critics Get Right and Wrong
Why have some Americans opposed this nation’s involvement in foreign wars? According to Jacob Heilbrunn of The National Interest, it is because those Americans love bloody dictators like Adolph Hitler.Original Article: Opposing Military Intervention: Loving Dictators or Hating War?
Like the Biden administration, the European Union elites are seeking to crush free speech on the Internet in the name of preventing “hate speech” and “disinformation.” Of course, the EU ruling classes won’t have to worry about being censored.Original Article: How EU Law Has Made the Internet Less Free for Everyone Else
Animal control officers are supposed to, well, control animals in a municipal area. But thanks to animal control policies, it's the stray animals that are in control of our author’s town.Original Article: Thanks to Government Animal Control, Stray Animals Rule My Neighborhood
Mainstream economists believe that economic theory is valid when it “predicts” economic actions or trends. Austrian economists, however, say that the purpose of economic theory is to explain economic events.Original Article: What Is the Purpose of Economic Theory?
Unsurprisingly, Javier Milei’s free-market and antistate initiatives face opposition in Argentina. Whether he is successful depends on his being able to politically outlast his collectivist opposition.Original Article: Javier Milei vs. the Status Quo
Individual rights originated in Western thinking. Today, it is the West that produces the ruling class that disdains individual rights and replaces them with collectivism.Original Article: Why the West Is Giving Up on Individual Rights
While conservatives and followers of Austrian economics often have much in common, many conservatives are against free trade and free exchange. Austrians need to carefully explain why those beliefs are harmful.Original Article: Conservatives Are Wrong on Economics. Here’s How to Fix the Problem.
The New York Times recently characterized House Republicans that voted to extend government domestic spying and continue to fund wars in the Middle East and Ukraine as “the adults in the room.” This is ironic, as real adults would not spend the country into oblivion. Original Article: Cowardice, Not Courage, Led House Republicans to Side with the Democrats
The only answer lies in eviscerating their budgets, abolishing their enabling legislation, and encouraging aggressive lawfare against the regime in retribution for these agencies' many crimes.Original Article: The FBI and CIA Are Enemies of the American People
Economists use time preference to explain the existence of interest, but the ability of people to postpone some present consumption in order to save for the future has much broader social ramifications. Original Article: Low Time Preference Leads to Civilization
People often stubbornly hold to false beliefs, one of them being that government regulation of driving prevents chaos. However, the opposite seems to be true: government involvement in anything, including driving a car, creates the chaos we claim we want to avoid.Original Article: Privatize Driver’s Licenses
A common knock on libertarianism is that it is so individualistic that it rejects the concept of community. (Think of the political cartoon in which the libertarian lifeguard let people drown.) In truth, strong communities also need free individuals.Original Article: Does Libertarianism Reject Communities? Libertarianism Actually Strengthens Them
Biden has embraced the trade war. But, if protectionism actually produced competitiveness, American steel manufacturers would have become world leaders long ago. Original Article: Biden Perpetuates Washington’s Idiotic Steel Trade Policies
Feminist theorist Judith Butler is calling for mandatory education to confront children with modern gender theory. As David Gordon points out, she wants to use coercion to force people to accept her theories.Original Article: Butler, Butt Out!
Recent Iranian missile strikes on Israel in response to its earlier attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria have escalated the prospects of all-out war in the Middle East. There is an alternative to expanding the war: de-escalation.
Original Article: Iran's Attack on Israel Provides an Opportunity to De-escalate
California’s draconian fast-food minimum wage law is bad enough, but it turns out a company can avoid the trouble if it has ties to the governor.
Original Article: California’s Crony Capitalist Minimum Wage Law
Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.
Original Article: Bureaucracy and Grove City College: How One College Resisted the Bureaucratization of Higher Education
One of the great myths of US history is that Herbert Hoover was a laissez-faire president. In truth, he intervened in the economy more than any of his predecessors, creating the crisis known as the Great Depression. His successor made things even worse.
Original Article: Navigating the Slippery Slope: How Hoover’s Interventions Paved the Way for the Great Depression
Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.
Original Article: Looking Back at the Crossroads: Liberty or Socialism
Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.
Original Article: A Tale of Two Bureaucracies
Congress and the courts have eviscerated the Constitution to empower police dogs. The injustices are massive, but the authorities don't care.
Original Article: Police Dogs Have Abolished Constitutional Due Process
When the government wants to make something more affordable, that usually means new subsidies, laws, and regulations that drive up the real price. Higher medical prices will mean more medical bankruptcies.
Original Article: Personal Medical Bankruptcy: Made in DC
In reviewing Reconsidering Reparations by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, David Gordon and Wanjiru Njoya point out the book's many fallacies and the lack of a coherent theory of justice by the author.
Original Article: Failing to Make the Case for Race-Based Reparations
“The public be damned” is a statement by railroad magnate William Henry Vanderbilt that has been twisted out of context. While the American ruling classes insist that private enterprise is the enemy of the people, it really is our government that bears that distinction.
Original Article: Who Really Works Against the Public?
As the official government in Haiti loses control, many are calling it a failed state. Crises like this are often evoked to discredit libertarians. But blame for Haiti’s current plight lies with the actions of states, not the absence of them.
Original Article: How State Intervention Fueled Haiti's Descent into Chaos
California’s legislature wants to combine the idea of two-part price discrimination with a soak-the-rich mentality in charging for utilities. What possibly could go wrong?
Original Article: California’s Latest Hustle: Utility Bills Based on Ratepayers' Income
While Vivek Ramaswamy was unsuccessful in his Republican presidential primary bid, at least he helped to demystify the Federal Reserve. This is not the usual political rhetoric the public receives.
Original Article: Two Cheers for Vivek Ramaswamy for His Commentary on the Fed
A recent CNN broadcast claimed that deflation was bad for the economy and that we need to adjust to higher prices. As usual, the journalistic “experts” got it backward.
Original Article: CNN Is Wrong. Deflation Is a Good Thing
According to Marx, all ideas represent class-based interests, leaving no room for objective truth. The problem is that Marxists claim to hold to objective truth, but manage to contradict themselves.
Original Article: Marx, Class Conflict, and the Ideological Fallacy
While Connecticut authorities call on "experts" to help them quell the state's housing shortage, they fail to consider the policies that have caused it.
Original Article: Connecticut’s Housing Shortage Is Rooted in Government Policies
While “wokeness” seems to be a new phenomenon, the problems are tied to a sixty-year-old “landmark” law: the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This law, unfortunately, promotes government tyranny in the name of freedom.
Original Article: The Tyranny of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
When someone makes the “roads” argument for the presence of government, they fail to point out that the final government product is substandard and often a hazard to people who use those roads. There is a better way.
Original Article: Who Will Take Care of the Roads? Why, The Coercive, Substandard, and Monopolistic Government Department, That’s Who
Artificial intelligence has much to contribute as a consumption good and a producer’s good. However, there also are limitations in what AI can do, given it susceptible to the GIGO rule: Garbage in, garbage out.
Original Article: The Economics of the AI Revolution
While fears that AI will morph into something like the Terminator and try to destroy the world, the real threat from AI is that the authorities will use it to produce propaganda and public lies.
Original Article: Separating Information from Disinformation: Threats from the AI Revolution
Open-borders advocates often point to the alleged openness of borders between the individual states in the USA. However, a closer look shows there are many restrictions most Americans are unaware of.
Original Article: No, There Is Not a Perfect Open Border System between the States
New York City’s government has imposed draconian rent controls. The natural outcome, as economists note, has been massive shortages, as apartment owners no longer have an incentive to rent empty apartments.
Original Article: The Folly of Rent Control in New York City (Again)
In his State of the Union speech Thursday, President Biden will claim the economy is growing—and that his administration will “crack down” on corporate greed. He will not address the damage his administration has done to the economy.
Original Article: Be on the Lookout for These Lies in Biden’s State of the Union Address
The “AI” in our present real-world hype is nothing like the sci-fi “creatures” of film; AI machines are nowhere near conscious beings.
Original Article: Understanding the AI Revolution
The United States survived the first Great Depression, although it permanently changed the role of government. Will excessive government spending and money creation lead to Great Depression II?
Original Article: The Great Depression and Great Depression II: Similarities, Differences
The right to be able to enter into contracts with others is fundamental to free markets and a free society. That means people should be able to engage in discrimination.
Original Article: Free Markets and the Antidiscrimination Principle
Paul Krugman claims that the real factor determining inflation is the rate of unemployment, not increases in the supply of money. As usual, he is wrong.
Original Article: Krugman: Low Unemployment Causes Inflation, Not Monetary Expansion
It is during "emergencies" when we learn who really holds political power, and how ineffective are constitutional measures designed to limit the regime.
Original Article: Covid Showed Us Who Really Rules America
Few economists—even the free-market advocates—understand what caused the Great Depression. No, the Fed didn’t cause the Depression by failing to inflate the currency. Instead, it was the Fed’s inflation that led to the disastrous early events.
Original Article: Getting the Great Depression (Almost) Right -- And Totally Wrong
Many of the high-flying businesses that received massive publicity turned out to be the creation of a bubble economy. Not all businesses are flashes in a pan; many of them continue to serve as the backbone of our economy.
Original Article: Why the Bubble Economy Isn't the Real Economy
As Murray Rothbard has noted, there is an important distinction between nation and state. The former is a voluntary association of people while the latter is coercive and predatory. Progressives, of course, claim the opposite.
Original Article: A Principled View of Nations and Nationalism
Governments in the US subsidize immigration through a bevy of welfare programs. The effect of subsidization is predictable: you get more of what you subsidize. This is true for student loans, ethanol, immigrants, and more.
Original Article: How the US Regime Subsidizes Immigration—both Legal and Illegal
Many economic think tanks espouse that national defense spending benefits Americans at large. It doesn’t. The notion that military spending "bolsters" the economy is yet another Keynesian fable.
Original Article: The Myth of National Defense Spending
Next month, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether New York regulatory authorities can target the NRA simply because of the organization’s political viewpoints.
Original Article: The Supreme Court to Decide if New York Regulators Can Arbitrarily Target the NRA
Central banks have had the chutzpah to claim credit for slowing down the rise of consumer prices. The truth is they have taken advantage of the supply boost from fading pandemic dislocations to pursue continued monetary inflation.
Original Article: The Death of Easy Money Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Activist pro-immigration groups in Great Britain, while being heavily funded by government money, are using that money to stop orderly immigration and replace it with chaos. Taxpayers are not only on the hook to fund these groups, but also bear the brunt of immigration failures.
Original Article: How State-Funding of Activist Groups Makes Britain Less Safe
We may be governed by incompetent elites, but even they have not taken away our free will and ability to think for ourselves. We can look to Mises and Rothbard for inspiration.
Original Article: Who Hijacked Our Free Will?
As the federal government's debt approaches $35 trillion, default one way or another is inevitable. Many US states already have used that method to eliminate their debts.
Original Article: US States Have a Long History of Defaulting
Progressives believe that restricting individual liberty permits better social outcomes. In truth, it is individual liberty that allows societies to function best.
Original Article: Another Reason Why Individual Freedom Is So Much Better than Central Planning
Princeton “historian” Allen C. Guelzo’s newest hagiography of Abraham Lincoln focuses on Lincoln’s supposed love affair with commerce, albeit “commerce” based upon protectionism and government tariffs. As David Gordon notes, Guelzo has a problem getting his economic history correct.
Original Article: Misunderstanding Both Lincoln and Basic Economics
Christianity Today and other Christian publications are touting a book that claims to be based upon “biblical critical theory.” It’s yet another version of Marxism that is neither critical nor biblical. It’s just more Marxism.
Original Article: Biblical Critical Theory Is Not Biblical. It’s Watered-Down Marxism
When governments go to war, the nation’s monetary system usually descends into the pit of inflation. The War of 1812 was no exception, and its monetary excesses led to the Panic of 1819.
Original Article: The War of 1812 and the Panic of 1819: The Unholy Alliance between Government and Banking
While term limits is a near-article of faith by many on the right, the concept is flawed at its inception and the results are worse than anticipated.
Original Article: The Right Is Wrong to Pursue Term Limits
In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Fed chairman Jerome Powell gave assurances that the US banking system is sound. Ben Bernanke also claimed almost twenty years ago that real estate markets were not overextended. The hubris must be in the water at the Eccles Building.
Original Article: Hubris Runs Rampant at the Fed
As officials feign outrage over the death of Alexei Navalny and the jailing of Evan Gershkovich, the US government tries to imprison a journalist for breaking truly incriminating stories.
Original Article: The Outrageous Persecution of Julian Assange
Socialists never give up trying to prove that socialism can maintain a functioning economy. Some have dragged out a nearly forty year old study as their exhibit A.
Original Article: No, "Science" Has Not Proven Mises Wrong on Socialism
While Thomas Paine might be one of the most obscure "Founding Fathers" of this country, he was a powerful intellect who helped move people to choose liberty and independence.
Original Article: The Awesome Verbal Punching Power of Thomas Paine
As the European Union becomes increasingly dominated by progressive elites, it becomes more authoritarian and contemptuous of the rights of those the Union purports to serve.
Original Article: To the European Union: Don't Tread on Us
Some economists believe that the balance of payments is what determines currency exchange rates. In fact, exchange rates are always about the purchasing power of some currencies relative to others.
Original Article:Does the Balance of Payments Determine Exchange Rates?
In 2022, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used political favors and government grants to maneuver thousands of workers into jobs producing electric trucks. But consumers aren’t interested.
Original Article:How Governor Whitmer Doomed Detroit Autoworkers
While South Africa’s political authorities pursue genocide accusations against other countries, those same leaders are destroying the nation’s economy and basic infrastructure. This is a failed state.
Original Article: The "New" South Africa Is Now a Newly-Failed State: Don't Look for Things to Improve
Javier Milei is trying to undo the damage created by nearly a century of socialism in Argentina. Mises, Rothbard, and Hayek were good teachers.
Original Article: Javier Milei Understands the Road to Serfdom
The “One-China” policy assumes Taiwan to be a runaway province. The people of Taiwan, however, see their country as sovereign, and their reasons have merit.
Original Article: Is Taiwan a De Facto Sovereign Nation or a Province of the PRC?
Another Pentagon audit, another massive failure. But the Pentagon's problems are not just simple accounting. They reflect the reality of an unaccountable rogue empire that tries to prop up the US empire.
Original Article: What Can We Learn from the Latest Pentagon Audit? Both Plenty and Not Much
School choice would seem to have benefits, but as Thomas Sowell says: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” Enthusiastic “school choice” proponents forget that with government money comes government control.
Original Article: The Double-Edged Sword of School Choice
There will be life after Trump one way or another, but in the long run, it seems as though the ruling party always wins.
Original Article: After Trump, Then What?
While US taxpayers pay billions for military missions around the world in the name of “keeping us safe,” the federal government fails to keep residents of the nation’s capital safe from violent crime.
Original Article: Forget Being the World's Policeman; the Federal Government Can't Even Keep DC Safe
When Adam Smith and the English classicals promoted division of labor as the most important ingredient in economic development, it took Carl Menger and his Austrian successors to point out that error and promote the proper economic theory of production.
Original Article: How Carl Menger and the Austrians Helped to Steer Economic Theory in the Right Direction
Social Security is headed for reduced benefits, and no amount of political rhetoric or even tax increases will solve that problem. The numbers do not lie.
Original Article: Social Insecurity: It’s Not Wrong to be Concerned about Facts
Progressives argue that free markets stand in the way of economic and racial equality. In fact, free markets are the only vehicle that can help make people more equal.
Original Article: Legacies of Injustice and Racial Inequality
Political and economic elites predicted a doomsday scenario when Trump was elected in 2016, but the reality of his presidency didn’t come close to matching the apocalyptic rhetoric that accompanied it.
Original Article: Understanding the Trump Phenomenon: It's Not What the Elites Think
Block’s call for total war and the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza is the complete and uninhibited rejection and renunciation of the nonaggression principle that constitutes one of the very cornerstones of the Rothbardian system.
Original Article: An Open Letter to Walter E. Block
In the wake of the financial meltdown fifteen years ago, some countries placed strict limits on piling on public debt. Despite cries that this harms investment opportunities, the ”debt brakes” have worked well.
Original Article: Fiscal Rules Do Not Undermine Investment, But Government Profligacy Does
Whenever governing elites create a new crisis, they insist that “we're all in this together.” It’s time to ignore their lies altogether.
Original Article: Are We Really All in This Together?
Modern international law tends to grant a right to “remedial self-determination” only in extreme cases. Unfortunately, this position accepts that states ought to be free to violate human rights so long as the abuses fall short of war crimes and genocide.
Original Article: A Short History of the Right to Self-Determination
Congressional Democrats are trying to intervene in a complex and varied market they know little about but that consumers navigate without need of help. This will not end well.
Original Article: Washington’s Planned Theft of Credit Card Benefits
So-called climate change is really an excuse for government to do what it does worst: intervene in our economic affairs. While government efforts will not cool the planet, they will make life more difficult for the planet’s inhabitants.
Original Article: Climate Deniers Deny Socialism. That's Why the Regime Hates Them.
Under Obama and Biden, the banking sector has been weaponized against industries American leftists don't like. The Obama administration acted as if its regulatory targets did not deserve due process, and the program ravaged far and wide.
Original Article: Biden and Forgotten Federal Financial Tyranny
Scott R. Sehon tries to be intellectually honest in his critique of capitalism and his endorsement of socialism, but David Gordon writes that Sehon needs to better know the arguments favoring capitalism.
Original Article: If One Wishes to Discredit Capitalism, One Should at Least Understand How It Works
The Biden administration’s Middle East policies are going to produce the same kind of blowback that led to the 9/11 attacks. The more reckless Biden becomes, the more American lives are placed at risk.
Original Article: Biden's Middle East Policy Puts Americans at Risk
Is the regulatory choice a tradeoff between safety or “breaking a few eggs” via free markets? The logic of allowing for free and unhampered markets is compelling.
Original Article: Are Free Markets More Dangerous than Regulated Markets?
Fact-checking has become a veritable industry in the media. However, the conclusions of “fact checkers” mysteriously seem to align with the opinions of elites. That’s their story, and political, educational, and social elites are sticking to it.
Original Article: A Field Guide to Dubious Fact-Checking
Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced legislation to create government-owned banks, ostensibly to “increase accountability.” In truth, the banks would exist to fund progressive causes.
Original Article: Government Banks Would Be a Dangerous Tool for Progressive Ideologues
Social media tends to be blamed for the overall nastiness of public discourse. Instead of condemning this form of communication, condemn the fuel that feeds this conflagration: democracy.
Original Article: Social Media Should Not Be Blamed for the Consequences of Democracy
One doesn’t need to search modern economic literature to take on the MMT crowd. Just read Bastiat.
Original Article: Bastiat versus MMT
Intellectual property laws provide another example of how government stifles innovation and competition.
Original Article: Bye Bye Willie: The Political Rent-Seeker
In his review of Claes G. Ryn's The Failure of American Conservatism, David Gordon points out that Austrian economic methodology is not a value-laden Jacobin experiment, but rather a workable explanation of how a successful economy works.
Original Article: Jacobin Capitalism?
While the “Great Reset” involves an unholy alliance between governments and big businesses, implementing its policies is impossible without central banks suppressing interest rates. Now that rates are rising, people are finding firsthand the real costs of the “Great Reset.”
Original Article: Rising Interest Rates and the "Great Reset" Bubble
Since Adam Smith, economic thinkers have failed to understand that profits in a market economy are not extractions of wealth from laborers. In truth, profits lead to higher wages and higher living standards for those workers.
Original Article: The War on Producers and Entrepreneurs Is Based on False Notions of Profits
Government efforts to expand “aggregate demand” involve new spending and money creation. In reality, these activities destroy wealth in the name of expanding it.
Original Article: Does Government Spending and Money Expansion Create New Wealth or Destroy It?
As the recent election of Javier Milei in Argentina shows us, there still is a place in the political world for libertarian thinking. Liberty is a goal still worth pursuing.
Original Article: Reflections on the Libertarian Role in Society
The job market is still hanging on—but not nearly as well as the headline numbers and media pundits would have you believe.
Original Article: The December Jobs Report Is Mostly Bad News
There is a lack of buyers for US Treasury debt. Rating agencies have recently downgraded the US debt, and entitlement benefits’ “trust funds” will go into the red in a few years. The classical economists offer few answers to the depth of this problem.
Original Article: Can Classical Economics Explain the Approaching Fiscal Disaster?
Javier Milei has begun his presidency by taking action against much of Argentina’s vast welfare state. One hopes it is the beginning to a successful term in office.
Original Article: The Decisive Driving Force to Victory for Javier Milei
By borrowing money and “creating” new jobs, the government is creating the illusion of a strong economy. This does not end well.
Original Article: The Government Is Making the Economy Appear Better than It Is
The island nation of Jamaica has beautiful beaches but a problem with poverty. Jamaica needs capital and free markets, not more state control of the economy.
Original Article: Jamaica Still Struggles Economically, But There Is Hope for the Future
The arguments of open-borders advocates may be applicable in some corners of the developed world. However, for small countries next to larger ones, open borders bring serious geopolitical consequences.
Original Article: Why Open Borders Don't Work for Small Countries
Thomas Hill Green, an eighteenth-century English philosopher, didn't believe it was possible to have a good society without a powerful state. David Gordon explains why Green’s argument fails to impress.
Original Article: Why Society Doesn't Need the State
When an economy suffers a recession, some factors of production, such as labor, become unemployed. Keynesians believe that expanding credit and fiat money will bring back full employment. That's not how an economy works.
Original Article: Can an Easy Money Policy Increase Employment of "Idle Resources"?
While Western attention is on the Israel-Hamas conflict, war quietly rages in Yemen with predictable destruction. Not surprisingly, US interventionism is fueling this fight.
Original Article: Yemen: The Forgotten Neoconservative-Supported War in the Middle East
American political and economic elites insist that they should have authority over everyone else. As people rebel, the elites are only doubling down on their original demands.
Original Article: The Establishment Is Unmasking Itself
The recent campus protests following the Hamas-Israel conflict have been framed as either antiapartheid or anti-Semitic. The conflict is much deeper, being rooted in toxic identity politics.
Original Article: The Anti-Semitism Controversy on College Campuses Is the Direct Result of Identity Politics
When it comes to housing, the solution to the problem of affordability is rather straightforward: build more. Slapping price controls on housing in the form of “rent control” only makes things worse.
Original Article: Resurrecting the Failed Policy of Rent Control
For most of the past century, Argentina has seen the destruction wrought by collectivism. To reverse the damage, the nation must allow decentralization, beginning with free cities.
Original Article: Why Argentina Needs Free Cities
While economics textbooks are weak on causes of the Great Depression, American history texts are even worse. It's time for some truth telling.
Original Article: History versus Economics: Explaining the Causes of the Great Depression
With the Houthis in Yemen firing on commercial ships in the Red Sea, the US is contemplating yet another Middle East conflict. As we see again, aggression leads to more aggression.
Original Article: The Escalating Tensions in the Red Sea Are a Bad Omen
All of us have experienced government road closures and the traffic and safety nightmares they create. Private roads may be the answer to solving the problem.
Original Article: Privatizing Roads Solves the Problem of Road Closures
The Rothbard Graduate Seminar (RGS) provides an opportunity to learn about Austrian economics at a high level.
Original Article: Reflections on the Rothbard Graduate Seminar
While the creator of modern portfolio theory was awarded a Nobel Prize, that doesn't mean the theory isn’t flawed. In fact, it explains very little about investments.
Original Article: Modern Portfolio Theory Is Mistaken: Diversification Is Not Investment
As both progressives and conservatives turn authoritarian, libertarian populism inspired by Murray Rothbard provides an alternative to the statist nonsense that dominates political discourse.
Original Article: The Problems with Post-Trump Populism
The response to the covid-19 outbreak is better understood as a tool of the national security state rather than as a public health measure.
Original Article: When Medical Authorities Went Totalitarian: Understanding Covid Policies and Protocols
Since government regulates nearly everything, it is not surprising that regulations often prohibit the sale and consumption of raw milk. Like many other regulations, these prohibitions reflect political favoritism, not health science.
Original Article: Government Prohibitions on Raw Milk Are Ignorant and Dangerous
Economist Antony C. Sutton understood one of the most fundamental economic truths: gold is money. Thorsten Polleit reviews Sutton’s classic book, The War on Gold.
Original Article: The Economic Wisdom of Antony C. Sutton’s The War on Gold
Using the rhetoric of “protecting democracy,” American ruling elites have tried to censor the internet because they don’t like the results of democracy when information no longer is filtered by the political classes.
Original Article: A Free and Open Internet Is a Threat to the Establishment
Jamaicans are willing to accept authoritarian behavior from the state in the name of rejecting colonialism.
Original Article: Authorities in Jamaica Endorse Cancel Culture
Progressives claim that state-sponsored healthcare systems are superior to market-based systems. Their arguments don’t add up.
Original Article: Markets versus State Healthcare Systems: Some Points of Contention
Federal debt is soaring out of control, and perhaps it is not surprising that the CBO has not updated its forecasts with this debt uncertainty.
Original Article: DC's Debt Trap
President Joe Biden is promoting his “AI Bill of Rights,” which looks to be an attempt to censor political opposition. Naturally, political and media elites are enthusiastically endorsing it.
Original Article: Biden's ""AI Bill of Rights"" May Just Be Another Censorship Plan
Many cities and states in this country have been tearing down or destroying monuments because they represent part of a past that progressives and leftists believe should not have existed. Yet each time we tear down something, we potentially lose part of an important heritage.
Original Article: Do Destroyed Monuments Represent a Past Not Worth Defending?
It seems U.S. government officials are entitled to blindfold and deceive the American people to avoid “intruding” on foreign leaders planning a military attack? This theory of democracy gets curiouser and curiouser.
Original Article:Truth Is the Biggest Threat to Democracy in DC
While zoning laws do not explain all homelessness in this country, they help make housing less affordable, putting more people on the streets who no longer can pay for a place to live.
Original Article:Zoning Laws: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
The Bill of Rights turns 232 years old today. Adopted in 1791 as a consolation prize for the Anti-Federalists, it has been the most important part of American legal history since the 18th century.
Original Article: The Bill of Rights: The Only Good Part of the Constitution
A coin collection can tell a lot about this nation's monetary history, and especially what happened nearly 60 years ago after the government debased U.S. coinage. This history is not having a happy ending.
Original Article:What an Old Coin Collection Tells Us about Money from the Past
Nippon Steel's proposal to merge with US Steel is meeting opposition from the usual suspects in Washington, not to mention Tucker Carlson. Their hysteria is off the charts.
Original Article:Let them Merge: Foreign Acquisition of US Steel
Like every other government program designed to make something “more affordable,” the student loan program has managed to drive college tuition to atmospheric levels and saddle students with massive levels of debt.
Original Article:Federal Student Loans Drive Up College Tuition Levels
America's famous Corn Belt should better be known as the nation's Subsidy Belt.
Original Article:America's Corn Crop Comes from "Corny" Subsidies
World elites gathered in yet another attempt to remake the world in a different image, with so-called climate change invoked as the catalyst for the meeting. As one can imagine, their "good" society is not very good for those who are not elites.
Original Article:COP28: Climate Catastrophism Wins as the World Loses
With a doveish pivot, Jerome Powell is declaring victory over inflation. It would be extraordinarily naive to ignore the influence of next year’s presidential election on the Fed’s new outlook.
Original Article:Will Powell's Pivot Bail Out Biden?
As the delegates gather for COP28 to set an agenda to "fight climate change," we should remember what they are seeking to do: destroy the world's economy as we have known it.
Original Article:The Immorality of COP28
In the name of dealing with a so-called public health crisis, U.S. political and medical elites created even more crises. David Gordon reviews Tom Woods' new book that deconstructs the disastrous decisions made by progressive politicians and medical authorities.
Original Article:Political Authorities and Covid: Creating Crises in the Name of Public Health
One usually does not equate libertarian thinking with a US prison, but prison life does offer some surprises, especially when it comes to internal governance
Original Article: Can a Libertarian Find Hope in Prison? Maybe
Africa, while being rich in natural resources, is hobbled by government corruption, socialistic policies, and a lack of economic freedom. One only can hope for change.
Original Article: Africa Doesn't Need More Government Aid; It Needs Free Markets
A century ago, the German reichsmark went into freefall as the most famous hyperinflation in history exploded the German economy. The repercussions still are with us.
Original Article: Unraveling the Roots of the German Mark's Collapse
Get ready to see George W. Bush, Michelle Obama, Mitch McConnell, and Hillary Clinton all mourn together at Kissinger's funeral as they hail one of the regime's most devoted apologists.
Original Article: Henry Kissinger: War Criminal and Enemy of Mankind
Protectionists are no better than any run-of-the-mill Progressive who wants more taxes on one group in order to subsidize some other group. There's no moral high ground here for the protectionists, just unfounded self-righteousness.
Original Article: The Immorality of Protectionism
In his latest defense of bloated military spending, President Joe Biden claims that the military budget creates real wealth. Instead, military spending is destroying it.
Original Article: President Biden Is Wrong. Military Spending Does Not Produce Wealth
Statists reveal their belief in the almighty state in many different ways, but they all want the same outcome: more government control over our lives.
Original Article: The Anatomy of the Statist
Thanks to Federal Reserve intervention, apartments and apartment buildings have turned into giant malinvestments. Once again, a federal entity intervenes in markets presumably to make them work better, but things end in a crisis.
Original Article: The Fed-Enabled Apartment Bubble Is Unraveling
British conservative critics of industrialization invented new terms like "wage slavery," "factory slavery," and "white slavery." Much of the conservatives' terminology and their arguments would later be adopted by socialists.
Original Article: The First Enemies of Free Markets Were Conservatives, Not Socialists
Murray Rothbard and Milton Friedman didn’t only disagree on the subject of economics. They also sharply disagreed on the direction American conservatism needed to go.
Original Article: Friedman versus Rothbard
Anarchocapitalism does not fall into the same category as socialism, whose establishment and maintenance require violence. Anarchocapitalism arises spontaneously from the removal of barriers that stand against the natural order of things.
Original Article: The Path to True Freedom is Systematic Privatization
As the Biden administration doubles down in its determination to create a more progressive nation, it inadvertently is creating more opportunities to promote libertarian alternatives.
Original Article: Biden Is Providing an Opportunity for a New "Outreach to the Deplorables"
The accusations against capitalism that we read not only from progressives but also conservatives are based upon fallacious thinking. It’s time to deal with these fallacies head on.
Original Article: Understanding Anti-Capitalist Fallacies
While Austria is not the free-market republic Ludwig von Mises hoped it would be, the country has made many steps in the right direction, freeing markets and protecting private property.
Original Article: What Would Mises Think? Austria Is Applying (Some) Austrian Economics
One of the biggest and most pervasive myths in modern-day economics is the myth of the omnipotence of the Federal Reserve.
Original Article: It’s Time to Bust the Myth of Fed Omnipotence
Coal drove the development of a whole new way of cooking and a radically different diet. A menu based upon coal-fired food was the cuisine that accompanied industrialization. Food and fuel were intricately linked in a fossil fuel-burning age.
Original Article: How Fossil Fuel Revolutionized Our Kitchens and Our Food
Between war weariness and the inability of the US government to pay war bills, reality is going to come to the fore even if Washington doesn't like it.
Original Article: After Ukraine, Realpolitik Will Be the New Interventionist Status Quo
The student loan program is descending into chaos and the Biden administration is clueless about what to do. Furthermore, the value of a college education continues to fall while college costs increase.
Original Article: Student Loans: The Continuing Crisis That Is Getting Worse
According to mainstream economists, the expectation of inflation leads to higher prices. That is impossible, however, because actual inflation involves real increases in the money supply.
Original Article: Inflationary Expectations Do Not Cause Inflation
With US government debt skyrocketing past $33 trillion and possible recession looming, the Treasury faces the prospect of running out of suckers. Finding buyers for US debt will become much more difficult.
Original Article: As the US Treasury Runs Out of Creditors, Its Options Dwindle
The concept of the state has more to do with the worldview of ancient Greek philosophers than with the Roman Empire. We could learn a few things about statelessness from the Romans.
Original Article: Should We Embrace the Stateless Roman Political Thought?
Henry Hazlitt, a great champion of liberty and Austrian economics, was born on November 28, 1894. His most famous book, Economics in One Lesson, remains a best seller thirty years after his death.
Original Article: Remembering the Great Henry Hazlitt on His Birthday
While China achieved strong economic growth in the post-Mao years by allowing free markets to work, the Communist leadership wants to return the economy to its old socialist ways. However, while the government can give fake growth numbers, it cannot reverse socialist failures.
Original Article: Overcoming Chinese Communist GDP Myths
David Gordon reviews Only a Voice, by George Scialabba, dealing with the author's comments on antiwar progressives Randolph Bourne and Dwight Macdonald.
Original Article:Bourne Again
For those who value self-determination, free markets, peace, and freedom, Napoleon provides little to be admired. He was a despot, a warmonger, a centralist, and a hypocrite who claimed to spread freedom to justify his own lust for conquest and power.
Original Article:Napoleon: Europe's First Egalitarian Despot
Today, the Fed takes a short break from robbing us via inflation and, instead, delivers huge amounts of cash to banks to service Black Friday purchases. The large cash infusions often make banks vulnerable to robberies.
Original Article:Today Is the Best Day of the Year to Rob a Bank
While the United States has not fallen as far economically as Argentina, the fact is that the present economic policies are ruinous. We need someone like Javier Milei to speak the truth about what is happening.
Original Article:The United States Needs Its Own Javier Milei
One of the cliches of the New Deal was that businesses were entitled to a “fair” profit. Leonard Read astutely pointed out that profits (and losses) have nothing to do with “fairness.”
Original Article:Are Businesses Entitled to a Fair Profit?
The standard line from US political elites is that failure to aid Ukraine would mean Russia's destruction of what is left of the country. However, the likely result would be a negotiated peace.
Original Article:What Would Happen If the US Stopped Supporting Ukraine?
In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends had to worry about wild animals and wicked witches. Today, Americans face a much more formidable foe: their own free-spending government.
Original Article: Millions and Billions and Trillions—Oh My!
The Biden administration claims it wants to get out in front of the development of artificial intelligence. However, the likely scenario is that AI will leave government regulators in its wake.
Original Article:Can Government Regulate Artificial Super Intelligence?
Econometric models are constructed with the idea that they can be substituted for authentic human action. Not surprisingly, they fail badly.
Original Article: Can Econometric Models Provide a Laboratory Setting for Economic Analysis?
A bedrock of Austrian economic thinking is the notion of causality. A libertarian worldview also requires the understanding of causality.
Original Article: Libertarianism and the Importance of Understanding Causality
Since the original sugar tariff of 1789, US government policy has been to subsidize sugar, a policy that has led to serious consequences, including a health crisis of obesity.
Original Article: America the Obese: How Taxpayers Are Forced to Ruin Their Health
Not only is Washington in political turmoil, but the policies emanating from the Beltway are more incoherent than ever.
Original Article: Preserving the Statist Quo: Creating a Generation of Welfare-ing, Libertine Narcissists
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is at it again: demanding government intervention in the nation's healthcare system to deal with problems caused by earlier government intervention.
Original Article: Progressive Interventionism Is Ruining American Healthcare
Critics of college legacy admissions claim that the practice is racist and admits undeserving students. The longer-term results of such admissions show why colleges continue to employ them.
Original Article: The Legacy of Legacy Admissions Is Not What the Critics Claim
Is cryptocurrency a scam or is it a legitimate alternative to state-corrupted money? Political elites want to eliminate it altogether, but that alone should tell us we need to better understand this alternative money source.
Original Article: Cryptocurrency: Integrity Destroyer or Policy Scapegoat?
Philip Goff wants to solve the why of the universe, but his answers are not always logically coherent, as David Gordon explains.
Original Article: The Taxman Cometh
In the past two decades, the TSA has proven it is ineffective in providing real security for airline passengers. However, its growing incompetence is matched only by its increasing intrusion into travelers' lives.
Original Article: The TSA Is Still Crazy after All These Years
Progressives claim that perhaps individual freedom might be appropriate for a simpler society but that as society grows more complex, the need for government grows. As Leonard Read pointed out, however, greater complexity requires greater freedom, not less.
Original Article: The More Complex the Society, The Less Government Control We Need
Mainstream economists turned climate warriors use cost-of-production methods to determine the “true” social cost of carbon. They appeal to a discredited methodology falsely attributed to medieval Scholastics.
Original Article: The Worse-than-Medieval Economics of Climate Technocrats
According to a Brown University professor, ExxonMobil threatens our democratic republic by purchasing another company. The totalitarian woke atmosphere in American higher education is the real threat.
Original Article: Is ExxonMobil's Acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources a "Threat to Democracy"?
While the Fed tries to engineer the mythical “soft landing” for the economy, Austrian economists know that this is an exercise in futility. Once the credit-fueled boom occurs, the bust logically follows.
Original Article: The Inevitable Bust: Why Economic Booms Contain the Seeds of Their Own Destruction
Advocates of unbacked paper money claim that theirs is the “civilized” choice, as opposed to gold, or what Keynes called “that barbarous relic.” These inflationists, however, are the ones wrecking civilization as we have known it.
Original Article: From the Invisible Hand to the Invisible Sleight-of-Hand
Ten years ago, I discovered the Mises Institute. This is the advice I wish I could send back to my younger self.
Original Article: Ten Years Ago, I Discovered the Mises Institute. These Are the Things I Wish I Had Done Differently
Forget the other mainstream explanations for interest. Time preference explains this phenomenon and gives a true picture of why interest exists in the first place.
Original Article: Time Preference Is the Key Driver of Interest Rates
As this author previously has noted, the ideology of statism is responsible for much of the violence that plagues the world. We see this played out in Israel's aggressive retaliatory attacks in Gaza in response to the October 7 killings by Hamas.
Original Article: Statist Ideology and War: Israel versus Hamas
Data on employed persons, wages, and other measures point to trouble ahead in an economy already strained by growing bankruptcies, mounting debts, and disappearing savings.
Original Article: October's Sobering Jobs Report Adds to Mounting Bad Economic News
The new problem we now face arises from the fact that huge deficits are only manageable so long as interest rates remain very, very low.
Original Article: There's No Easy Way Out of This Debt Spiral
The eternal “climate emergency” is upon us. While doomsday is said to be around the corner, the reality is that the only thing rising is the level of government control.
Original Article: The "Climate Emergency": Fueled by 21st Century Marxism
The new problem we now face arises from the fact that huge deficits are only manageable so long as interest rates remain very, very low.
Original Article: The Federal Reserve is Running Losses. Does This Cost Anyone Anything?
While Israel receives praise for being a “democracy” in the undemocratic Middle East, its surveillance policies mirror those of China, which is decidedly not democratic.
Original Article: Israel Isn’t the Brilliant Friend of Freedom the Beltway Claims It to Be
The newly released movie "Killers of the Flower Moon" depicts what happens when politically connected people can use the state to carry out nefarious deeds. Unfortunately, government failure is one lesson that is sure to be lost here.
Original Article: Killers of the Flower Moon Is about Government Failure
An unfortunate consequence of increased wealth is the growth of the parasitic consumptive class of political and cultural elites. Labor migrations often follow in the wake of damage that elites do.
Original Article: Is Migration a Tool of the Consumptive Class?
As the federal government continues its Ponzi scheme of issuing debt to pay for past debts, interest rates will increase to the point where this no longer is a tenable strategy—if it ever was.
Original Article: The Interest Rate Shock Will Blow Up the Government’s Ponzi Game
A Cato Institute associate has declared the development of the covid-19 vaccines to be a free-market “triumph.” The only thing that has triumphed in this sorry episode has been the rapid growth of coercive government power.
Original Article: Contra CATO: COVID-19 Vaccinations Are Not a Free Market Victory
Governments regularly suppress freedom—yet few complain. One wonders if Stockholm syndrome is at work.
Original Article: Liberty: Stifled by the Stockholm Syndrome
In the aftermath of Hamas's taking hostages in its conflict with Israel, the question arises: Who pays the ransom? State-financed payments lead to the worst outcomes and create moral hazards.
Original Article: Hostage Extraction Needs to be Privatized
Resettling Gazans in America—at taxpayer expense—will be sold as a "humanitarian" effort, but anyone who sees through the propaganda will see that it's really all a cynical effort to please Israeli politicians.
Original Article: You're Paying for the Israel War. You'll Also Pay for the Refugees.
Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton claims that the free market cannot provide adequate medical care. Of course, he goes on to describe government failure but calls it a free market.
Original Article: Blaming the Free Market (Even Where It Doesn't Exist)
How the Israel-Gaza war ends is easy to imagine because it's following a path that has been trod many times before. We've seen it many times during conflicts between settler populations and indigenous populations worldwide
Original Article: American History Is a Preview of the Israel-Palestine End Game
One way to combat intellectual atrophy is to learn from Ibram Kendi’s mistakes and do the opposite.
Original Article: Affective Polarization Is Making Us Dumber
After an earlier article by Zachary Yost on a call by military “experts” to reinstate the military draft, the authors of the original paper are trying to back off on their original recommendation. But there is no doubt as to what they want the government to do.
Original Article: Coauthor of War College Journal Article Tries to Backtrack on Call for "Partial Conscription"
This latest Middle East conflict is ultimately little more than gang warfare. We oppose it as a matter of principle.
Original Article: Statism Is the Cause of the Israel-Hamas War
The German economic powerhouse is slowing, weighed down by its costly green energy policies and a bloated welfare state. Germany's economy needs market reforms, not more state intervention.
Original Article: How German Exports Lost the Race with China
China's so-called economic miracle is running into the ground as the reality of central planning becomes increasingly obvious and an economic reckoning looms.
Original Article: China’s Inefficient and Unsustainable Central Planning
While the White House claims that inflation is losing steam, the truth is that unless the government changes its reckless monetary course, hyperinflation could be in our economic future.
Original Article: The Specter of Hyperinflation Looms over the Economy
Inflation in Turkey today is officially running close to 70 percent, but the Turkish economy seems to be booming. Inflationary booms, however, cannot be sustained.
Original Article: Turkey Is Sustaining Major Inflation. Something Has to Give
Under the guise of "modernizing" communications, the Canadian government is vastly expanding its power to regulate social media and threaten free speech.
Original Article: Canadian Digital Protectionism Gravely Threatens Free Speech
While Ibrahim Kendi's infamous antiracism center at Boston University implodes, the doctrines espoused by the center continue to present false social narratives.
Original Article: Kendi's Critical Race Theory Is a Failed Marxist Doctrine
As war rages in the Middle East, we are reminded of what Mises wrote in 1949 on warfare and its awful effects.
Original Article: Mises on the History of Warfare
Americans have been fed the myth that US foreign policy from 1919 to 1941 was isolationist. In reality, US policies destabilized already volatile international relations.
Original Article: Pushing the False Narrative of U.S. Isolationism
Naomi Wolf has taken on the American medical bureaucracy for its lies and malpractice in dealing with covid.
Original Article: Battling Beasts and Bureaucrats: Naomi Wolf and the American Medical-Government Police State
Federal flood insurance was created ostensibly to provide insurance to people who live in flood-prone areas. Not surprisingly, it subsidizes bad home-building decisions and wastes billions of dollars.
Original Article: Federal Flood Insurance Drains Taxpayers
The field of behavior economics downplays the role of purposeful praxeology in economics. Austrian economics does not make that error.
Original Article: Reason versus Emotion in Economics: A Praxeological Response
The countries have changed, but the story remains the same. Wealthier countries try to “invest” by lending money to African regimes, where the money disappears. This time, China is the big lender.
Original Article: No Monetary or Political Bailouts for Belt-and-Road Initiative Debtors
Modern prosperity is astonishing, but it can quickly disappear if our monetary unit fails. We need to keep up the fight for sound money.
Original Article: Cut through the Media Noise, and Remember the Economic Priorities
As the Biden administration ramps up new government spending—and budget deficits—to unheard-of peacetime levels, reality sets in. No economy and no currency can withstand this explosive assault for very long.
Original Article: The Dollar See-Saws between Two Views on Fiscal Explosion
While the ruling elites and the Federal Reserve try to sell digital money as “modern” and “convenient,” it poses threats to financial privacy and civil liberties.
Original Article: "The Dangers of a ""Cashless"" Economy
The leviathan US state would not be possible without the Fed underwriting its growth. But the Fed is not all-powerful, nor can it continue to exist by only creating chaos.
Original Article: If the Fed Goes, The State Will Soon Follow
The AI and robotics revolution continues. As entrepreneurs find new ways to use these things profitably, the overall wealth of nations increases.
Original Article: The Fate or Wealth of Nations: AI, Robotics and Automation
Murray Rothbard asked this question and concluded that the current American regime, if the wisdom of Aquinas’ words is taken seriously, cannot wage a just war.
Original Article: Can the American Government Wage a Just War?
David Gordon reviews Dan Moller's book Governing Least: A New England Libertarianism, in which the author examines the issue of a welfare state in a libertarian society.
Original Article: Is a Welfare State Consistent with Libertarianism?
Even something that seems as objective as software development falls under the Austrian view of subjective utility.
Original Article: What is Software Quality? An Austrian Approach
Fed up with the state's surveillance regime? There are ways to use available technology to frustrate government efforts to spy on you.
Original Article: Fighting the Surveillance State Begins with the Individual
Instead of the usual statist candidates, Argentine voters have to opportunity to elect a Rothbardian who is calling for radical free-market changes in the nation's economy.
Original Article: Rothbard, Milei and the New Right in Argentina
Oliver Anthony's popular song, "Rich Men North of Richmond," describes the parasitic world of the Beltway. One hopes people understand the damage the political classes have done.
Original Article: The Parasitic Rich Men North of Richmond
Residential electricity sources are becoming yet another form of “virtue signaling.”
Original Article: Can Electricity Providers Promise 100 Percent Green Energy? Probably Not.
Modern minds are so oriented toward state power that people often fail to understand there is a better way. Instead of “thinking outside the box,” we should think outside the state.
Original Article: Thinking outside the State
Leave it to government judges and politicians to turn constitutional protections of free speech into new ways to centralize and grow state power.
Original Article: Destroying Liberty Through State Protection: The First Amendment
Robert Murphy explains how traders make money in a world of uncertainty and diabolical risk.
Original Article: Making Money While Making Sense of Chaos: Understanding the World of the Traders
President Biden claims that spending money to send weapons and ammunition around the world is good for the US economy.
Original Article: Don't Fall for Biden's Latest Talking Point
Is a true populist US government on the horizon? Probably not.
Original Article: The Spirit of the Establishment Will Thrive under a "Populist Opposition" Government
Thanks to the exponential growth of government and regulation, the optimistic society of Back to the Future is fast becoming the dystopian world of Escape from New York or Death Wish.
Original Article: Back to the Future Morphs into Dystopia
While most economists admit that value is subjective, they still err by concentrating on scarcity and choice instead of purposeful action by individuals.
Original Article: The Objective Science of Subjective Value
Because Federal Reserve policies distort the economy and create perverse incentives, Disney also must deal with intellectual property issues. The combination of the two will ruin the Snow White story.
Original Article: Thanks to the Combination of the Fed and IP, Snow White 2024 Is a Terrible Movie
"Effective altruism" has become a buzzword with modern progressives who seek to combine state power and billionaire-funded nonprofits to redirect resources.
Original Article: A Rothbardian Critique of Effective Altruism
Most people will claim to be political and social “moderates” yet actually accept extreme socialist viewpoints.
Original Article: The Inherent Evils of Centrism
David Gordon explains Murray Rothbard's famous assertion that laws against libel and slander should not be on the books.
Original Article: Rothbard on Suits for Defamation
Christianity Today magazine enthusiastically endorses government-enforced family leave, calling it “pro-family.” Government coercion, however, is still violence, not something to be championed.
Original Article: Government-Enforced Paid Family Leave Is Not Pro-Family
Even when Congress tries to restrict government agencies from illegally gathering information on people, the agencies simply exploit legal loopholes or just break the law—without consequences.
Original Article: Government Agencies Exploit Data Brokers as End-Around to Legal Restrictions
The boom-and-bust cycles are not natural to a market economy, contra Keynes. Instead, government through monetary manipulation creates them—and then politicians blame markets themselves.
Original Article: How the Fed Undermines Prosperity
Popular economic thinking holds that consumer spending is the most important driver of the economy. Actually, demand can’t exist without something first being supplied.
Original Article: Why Must Supply Precede Demand? Understanding Economic Foundations
While Hillary Clinton’s call to have Trump supporters “deprogrammed” has been met with snickers, her attitude is in line with most of this country’s governing elites.
Original Article: The Regime Plans More for Us Than Just Hillary Clinton’s "Deprogramming" Demands
The US government doesn't just blow money in the US. Indeed, the reach of its wasteful spending spans the globe, and Congress seems incapable of stopping it.
Original Article: Spending More Taxpayer Money on Foreign Policy Boondoggles Has Solved Nothing
Some small municipalities in Pennsylvania have disbanded their police departments, so others want to tax them for “depending” on state police. There is an even better course of action: allow private policing.
Original Article: Police Mergers Are Not the Answer, but Privatization Is
American culture wars are not the product of religious fundamentalists or even activist groups. They exist because of state interference in the private lives of individuals.
Original Article: Government Is the Hidden Hand Directing the Culture Wars
The affordability crisis is upon us. Housing, food, you name it, life is becoming expensive. The government blames business, but perhaps government officials should look in the mirror.
Original Article: How Inflationary Money Causes the Affordability Crisis
US government officials from President Biden to Secretary Yellen think the US can fund endless wars, but the American people are suffering in reality.
Original Article: No, We Cannot Afford to Fund Yet Another War
Governments are fond of accusing private firms of “greed” when prices increase during periods of inflation. However, they fail to tell the public that government services also face price increases.
Original Article: Is There Inflation in Government-Financed Goods and Services?
Rothbard warned against the assumption that because democracies are “better” than dictatorships, they are necessarily more peace loving.
Original Article: Rothbard on a Priori History
Infamous hyperinflations like what hit Germany in 1923 did not begin as a flood. Instead, they started as smaller bouts of inflation initiated by governments that printed money to pay for deficit spending.
Original Article: How a Trickle Can Turn into a Flood
While politicians like Bernie Sanders and AOC tout the Scandinavian welfare model for the USA, there are a few things to understand about these countries and the economies that support their welfare programs.
Original Article: Taking a Closer Look at the Vaunted Scandinavian Welfare States
Forget Vegas sports betting for reckless speculation. When the Fed officials make projections, the markets assume they are accurate. However, as Jerome Powell himself admits, forecasts are speculative at best.
Original Article: Fed Forecasts: Financial Sport or Costly Distraction?
Bastiat reminded his readers that economic analysis involves not just what we see on the surface, but also the costs that are hidden from view.
Original Article: What Is Seen—And What is NOT Seen: Bastiat's Often-Ignored Wisdom
Much of modern neoclassical economic theory depends upon assumptions that do not reflect real world conditions. Austrian economists, however, know that realistic assumptions matter.
Original Article: Economics and the Real World
From the various compromises pushed by "Beltway Libertarians" to the anti-free market rhetoric of conservative Sohrab Ahmari, government intervention has a lot of new friends. This will not end well.
Original Article: Tyranny, Inc.: How “Beltway Libertarians” Failed to Convince Conservatives
On yet another crusade, US authorities have sanctioned Chinese cotton imports. The sanctions won't change Chinese policies but they will create hardships for many.
Original Article: Cotton Pickin' Sanctions
Although there has been excitement and fanfare over the recent BRICS meetings and proclamations, it is doubtful that these economies’ performance can match their rhetoric.
Original Article: Assessing the BRICS Expansion: Debunking Expectations
Why do people become libertarians? What attracts them to Austrian economics?
Original Article: Living Libertarian: Brief Biographies
Keynesians claim that the source of economic growth is consumer spending. Austrians know that net savings are the key to a growing economy.
Original Article: Real Economic Growth Depends on Savings
Hans Hoppe theorized that monarchs, as opposed to democratically-elected political authorities, would have lower time preferences and would be less likely to engage in reckless government spending. Unfortunately, at least one Medieval Danish king acted like a modern politician.
Original Article: Do Monarchs Always Have Low Time Preferences?
Governments are using intimidation to regulate independent journalists on the decentralized internet.
Original Article: The State against Anonymity
Not satisfied with the futile and destructive wars it has fought in this century, leaders of the US Armed Forces now want reinstatement of the draft. Instead, perhaps our government should give peace a chance.
Original Article: The US Military Is Laying the Groundwork to Reinstitute the Draft
Is there a way out of the seemingly intractable demands that trans athletes who are "transitioning" from male to female be permitted to compete with female athletes? There may be a free-market solution.
Original Article: Chess, Trans Athletes, and Free Markets in Sports
The recent attacks in Israel are a horrific reminder of how lightly guarded civilization is from savagery.
Original Article: Hamas, Israel, and the Collapse of the Fiat Global Order
In the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo of 50 years ago, Congress banned U.S. export sales of crude oil. The results were different than what government "experts" imagined.
Original Article: Oil Export Bans Make for Crude Politics
While the prospect of Javier Milei being elected president of Argentina is attractive, his plan to "dollarize" the Argentine economy will fall well short of hopes and expectations.
Original Article: Dollarization in Argentina Will Not Promote Freedom
No matter the situation, bank CEOs believe that the Big Score is just around the corner. Then reality hits.
Original Article: Bank CEOs Have Their Heads in the Clouds
Hamas's invasion of Israel happened in spite of decades of US intervention and spending in favor of Tel Aviv. Yet, this ongoing conflict has nothing at all to do with the safety and security of the United States itself. It's time for the US to get out.
Original Article: Get the US Out of the Middle East
The recent attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians have led to justified outrage. But will Israel's response also kill innocent people? Murray Rothbard has words of wisdom on this subject.
Original Article: Is It Just War or Unjustified Slaughter of Innocents?
Climate alarmism dominates the news cycle, but perhaps people be more alarmed by massive federal budget deficits and runaway entitlement spending.
Original Article: It’s Time for Some Debt and Entitlement Alarmism
While central banks use administered interest rates in hopes of emulating the natural rate, these efforts are always going to fail. Without free markets, there is no natural rate.
Original Article: The Central Bank Policy Interest Rate vs the Natural Rate
Members of the Canadian Parliament recently applauded a Ukrainian member of the Nazi Waffen-SS during World War II. Apparently, it's now okay to be a Nazi so long as you're fighting the Russians.
Original Article: The Left Is Now Telling Us (Ukrainian) Nazis Aren't So Bad After All
Some free-market advocates are pushing for dollarization in Argentina. But the devastating US sanctions against Panama in 1989 show us how dollarization helps the US exercise more hegemonic power over foreign economies.
Original Article: Dollarization Puts Foreign Economies at the Mercy of the US Regime
Haiti famously won its independence from France during a slave revolt, but being independent has not brought political stability or prosperity. Instead, Haitians struggle to get by in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
Original Article: Haiti May Have Won Independence, But It Is Not Independent of Chaos and Poverty
While Murray Rothbard believed that self-ownership formed the basis for private property rights, other philosophers disagree.
Original Article: Can We Find a Basis for Private Property Rights?
While court economists such as Paul Krugman insist that inflation is government's way of ensuring full employment, in reality, inflation is one of the many ways governments steal from productive people.
Original Article: Inflation: Government’s Insidious Form of Theft
The recent executive order by New Mexico's governor suspending gun rights in part of the state demonstrates not only her ignorance of the law, but also her greater ignorance of the origin of rights.
Original Article: No, Governor, Rights Are NOT Government-Issued Privileges That You Can Suspend
In the wake of bad news on inflation, the Federal Reserve is pushing up interest rates. However, a Fed-induced higher rate is not the same as an interest rate decided by the market.
Original Article: Why the Fed's Tight Rate Stance Damages the Economy
As the US economy sours, look for a wave of new bankruptcies. The Fed cannot pull any rabbits out of its monetary hat this time.
Original Article: Welcome to the Twenty-First Century American Bankruptcy Show
Progressives have created a new thought crime: cultural appropriation. However, one cannot appropriate something that is not owned by anyone else.
Original Article: Cultural Appropriation: The Nontheft of Something No One Owns
The decision to use artificial intelligence–powered robots in the fast food industry depends upon differences in costs and performance between humans and robots. State minimum wage laws are pushing the industry toward robots.
Original Article: Would You Hire an AI-powered McRobot or a Human Employee?
Read the New York Times (or even National Review) and you'll learn that the budget standoff is between congressional “adults” and right-wing House nutjobs. This is not the case.
Original Article: The House Showdown: Separating Truth from Outright Falsehoods
Austrian economics stands apart from the economic mainstream in its deductive approach to economic analysis.
Original Article: The Austrian School's Deductive Approach: A Beacon for Economic Understanding
Compared to how most other people in the world live, Americans have a high standard of living. And despite the talk about inequality, there is more economic and social mobility here than anyplace else.
Original Article: American Prosperity Is Greater than Most of Us Realize
While philosophy is a discipline that has been hijacked by the Left, once in a while a philosopher comes along and surprises us.
Original Article: A Procapitalist Philosopher
When covid restrictions were at their tightest, many people died alone in ICUs, as friends and family were kept away in the name of "public health." A more accurate assessment of the policy is to call it barbaric.
Original Article: Forced Isolation of Patients in the ICU Is Barbaric and Counterproductive
As the economy slowly deteriorates, consumer debt rises. In the meantime, the Fed is pushing up interest rates to deal with the inflation it caused. This does not end well.
Original Article: Consumer Credit Is Expanding Even While the Fed Pushes up Interest Rates
The ruling classes have determined that crimes are political in nature. Thus, Donald Trump faces criminal charges while actual crimes by other presidents go uncharged and unpunished.
Original Article: Let's Examine Some REAL Crimes Committed by Presidents
While F.A. Hayek is known for his term “spontaneous order,” Mises saw institutional development as coming from growth in human understanding of things.
Original Article: Mises versus Hayek on the Future of Civilization
Because California’s government has hamstrung electricity producers in the state, its legislature now wants EVs to be “bidirectional,” that is, to put power from their batteries back into the grid.
Original Article: Power Vacuum: How the State Wants to Suck Electricity from the SUV You Are Required to Buy
The state is held together by violence and nothing else. There is no such thing as "the social contract." But even violence cannot make a state last past its time, as we saw with the USSR.
Original Article: States Are Dying from Corruption and the Exponential
Obamacare's forced electronic medical recordkeeping is denying patients the care they need.
Original Article: Physician Burnout: Another Consequence of Medical Socialism
Free trade has its enemies on the left and the right. However, despite the supposed “sophistication” of their antitrade arguments, when we break them down, those arguments really are sophistry.
Original Article: Statism Stands against Free Trade and Free Association
More than forty years ago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn urged his fellow Russians “not to live by lies.” In our politicized age, his words ring truer than ever.
Original Article: Totalitarian Ideals and Not Living by Lies
If we read between the lines, it is apparent that the Fed is hoping that price inflation will fall to politically acceptable levels without any additional tightening, and without a recession. But "hope" is all the Fed has.
Original Article: The Fed Holds the Fed Funds Rate Steady—Because it Doesn't Know What Else To Do
The call for "price stabilization" was part of the recent Republican debate. Despite its attractive appearance, having the Fed try to "stabilize prices" is a very bad idea.
Original Article: Why Stabilization Policy is Destabilizing
In the global Ponzi scheme, thin air and deceit substitute for sound money. As hedge-fund manager Mitch Feierstein wrote in Planet Ponzi, “You don’t solve a Ponzi scheme; you end it.”
Original Article: "The Coming Collapse of the Global Ponzi Scheme"
In a more reasonable world, people like Cheney, Rice, Bolton, et al., would all be forgotten, shamed, and disgraced for overseeing multiple disastrous wars abroad and the creation of a police state at home. Unfortunately, we don't live in a more reasonable world.
Original Article: "America Since 9/11: 22 Years of Lies and Despotism"
Being large doesn't make a country wealthy, nor does being small shrink a country's economy.
Original Article: "No, Small Countries Are Not at an Economic Disadvantage"
When Mises wrote that the fascists had "saved European civilization," he could have been describing Francisco Franco of Spain, who kept Spain from becoming a communist dictatorship.
Original Article: "What Mises Really Thought about Fascism"
Many people believe that the board game Monopoly, developed during the Great Depression, mimics a real-world capitalist economy. Monopoly is a game, not real life.
Original Article: "Is the Monopoly Board Game Like Real Markets?"
Can a government regulatory system be reformed? In a word, no. The free market is always the best regulator of quality and safety.
Original Article: "Regulation in the Free Market: It’s Not What Most People Believe"
Despite what many elites believe, AI can do many things, but it cannot successfully plan an economy. It lacks the intelligence of an entrepreneur.
Original Article: "AI Lacks the Entrepreneurial Intelligence to Plan an Economy"
While progressives blame climate change for the deadly Lahaina fire, government created the conditions for the blaze and then helped set it.
Original Article: "Thanks to Government, Maui's Lahaina Fire Became a Deadly Conflagration"
Contrary to the government's line that "inflation hurts everyone," inflation really is a wealth transfer from those without political power to the politically connected.
Original Article: "Inflation Is a Giant "Skim" on the American People"
As family life descends into crisis in the USA, many conservatives call for state intervention to "fix" things. It's state intervention that created the problems in the first place.
Original Article: "Family Flourishing and State Denigration"
If Staten Island is allowed to secede, our national technocrats fear that might open up countless similar demands for self-determination across the nation. For the elites, the current status quo works quite well and they want to keep it that way.
Original Article: "Let Staten Island Secede!"
Members of Congress claim to be "concerned" over the proposed merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. They should be supporting it or, even better, backing off completely.
Original Article: "Golf Merger Is Opposed by Congress. This Is Misguided"
We should not just be concerned about problems in the American banking system, but also about the proliferation of Eurodollars.
Original Article: "Eurodollars as a Fractional Reserve Market"
The possible bankruptcy of Thames Water Company in Great Britain brings to mind the heady days 40 years ago when Margaret Thatcher's government was privatizing state-owned enterprises, including TW. Not all privatization stories have happy endings.
Original Article: "Thatcher's New Style of Government"
The real effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima were hidden from Americans until the New Yorker published an exposé in 1946. Americans finally were confronted with the truth—even if they didn't want to believe it.
Original Article: "The Bombing of Hiroshima: The Crime and the Cover-Up"
Much of government-owned transportation destroys rather than adds to wealth. The lack of a sound system of economic calculation is to blame.
Original Article: "The Problem with Public Transit"
Many conservatives, in trying to steer the USA away from "wokeism," fail to understand that their “national greatness” schemes are just as harmful.
Original Article: ""National Greatness" Is Not the Appropriate Response to "Wokeism""
The rioting in France is not due to racism nor is it the logical end of immigration. Instead, it is rooted in France's minimum wage and other labor restrictions that lead to unemployment and resentment.
Original Article: "France's Unrest Has Deep Roots. Proposed Immigration Restrictions Will Make Things Worse"
While many economists claim that high overall debt levels can lead to economic recessions, irresponsible government spending and money expansion are the real culprits.
Original Article: "Easy Money Is a Much Bigger Economic Problem than Debt"
Modern American media has become so politicized that a once-venerable institution now cannot be trusted.
Original Article: "Politics Has Infected Everything in Our Society, Especially the Media"
The open protocols on the internet would seem to create chaos, but it turns out that they produce the opposite results, encouraging a digital spontaneous order.
Original Article: "Breaking Free: How Open Protocols Foster Entrepreneurship, Spontaneous Order, and Individual Sovereignty"
People migrate for many reasons, including moving to a better economy and escaping political persecution. But one thing is certain: people are going to vote with their feet.
Original Article: "Voting with Their Feet: The Lure of Migration"
While the government promotes CBDCs as tools for "inclusion," it is more likely that they will be another vehicle for federal intrusion.
Original Article: "CBDCs: The Ultimate Tool of Financial Intrusion"
The covid restriction machinery is being ramped up in time for fall, despite the fact that covid poses little danger.
Original Article: "The Unwelcome Return of Covid Restrictions and Lockdowns"
For the past fifty years, the US has not had a military draft. Unfortunately, the end of conscription did not mean US military interventions abroad ended.
Original Article: "How Conscription Ended Fifty Years Ago"
Economic calculation is not an either-or proposition. Even in so-called market economies like that of the USA, there is plenty of government intervention that distorts market processes.
Original Article: "Economic Calculation Is Nonbinary"
The "2 percent" inflation target is purely arbitrary, and mainstream economists can't agree on the "right" level. It's all folly, and Austrian economics explains why.
Original Article: "What Is the Right Inflation Target for Central Banks?"
The DOJ claims that it has "protected" consumers by standing in the way of a partnership between JetBlue and American Airlines. The only thing the DOJ protected was higher-cost flying.
Original Article: "Flying into Foolishness: The DOJ "Saves" Consumers from Low-Cost Airlines"
Progressives have distinguished themselves in the past half century by being against progress. That trend is unlikely to change.
Original Article: "Real Progress versus the Progressives"
Too many economic commentators claim that monopolies are the cause of inflation. Austrian economic analysis shows that this is impossible.
Original Article: "Do Monopolies Cause Inflation?"
In a free society, political crimes like treason and "seditious libel" are few and far between. Under despotic regimes, on the other hand, political crimes multiply.
Original Article: "Why Governments Love Political "Crimes" Like Treason and Sedition"
In the Gulag, political prisoners were systematically terrorized by ordinary criminals with the encouragement of the authorities. It was hoped this would help the regime liquidate the state's ideological enemies.
Original Article: "How the Soviets Used Common Criminals to Destroy the Regime's Enemies"
Leonard Read's famous "I, Pencil" explained the workings of the market in terms of the creation of a simple pencil. However, we should not forget that the reviled fossil fuels are involved at every turn.
Original Article: "Not Even a Pencil Could Exist without Fossil Fuels"
Yellow Trucking Company has filed for bankruptcy and ceases to exist as a viable firm. Much of the blame is due to the Teamsters Union which has a long a violent history.
Original Article: "Yellow Trucking Goes Bankrupt, Thanks in Part to Onerous Labor Laws"
The seventy-fifth-anniversary celebration of the British National Health Service masked the real failures of this system, one that only can become worse over time.
Original Article: "The British NHS More Resembles a Statist Cult Than Advanced Healthcare"
The Ukraine war brings death and destruction with no end in sight. Instead of encouraging more fighting, Western political leaders need to face reality and find a way to end this conflict.
Original Article: "The Killing and Destruction Must Stop: It Is Time to End the Ukraine War"
The regime has increasingly been consumed with paranoia over threats to itself—propagandistically termed "threats to democracy"—while real crime against private citizens is clearly not a priority at all.
Original Article: "The State Protects Itself While Crime against Ordinary People Surges"
The simplest action of economics—beneficially mutual voluntary exchange—is also its most profound. People serve each other while improving their own lot in life.
Original Article: "The Simplicity and Significance of Mutual Economic Exchange"
Murray Rothbard wrote that egalitarianism was a war against nature. Statism has become a war against reality.
Original Article: "Statism and the Unmaking of Reality"
The activists went from "We want to be left alone to live our lives" to "we want to control your lives too." Now the movement has state power on its side and bullies all opponents.
Original Article: "2SLGBTQ+IA and the Law"
Some are claiming that AI can make socialism workable, but even AI cannot take the place of entrepreneurial economic calculation.
Original Article: "Socialism Cannot Work, Not Even in an AI-Driven Economy"
Federal prosecutors and other law enforcement agents are turning blockchain firms into government subsidiaries. The real goal is to criminalize what really are lawful, private exchanges.
Original Article: "The Government Wants to Turn Blockchain Firms into Servants of the State"
Mainstream economists are quick to claim that environmental problems are caused by "market failure" that can be "fixed" by government intervention. However, the intervention itself is the problem.
Original Article: "Why Government Pollution Control Fails"
The recent actions of the Federal Reserve are reminiscent of central bank activities in wartime.
Original Article: "Has World War III Already Begun?"
Following the collapse of the USSR, many socialists pinned their hopes upon the development of a "market socialism" that would be economically efficient and create equality. Marxist philosopher G.A. Cohen wisely dissented.
Original Article: "What Marxists Say about "Market Socialism""
Social democrats are so desperate to cast off limits on government that they'll embrace anything that justifies their ambitions. So they invent theories of money that are very, very wrong.
Original Article: "Progressives Have Corrupted Not Only Money, but Its History as Well"
Even under chattel slavery, inequality was still pervasive. Carpenters, sugar boilers, blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, and rum distillers constituted an elite core of slaves.
Original Article: "Even in Slave Economies, the Division of Labor Was Inescapable"
Speculators are reviled in the media and by politicians and academics. Yet the speculators are the ones taking risks to ensure the rest of us can have more economic certainty.
Original Article: "Hail the Speculators! They Take the Necessary Economic Risks in Our Economy"
In 1944, F.A. Hayek's best-selling book, The Road to Serfdom, warned the West that the "free" nations would lose their freedom as government expanded. He was right.
Original Article: "They Didn't Listen: The Reality of Hayek’s Bestseller"
Forcing the minimum wage above the real market wage causes more unemployment. Small businesses suffer from these mandates as do the least productive workers.
Original Article: "A Higher Minimum Wage Won't Improve Life in Pennsylvania"
Rothbard on the American Revolution: "There was no particular need for the formal trappings and permanent investing of a centralized government, even for victory in war."
Original Article: "The American Revolutionaries Didn't Need a Central Government. Neither Do We."
While FedNow seems benign, there is the larger problem of the entire banking system itself being built on a foundation of sand. FedNow can only make that problem worse.
Original Article: "FedNow Isn't a CBDC, but It Is Dangerous"
Banker and financial expert Caitlin Long believes that fractional reserve banking is closer than ever to collapse, and she has a 100 percent reserve banking solution in progress.
Original Article: "Can Fractional Reserve Banking Survive the Twenty-First Century?"
The East German secret police, the Stasi, developed the art of mass surveillance using pre-digital methods. Modern tech now makes the job a lot easier.
Original Article: "How East Germany's Stasi Perfected Mass Surveillance"
The Trump administration doled out $700 million in CARES “loans” to trucking firm Yellow. Now Yellow has gone bankrupt, and the taxpayers may foot the bill.
Original Article: "The Taxpayers Bailed Out Yellow Trucking. It Went Bankrupt Anyway."
While Americans believe the First Amendment protects their speech, the US government and mainstream media have joined together to suppress speech that does not coincide with government policies.
Original Article: "Censorship through the Centuries: Free Speech Suppression by the Government and the Mainstream Media"
By corrupting the meaning of inflation, mainstream economists have given a false picture of what happens when monetary authorities expand the money supply. Mises and Rothbard understood.
Original Article: "Taking Back the Meaning of "Inflation""
The Christian nationalist state is one in which civil rulers—for a time—regard the Church as a convenient ally. Once this comes to an end, however, the "Christian" state transforms into a state hostile to those it was once designed to protect.
Original Article: "The Dead End of Catholic Nationalism"
The fall of the Pac-12 is an unfortunate end to a proud collegiate institution. But its death isn’t the fault of uncurable greed but of the conference’s own inability to be competitive in the game.
Original Article: ""Greed" Didn't Kill the Pac-12. Entrepreneurial Failure Did"
The usual answer is that secondhand smoke is bad. But if value is subjective, perhaps secondhand smoke also can be seen as a public good.
Original Article: "Is Secondhand Smoke Bad, or Is It a Public Good? It’s Complicated"
In contrast to the imaginary way that mainstream economists present value, Austrian economists properly use ordinal rankings to determine value.
Original Article: "How People Determine the Value of a Good"
Professor Quinn Slobodian believes that free markets must lead to tyrannical worker exploitation, and socialism is the only solution. In truth, market competition is the answer.
Original Article: "Cracked-Up Slobodian"
In order for nations to have capital development and market-based economies, they must have a cultural framework that accepts these developments. Too many nations do not, and they languish in poverty as a result.
Original Article: "Cultural Change Is Necessary for Capital Development"
When it comes to the debt ceiling, political parties are irrelevant, and the recent debt ceiling drama, was little more than a sham.
Original Article: "The Debt Ceiling Debate Was Pure Theater"
President Biden announced recently to much fanfare that his administration will transform the US economy through central planning. This does not end well.
Original Article: "Bidenomics Is Yet Another Version of Failed Industrial Policy"
Pennsylvania legislators don't claim to be putting people out of work or killing job opportunities. They claim they just want workers to earn more pay.
Original Article: "Pennsylvania Legislators Want Higher Unemployment, Government Dependency, and Crime"
Socialists and communists claim to support the rights of "indigenous" peoples. However, that support rings hollow given how the USSR abused the native peoples of Siberia, all while American socialists and communists uncritically supported the Soviet Union.
Original Article: "The Soviet Abuse of Indigenous Peoples"
The use of interstate compacts by US states shows that the states don't need the federal government to dictate or manage interstate relations.
Original Article: "States Can Curb Federal Power through "Soft Secession""
Some residents of St. Louis, fed up with the nonprotection from the city's police, have hired private security to deal with the problem. The egalitarian Left, of course, doesn't like that.
Original Article: "Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Safety"
Government statistics on inflation in the food sector have failed to account for skimpflation and shrinkflation.
Original Article: "Shrinkflation and Skimpflation Are Eating Our Lunch"
Trump is essentially being prosecuted for questioning the outcome of an election, and federal paranoia about protecting its own aura of legitimacy is entering a new highly aggressive phase.
Original Article: "The United States vs. Donald J. Trump"
David Gordon take a critical look at Markus Gabriel's Moral Progress in Dark Times, and although he finds parts that are disturbing, he also discovers important areas of agreement.
Original Article: "Outside the Universe?"
President Biden makes the false claim that wind- and solar-generated electricity are cheaper than power generated from coal and oil.
Original Article: "Wind and Solar Are NOT Cheaper than Coal and Oil"
According to progressive elites, it is terrorism if consumers boycott businesses because of their leftist policies.
Original Article: "Is Boycotting Target a Legitimate Protest or an Act of Terrorism?"
Adults tell young people to follow their dreams, but one cannot follow one's vision without realizing what it takes to get there.
Original Article: "Want to Follow Your Dreams? The First Step Involves Hard Work"
The political passion for "social justice" is creating a larger free-rider problem and a problem of injustice.
Original Article: "Social Justice and the Free-Rider Problem"
To seriously threaten the regime, one must attack it at its roots. This would require rejecting the modern civil rights legal regime, something modern Buckleyite conservatives and James Lindsay-style liberals are not interested in, and unites paleoconservatives and paleolibertarians.
Original Article: "Paleoconservatives Need Better Critics"
Like many colonial ventures, Belgium's involvement in the Congo had some successes—and many failures.
Original Article: "Belgian Colonialism of the Congo: Facts and Fiction"
In this new age of decentralized and democratized content creation, union members' demands may simply be based on wishful thinking for a bygone era.
Original Article: "Striking Hollywood Actors and Writers Might Have to Get Used to Stagnant Wages"
Although they professed to support "states' rights," many proslavery activists wanted a stronger federal government that could force slavery on the western territories and deny local sovereignty to territorial residents.
Original Article: "When Slave Owners Chose Federal Power over Local Sovereignty"
Modern socialism is based upon state interference in normal human relationships, economic and otherwise. It is as disastrous as the older state-planning model.
Original Article: "Modern Socialism Is Forced Socialization"
More than two thousand years ago, the ancient Chinese Tao presented ideas that are reflected in F.A. Hayek's concept of spontaneous order.
Original Article: "The Tao and the Synergy of the Spontaneous Order"
At a time when ethnic politics were tearing Europe apart, Ludwig von Mises believed that such ethnic devotion did more harm than good.
Original Article: "Mises and Nationalism"
Postwar Germany was occupied, in ruins, with an economy in chaos. Germans were reduced to using cigarettes supplied by American GIs as money.
Original Article: "To Smoke or Not to Smoke: The Cigarette Economy in Postwar Germany, 1945–48"
Rational choice theory claims that people in the political realm act in their own self-interest. However, in today's political climate, many people act against their own interests to avoid being attacked by others.
Original Article: "Why Do We Act against Our Self-Interest?"
Whether political elites promote outright socialism or interventionism, thanks to the reality of economic calculation, they are advocating a failed economy.
Original Article: "Why Mises’s Theory of Economic Calculation Still Is Relevant Today"
The Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) is the latest "weapon" in the government's so-called arsenal to keep the banking system afloat. But the system needs much more than just "liquidity." It needs sound money and sound banking practices.
Original Article: "The Backstops for Banks Are Full of Holes"
The fiat US dollar, while still the world's "reserve" currency, is being imperiled by reckless actions by monetary authorities. Other countries are taking notice—and action.
Original Article: "How US States Could Pave the Way for Currency Competition"
Do we have a right to sunlight? How do we assert those rights? Murray Rothbard provides some answers.
Original Article: "How Should We Regulate the Sun (Since Our Government Regulates Nearly Everything Else)?"
How can a bank “create money out of thin air”? We must enter the magical kingdom of “fractional-reserve banking,” where deposits are turned into loans, loans are turned into money, and so on, to find out.
Original Article: "Banks Create Money out of Thin Air. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"
With each iteration of the banking crisis, the Federal Reserve System and federal regulators gain in power and authority. Maybe the banking crisis isn’t an accident.
Original Article: "Is the Banking Crisis Being Orchestrated?"
Patrick Deneen writes that the nonaggression principle promotes a liberalism that is harmful to society, as evidenced by John Stuart Mill's idea of the tyranny of public opinion.
Original Article: "Misreading Mill"
It's fitting that the G7 recently met in Hiroshima because the policies they are following are blowing up the world economy.
Original Article: "The G7 in Hiroshima: The Latest Attempt to Impose a Unipolar World"
Argentina is one of the world's poster children for hyperinflation. Unfortunately, monetary reforms aren't working because the authorities are not serious about having a sound currency.
Original Article: "The Argentinian Zombie Currency"
The problem here not that the central bank is "setting" the "wrong" interest rate. The problem is the Fed has long been relentlessly forcing down interest rates to satisfy various politically determined "needs."
Original Article: "Wall Street to the Fed: Inflation Is Over. Give Us More Easy Money!"
Rent control is all the rage with progressives, with several states and localities trying to impose it. However, when people have their property effectively—and legally—stolen, there are long-term consequences.
Original Article: "Call Rent Control What It Really Is: Theft"
After 1820, growing numbers of propertyless squatters were voters, and this was an opportunity for politicians to offer cheap land in exchange for loyalty to the Democratic Party.
Original Article: "How "Squatter Democracy" Created America's First Welfare Program"
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation supposedly protects people from government data abuse. In reality, it empowers governments.
Original Article: "The GDPR Paradox: Empowering Government in the Name of Data Protection"
Socialists like Bernie Sanders and the editors of Jacobin have decried the possible US government debt default. Marx and Lenin would have vociferously disagreed.
Original Article: "Current Socialists Should Support Government Default: Their Forebears Certainly Did"
South Africa is suffering from rolling blackouts and other power outages. These could be avoided if the government would permit competition in electricity markets.
Original Article: "Licensing Laws Deepen South Africa's Electricity Crisis"
In today's progressive climate, sexual assault charges are easy to make and hard to refute, even when they are demonstrably false.
Original Article: "Demonizing Men with False Data on Sexual Abuse"
Some conservatives are upset because the new best-selling beer is owned by the same company that owns the beleaguered Bud Lite. Actually, they should have no problem with that.
Original Article: "Do Boycotts Really Work? Another Look at the Bud Light Situation"
While the faux debt ceiling drama rages in Washington, DC, governments worldwide are defaulting on their debt via inflation.
Original Article: "Default by Inflation Is the Real Drama in the Global Debt Market"
The latest round of wildfires in Canada has brought out the usual statist demands that we ban fossil fuels, but in the real world fossil fuels protect people from climate-related disasters.
Original Article: "Fossil Fuels Enable Us to Better Fight Fires and Other Environmental Disasters"
The State of California, unable to unionize fast food workers, now is trying to create workers councils that will set labor policies for fast food restaurants.
This will not end well.Original Article: "Leviathan Is on the Menu"
The Federal Trade Commission is heavily scrutinizing the proposed merger between Microsoft and Activism. Why? Sony is against it, demonstrating that antitrust law is about protecting favored producers, not consumers.
Original Article: "The FTC Should Answer Its Call of Duty to Gamers"
While rain at an outdoor concert is a nuisance for most attendees, a few entrepreneurs saw not "pennies from heaven," but dollars.
Original Article: "It’s Raining Entrepreneurship at a Taylor Swift Concert"
New York Times columnist David French likes to think of himself as an honest broker. In reality, his "Never Trump" mentality leads him to overlook government lawbreaking.
Original Article: "David French Gets to Sit with the Cool Kids at the NYT Lunch Table"
Crime is increasing in American cities, but don't count on police to protect you. The Defund the Police movement has less to do with that than most people think.
Original Article: "You Can’t Depend on the State to Maintain Public Order"
Einstein might have been one of history's most brilliant men, but even his great mind could not have made socialism work. Unfortunately, he wasn't smart enough to see that.
Original Article: "A Great Man Cannot Salvage a Bad Idea"
In 2023, self-employment has collapsed again with year-over-year self-employment growth dropping by 6.5 percent. That's the largest drop since December 2007, when the Great Recession officially began.
Original Article: "Yet Another Month of Questionable Federal Jobs Data as 310,000 Fewer People Report Having Jobs"
Even though Barbados and Jamaica had more similarities than differences when they became independent of Great Britain, Barbados developed its economy much more quickly.
Original Article: "Why Barbados Advanced Economically While Jamaica's Growth Lagged"
What many people call government generosity Leonard Read called avarice.
Original Article: "To Avarice No Sanction"
As geopolitical tensions rise, the Chinese political leadership tells the US government to desist pushing its "color revolutions."
Original Article: "China Calls Out the USA for Instigating the Infamous Color Revolutions"
The usual suspects are "relieved" that Congress gave President Biden what he wanted on the so-called budget deal. Without sound money, however, the borrowing and spending regime will collapse sooner or later.
Original Article: "Sound Money Is Required for Real Budget Discipline"
In the pre-industrial world, aggression and physical domination were often labeled as "masculine" virtues because they were useful for survival. The rise of the cooperative market economy changed all that.
Original Article: "How Capitalism Redefined Masculine Virtue"
While many believe that technology is key to a growing economy, technology is useless without entrepreneurship, which develops uses for technology.
Original Article: "Technology Is Meaningless without Entrepreneurship"
US trade deficits seem to be expanding, placing pressure on the dollar. However, central banks around the world are just as irresponsible as the Fed, masking the relative devaluation of US money.
Original Article: "US Trade Deficits Are Growing Larger. Or Are They?"
While F.A. Hayek's famous 1945 essay effectively critiques the "perfect information" hypothesis, it is an inadequate explanation of the issue of economic calculation.
Original Article: "The Market Process Is Not a Knowledge Problem"
Political leaders of the so-called liberal Western regimes are engaging in authoritarian tactics to quell legitimate dissent. But leftists who riot and burn get a free pass.
Original Article: "Rise of the Effete Authoritarians"
Just in case you wrongly thought sanctions had anything to do with national security: Biden wants to sanction the people of a small African country over anti-LGBT laws.
Original Article: "Biden Wants Sanctions for Uganda Because Its Government Passed Anti-LGBT Laws"
Much of critical race theory and “antiracism” is aimed at pulling people apart, not bringing them together. To oppose such theories and practices is not racist in itself.
Original Article: "Opposing Critical Race Theory Doesn't Make You a 'White Supremacist'"
People commonly believe that a society without central political authority will dissolve into chaos. But a small kingdom within Spain existed peacefully for seven hundred years under what we would call anarchy.
Original Article: "Coto Mixto: Anarchy in Galicia"
Leonard Read asked how we preserve liberty in a culture that doesn't appreciate it. Liberty cannot come through force and organization. It comes from within oneself.
Original Article: "Smarter Talk Is Smarter Action"
All too often, when we see a new technology we don't understand, our natural inclination is to condemn it. Artificial intelligence is no exception.
Original Article: "Can We Understand AI? A Response to Jordan Peterson’s Podcast"
During a debate on capitalism with James Otteson, Michael Anton opined that free markets are harmful to a nation's economy. Perhaps he needs to learn economics.
Original Article: "The Economic Nationalists Are Wrong: Free Trade Means Freedom and Prosperity"
Despite "concerns" about increasing federal debt, in the end Republican legislators have gone along with whatever the ruling elites want. The Limit, Save and Grow Act of 2023 is more of the same.
Original Article: "Republicans Fail on the Debt Ceiling in 2023"
The classical liberal economist Edmund Phelps wants government to aid poor people, but he clearly is not an egalitarian. His philosophy would be unacceptable to today's "woke" egalitarians.
Original Article: "Edmund Phelps on Egalitarianism"
Contrary to the still-enduring myth about Republican budget cutting, there is no correlation whatsoever between Republican control of DC and the trajectory of federal spending.
Original Article: "The Republican Debt-Ceiling "Deal" Is Exactly What We Expected"
Like so many others in the "national greatness" movement, Christopher Buskirk understands some of the problems the country faces but fails to grasp the solutions.
Original Article: "Don’t Get on the Nationalist Bus"
The current regime wants to use taxation not simply as a means to collect revenue for the government, but as a weapon against economic prosperity itself.
Original Article: "Taxation as a Weapon against Prosperity"
As the Fed increases interest rates to reverse the inflation it has caused, firms that depended on easy money will face the bankruptcy judge. Stay tuned; there's more to come.
Original Article: "The Bankruptcy Caravan Is Now Arriving: Time to Pay for the Easy Money"
While George Orwell wrote magnificently against totalitarianism, his attempt to defend socialism in The Road to Wigan Pier stumbled badly.
Original Article: "Review: Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier"
Individualism, while condemned in some cultures, has helped make this country economically successful. Will the influx of immigrants from cultures that devalue individualism reverse that success?
Original Article: "Individualism in the US Has Helped Make It an Economic Success"
The usual suspects such as Robert Reich claim that corporate profits are causing inflation. Actually, increases in corporate profits are tied to increases in inflation.
Original Article: "Higher Corporate Profit Margins Aren't Causing Inflation"
The trans rights movement has quickly moved into government coercion and outright violence. There is nothing libertarian about what is happening in this movement today.
Original Article: "“Trans Rights” Means Trans Entitlements and the End of Civil Society"
Despite all of the inflation-fighting talk from the Fed, the truth is that the government benefits from inflating the currency. We need to know how to defend ourselves.
Original Article: "Can We Protect Ourselves from Inflation?"
Modern progressives don't like to refer to their long-held support of eugenics. In fact, American progressives influenced the Nazis, who launched their own murderous eugenics schemes.
Original Article: "The Boston Brahmins, WASPs, and Nazis: The Pursuit of Eugenics"
American law protects what is called the "right to strike." However, Leonard Read found no moral code that permits such action.
Original Article: "There Is No Moral Right to Strike"
With the appointment of Linda Yaccarino as Twitter's new CEO, Elon Musk is trying to appease woke advertisers to bring up his company's revenues. This will not end well.
Original Article: "The Woke Cartel and Twitter's New CEO"
The drug war of the last half century has incarcerated millions and created havoc. What it hasn't done is eliminate people using drugs without government permission.
Original Article: "The Drug War: An Irrational Crusade"
Domestic violence is a stain on society, but it is worse if we only care about violence committed against people of one sex.
Original Article: "Committing Domestic Violence against Men . . . Just for a Giggle"
While the US ratchets up efforts to isolate its many enemies, the Chinese, the Saudis, the Arab League, and OPEC all shrug and look to increasing international communication and trade.
Original Article: "Thanks to Sanctions, the US Is Losing Its Grip on the Middle East"
More than forty years ago, Leonard Read urged graduates of Hillsdale College to find a premise, a belief in a universal idea of liberty.
Original Article: "Living by a Premise"
The Durham report reminds us it is well past time for a more realistic assessment of the FBI for what it is: a costly, unnecessary, unconstitutional, and incompetent agency.
Original Article: "End the FBI"
Radical environmentalists have convinced people that we are doomed if we continue to use fossil fuels. We are doomed if we stop using them.
Original Article: "Energy and Economic Efficiency: The Market versus the Politicization of Our Energy Futures"
We are familiar with the five stages of grief. However, it is not a stretch to apply those stages to what is happening to the banking system. Right now, we are in the second stage: anger.
Original Article: "The Five Stages of Bank Failure Grief"
A "soft landing" is impossible unless the government cuts both taxes and government spending at the same time interest rates are rising. This won't happen, so get ready for a hard landing.
Original Article: "Crowding Out: The Fed May Be Killing the Private Sector to Save the Government"
Although the Bank of England is largely responsible for inflation in the UK, its leaders blame British consumers and workers for the price increases.
Original Article: "Bank of England Economist: Britons Need to Accept That They’re Poorer"
Noam Chomsky's latest offering—a series of interviews—presents the best (and worst) of one of America's premier public intellectuals.
Original Article: "There's No Place like Noam"
A new Fed survey shows that banks are cutting back on lending big time. Over the past thirty-five years, this almost always predicts recession. Our economy can't survive without endless new infusions of easy money.
Original Article: "Banks Are Lending Less Money, and That's a Formula for Recession"
President Biden recently claimed that "trickle-down economics" doesn't work but transferring wealth from taxpayers to politically connected people is the real trickle-down economics.
Original Article: "Government Redistribution Is the REAL Trickle-Down Economics"
Calls for black consumers to "Buy Black" can be interpreted as socially divisive, but they are also a way to encourage black entrepreneurs in a free market.
Original Article: "The "Buy Black" Movement: Divisive or a Boon to Black Entrepreneurs?"
Can the injection of new money into the economic system enhance economic growth? Not really. Increasing (or decreasing) the money supply affects the demand for money but doesn't make us wealthier.
Original Article: "Understanding Relationships between Money Supply and Liquidity"
American corporations are lavishing billions of dollars on leftist groups in the name of "equity." But many of them also are donating to even more questionable people and causes.
Original Article: "The Putrid Underbelly of Woke Capitalism"
Shoddy service, regular breakdowns, and overbudget to boot. There is a reason why government-funded projects always waste resources.
Original Article: "The Failure of Public Works and Public Funding"
The Biden administration has decided that the REAL problem with housing is that the wrong people are saving money and making timely mortgage payments. They must be punished.
Original Article: "Biden’s New Intersectionality: Where Equity Policies Meet Bad Economics"
Economically speaking, the US government is bankrupt even if the government won’t admit what is obvious. But how would an actual bankruptcy proceeding go?
Original Article: "In the Event of an Official US Bankruptcy"
Progressive governments in the name of equity are calling for taxation of capital gains. They really are demanding destruction of capital through capital consumption.
Original Article: "Taxing Capital Leads to Capital Consumption"
With negative growth now falling to near –10 percent, money-supply contraction is now the largest we've seen since the Great Depression.
Original Article: "The Money Supply Has Plummeted in the Biggest Drop Since the Great Depression"
Despite the soothing hot air from the White House and Fed officials, the financial system is becoming increasingly fragile and unstable. Maybe all of that intervention the past decade was not wise.
Original Article: "Finance Discovers Sting: "How Fragile We Are""
Modern culture is biased against those that are rich even while depending upon the wealth that successful entrepreneurs have created.
Original Article: "Progressives Want to Eliminate Wealthy Entrepreneurs but Need the Wealth They Create"
In 1948, Ludwig Erhardt rescued a German economy that was in shambles simply by invoking free markets and currency reform. Our economy needs its Rothbard moment.
Original Article: "Rothbard’s Button Doesn’t Exist, but It Needs to Be Invented"
Monetarists believe there is an optimum growth rate of money. However, a fiat money system itself is unstable, so there is no optimum growth rate.
Original Article: "Is There an Optimum Growth Rate of Money?"
People from socially and economically marginized groups in the USA tend to support socialism. Yet socialists have a long and bloody history of suppressing these very groups.
Original Article: "Socialism, Minority Groups, and Personal Liberties"
Should political reform be the result of a much-discussed comprehensive plan? Or should it come about through decentralized decision-making that deals with the situations at hand?
Original Article: "Comprehensive Reform versus Piecemeal Reform"
Tucker Carlson has rankled the ruling elites for many years. But was his interview with Robert Kennedy Jr. a bridge too far?
Original Article: "Did Tucker's Last Major Guest Lead to His Firing?"
By any conventional measures of finance, the Federal Reserve has negative equity. In the long run, cooking the books only puts off the day of reckoning.
Original Article: "The Fed Is Overindebted, Isn’t It?"
While Japan made some technological transfers to these places, prosperity came to them later, with the advent of free-market economies.
Original Article: "Was Japanese Colonialism the Engine of Later Prosperity for Korea and Taiwan? Probably Not"
A century ago, Argentina was one of the world's wealthiest nations and the Argentine peso rivaled the dollar. Today, Argentina is famous for periodic hyperinflation.
Original Article: "Argentina Sleepwalks into Hyperinflation (Yet Again)"
Another mass shooting, another call for gun control. However, when it comes to mass killings, Washington sets the sorry example.
Original Article: "Washington Has No Moral Authority to Ban Guns"
It is the right of the consumer, not the regime, to determine what lighting sources work best for them.
Original Article: "Shedding Light on the Law of Unintended Consequences"
Modern Western culture is dominated by demands for "social justice." But how does one even define this term, and does social justice even produce justice in the end?
Original Article: "Is Social Justice Just? A Review"
Taxpayer-funded company Dominion is suing private parties for saying things the company doesn't like. These lawsuits illustrate how defamation laws can be used to destroy free speech.
Original Article: "The Dominion Lawsuit against Fox News Is Part of the War against Free Speech"
As the US government debases the dollar, other nations take notice and possibilities increase that another currency based on sound principles might emerge.
Original Article: "Will a New BRICS Currency Change Anything? Maybe"
Contrary to the worldview of progressives, taxation and the coercion it brings are not part of a "social contract." Instead, they are implemented by force.
Original Article: "You Don’t Like It? Leave! The Telling Sophistry of Tax Apologists"
Mises had hoped that democracy would lead to free societies after World War II ended. He did not foresee the illiberal turn in the West in the last decade.
Original Article: "Libertarian Law by Democratic Means: The Power of Ideologies and Public Opinion"
The dollar became the dominant global currency not so much because of its own merits, but because of the self-destruction of the pound sterling caused by the British state and central bank.
Original Article: "How the Dollar Became the World's Top Global Currency"
We’re supposed to go along with Green Energy schemes—as we did with masks, school lockdowns, and vaccinations to stop covid—because our government, media, and “public interest” groups insist that we “follow the science.”
Original Article: "How Greening the Economy Will Destroy America"
The most popular measure of economic growth is GDP. However, GDP movement is driven by changes in the money supply, not real economic factors.
Original Article: "Does GDP Present an Accurate Picture of the Economy? Not Likely"
Austrian business cycle theory points out that easy money leads to malinvestments. Once easy money disappears, the crash begins. Time to clean up malinvested assets.
Original Article: "Paying the Piper: Time to Clean Up the Latest Malinvestments"
Austrian economics is not dry theory. It helps us make sense of our world and shows that exchange and production have a place in our moral universe.
Original Article: "How to Teach Austrian Economics to the Neighbor Kids"
While the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade have been well documented, people other than slave traders and slaveholders benefitted from it, with some surprising results.
Original Article: "Historical Effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade"
While the Fed and the Biden administration try to assure Americans that their banks are safe and secure, the numbers tell a different story.
Original Article: "Charles Schwab and Other Big Banks May Be Secretly Insolvent"
President Biden's executive order to promote transgenderism on college campuses eviscerates long-held due process protections for accused students. This will not end well.
Original Article: "Due Process or Transgender Protection on Campus?"
Like the USA, Canada has had a central bank–fueled housing boom. Like all other booms, it also has an inevitable ending.
Original Article: "Canada’s Housing Boom Was a Bubble. Now Comes the Bust"
The real issue we face is not whether we should be in the red tribe or the blue tribe, but rather what will be the constituency for freedom.
Original Article: "Neither Red nor Blue, but Free"
We hear ad nauseum from political and media elites that the war in Ukraine is about preserving "our freedoms." Murray Rothbard had something to say about this sophistry.
Original Article: "Rothbard Was Right: Wars Don't Enhance Freedom. They Destroy Liberty."
In their attempts to remake the economy, progressive elites are pushing ESG. What they forget is that the economy runs on real things, not ideology.
Original Article: "ESG: Another Fraudulent Hustle That Progressive Elites Have Foisted on the Economy"
While politicians, media mavens, and the academic elite spread fear about artificial intelligence, AI is helping make life better for ordinary consumers.
Original Article: "Prices, Food, Employment: AI and Robotics Are for Regular Folks, Not Just the Elite"
While most free market advocates are fixated on the national debt, they also should be looking at municipal debt over which taxpayers have no say. Maybe default is the answer.
Original Article: "Should Local Municipalities Default on Their Debts? Seems Like a Good Idea"
The fight between Russia and NATO is not about "democracy versus authoritarianism." Rather both the US and Russian states are doubling down because they are doing what states do: seeking power.
Original Article: "The Ukraine War Isn't about Democracy. It's about States Seeking More Power."
A central tenet of Keynesian economics is that governments must run budget deficits to stimulate economic growth. But government spending actually shrinks the economy.
Original Article: "Government Budget Deficits Cannot Stimulate True Economic Growth"
Canada created its central bank during the Great Depression, ostensibly to stabilize the currency and protect the banking system. Today, that system is falling apart, thanks to inflationary central bank policies.
Original Article: "Canada’s Legal Counterfeiting Ring Is a Product of Progressive Democracy"
A bedrock of Austrian economics and libertarianism has been free trade. Unfortunately, some people who claim to value liberty no longer value unhampered exchange.
Original Article: "Are Libertarians Abandoning Free Trade?"
Even after two years of "transitory" inflation, America's ruling classes insist that prices are falling and that all of this is temporary. We don't believe them.
Original Article: "The Ruling Classes Are Inflation Deniers and the Ship of Fools Sails On"
The passage of an income tax in the early twentieth century was an enormous shift toward a far more centralized and powerful US state.
Original Article: "The Income Tax: Lessons from the Sixteenth Amendment"
To prevent rail accidents like the one in East Palestine, dial back government regulation and allow the tort system to work.
Original Article: "Prevent Future Losses Like East Palestine by Reducing Regulation and Empowering Torts"
Federal laws with acronyms are usually bad news. (Think the USA PATRIOT Act.) The RESTRICT Act is yet another Orwellian proposal in which the federal government assumes ignorance is strength.
Original Article: "Disinformation and the State: The Aptly Named RESTRICT Act"
Once the Southern states accepted the Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln was entirely content for the old Southern elites to resume their positions of power and for many blacks to continue in a condition little better than bondage.
Original Article: "Lincoln's Main Target Was "Anarchy" and Secession, Not Slavery"
The current banking crises have deep roots in US financial history. Monetary authorities have engaged in inflationary behavior for more than a hundred years.
Original Article: "A Pyrrhic End to 130 Years of Vicious Bad Money and Banking Crises"
Both artists and athletes perform for others. When governments get involved it either is for subsidies or censorship. Neither is satisfactory.
Original Article: "The Economics of Arts and Culture"
Austrian economics is defined by its adherence to the a priori methodology, not empiricism. That places it at odds with mainstream economics, which stresses the methodology of positivism.
Original Article: "Austrian Economists and Empiricism"
Walter Bagehot, as Jim Grant writes, believed that bankers and central bankers should exhibit financial discipline. He would not recognize today's banking world.
Original Article: "From Discipline to No Discipline: The Sorry Evolution of Modern Banking"
Donald Trump legally pays hush money and prosecutors try to fashion a crime from it. However, if a president lies and thousands of people die, it is called foreign policy.
Original Article: "Presidents Are Legally Immune for Their Most Dangerous Crimes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
As markets settle down after the last set of bank failures, political elites claim the crisis is behind us. But it is not over, not by a long shot.
Original Article: "No, the Financial Crisis Is Not Over"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Low rates of military reenlistment in the USA are spun as a near crisis. Perhaps this situation should make us more optimistic about our future.
Original Article: "Low Rates of Military Enlistment May Portend Prosperity Ahead"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The government wants to make gas cars a lot more expensive. But electric vehicles are so expensive in the longer term that gas cars still look like a better deal.
Original Article: "Peak EV: Electric Vehicles Will Fade as Their True Costs Become Clear"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
David Gordon explores how Abraham Lincoln's stated view on secession was fundamentally Hobbesian, cynical, and violent.
Original Article: "If at First You Don't Secede . . ."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Like Bentham's panopticon, modern cancel culture is built upon fear and online bullying, making people police their own thoughts.
Original Article: "Cancel Culture: The Digital Panopticon"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Democratic politicians and supporters are cheering the Trump indictment, but the entire process has been so politicized that its legitimacy is easily called into question.
Original Article: "With the Trump Indictment, America Is a Step Closer to Being a Banana Republic"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
From race to gender to nearly everything else, decisions about what is correct or incorrect are made according to politics. This is a recipe for social destruction.
Original Article: "Politics Is Turning Us into Idiots"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Politicians tout "bipartisanship"—that often just means one's pocket will be picked even more cleanly.
Original Article: "Bipartisanship Is Not a Substitute for Voluntary Exchange"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Central banks usually don't admit their guilt in the destruction of money, but the Bank of England unwittingly comes clean.
Original Article: "The Bank of England: Money Creation in Their Own Words"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The latest from the world of social media is the role of "influencers." There is a perfectly good economic explanation for their popularity.
Original Article: "Influencers and Subjective Value: They Have Something to Teach Us"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
How do people in a pluralistic society live peacefully with each other? In his review of Kenneth McIntyre's book, David Gordon points to negative liberty as the best way to preserve values.
Original Article: "Nonmeasure for Nonmeasure"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
San Francisco, as well as the government of California, is calling for millions in "reparations" for black people in that state. Reparations, unfortunately, are fast becoming another anti-property-owner racket.
Original Article: "Reparations Are a Statist Cudgel for Bludgeoning Property Owners"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Ever since the Luddites rampaged through British textile factories in the early 1800s, people have feared that technology will result in mass unemployment. They were wrong then and are wrong now.
Original Article: "The Fear of Mass Unemployment Due to Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Is Unfounded"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Even if Powell is sincere in this stated desire to slay inflation with more rate hikes, recent bank failures will put the Fed under enormous pressure to end its rate hikes and to once again embrace easy money to save the banks and Wall Street.
Original Article: "Looming Bank Failures Point to More Price Inflation as Real Wages Fall Again"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Collusion was a way of life with state-chartered enterprises. Little has changed, as firms with political connections still gain profits from their collusion with the state.
Original Article: "The Theory and Practice of Conspiracy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Keynesians and fellow travelers hold the Phillips curve to be sacrosanct. But because the Phillips curve cannot establish causality, it is useless as economic theory.
Original Article: "The Phillips Curve Is an Economic Fable"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Those adhering to Austrian Economic thinking see the beauty in concepts coming together and providing a way to truthfully assess human action.
Original Article: "Yearning for Beauty in the Truth of Economic Thinking"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Get beyond the PhDs running the Federal Reserve or the way people treat the Fed with deference. In the end, it is nothing but a legal counterfeiting ring.
Original Article: "We Are All Counterfeiters Now"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
President Biden's call for more protectionism isn't aimed improving the US economy. Instead, it is about creating a war-footing autarky.
Original Article: "Readying the War State: Biden Recommits to Protectionism in the SOTU"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The answer lies not in doubling down on political unity, maintained through endless violence or threats of violence. Rather, the answer lies in peaceful separation.
Original Article: "Secession Is Inevitable. War to Prevent It Is Optional."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Canadian political, academic, and media elites "worry" that democracy in that country may be under attack. Actually, democracy works all too well there.
Original Article: "Is Democracy under Attack in Canada? No, but It Should Be"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Opponents of secession say secession is wrong if some people in the population don't want it and say they will be worse off. The American revolutionaries disagreed and seceded anyway.
Original Article: "Secession: Should the American Revolutionaries Have Quit to Appease the Loyalists?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
At the heart of Keynesian business cycle theory is the so-called liquidity trap. Contra Keynes, however, economies don't falter because a sudden increase in the demand for money.
Original Article: "Forget the Liquidity Trap—Loose Monetary Policies Cause Recessions"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Three years after the covid virus hit the world, we are just starting to take a hard look at the damage caused by the covid restrictions. The "experts" not only were wrong; they were scandalously wrong.
Original Article: "Covid-19: Will the Political and Health Scandals Erupt into the Public Light?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Gloria Steinem declared, "The personal is political." Today, politics has reached into family life and even procreation itself, an unhappy trend for unhappy people.
Original Article: "The Politicization of Procreation: The Ultimate in "the Personal Is Political""
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
We're still living with the consequences of the massive monetary inflation by Trump and Biden. Prices are stubbornly high, and falling real wages are driving Americans to say things are getting worse.
Original Article: "Food and Shelter Prices Keep Climbing as CPI Growth Hits a Three-Month High"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Can private markets only be regulated by government? Hindenburg Research's successes against corporate corruption suggest otherwise.
Original Article: "How Markets Are Better than Government Regulators at Fighting Corporate Corruption"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
By itself, the end of the petrodollar won't destroy the dollar. But it will continue a trend that weakens both the dollar and the US regime's power.
Original Article: "Why the End of the Petrodollar Spells Trouble for the US Regime"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The constitution has not protected our natural rights, nor did it prevent the US from becoming a blood-soaked failed state a mere 73 years after the constitution was ratified.
Original Article: "The Constitution Failed. It Secured Neither Peace nor Freedom."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The government can't return the SS money it stole in the past. It's impossible. That money's gone. Taxing today's workers to "pay back" pensioners is just creating a new group of tax victims.
Original Article: "Social Security Taxes Aren't "Your" Money"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
How do societies determine who their heroes are? We know that often those seen as heroes actually made a country worse off.
Original Article: "How Should a Nation Determine Its Heroes?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Americans often have defended the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as regrettable but necessary for ending World War II. The actual record tells us a much different story.
Original Article: "Questioning the Military Necessity of Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japanese Cities"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The imposition of minimum wages harms the economy, although there are nuances in how much harm they cause. It is better not to impose minimum wages at all.
Original Article: "Yes, the Minimum Wage Harms the Economy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Inflation at an annual rate of 5 percent is not a positive, and it is certainly not falling prices. Inflation is accumulative, and this means we are becoming poorer faster.
Original Article: "Governments Will Make You Poorer Again"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Government interference into money creation and production harms the economy in a number of ways, including skewing the organization of division of labor.
Original Article: "Fiat Money Inflation Not Only Raises Prices but Also Undermines Division of Labor"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
No one will read For a New Liberty and not see the world with very different eyes afterward.
Original Article: "Hans-Hermann Hoppe on For a New Liberty at 50"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
No matter the historical era, governments have excelled at one thing: debasing their own currency. Rome was no exception, as Roman government excesses required inflation—lots of inflation.
Original Article: "Rome's Runaway Inflation: Currency Devaluation in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While an increase in the supply of gold money would lead to higher consumer prices, such increases in the gold supply do not lead to boom-bust cycles.
Original Article: "Can Increases in the Supply of Gold Lead to Boom-Bust Cycles?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Does the regulatory system help guarantee safe and effective drugs? Does the system protect drug consumers? Court cases tell us otherwise.
Original Article: "The FDA and the Courts Fail to Truly Discipline the Pharmaceutical Industry for Exploiting the Mentally Ill"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Relatively free trade and capital mobilization have greatly raised living standards in recent years. Yet those that call themselves globalists are less interested in trade than in unipolar political power, pushing violent, disastrous schemes.
Original Article: "Globalization, Not Globalism: Free Trade versus Destructive Statist Ideology"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Despite worries that foreign "competitors" will surpass economic production in the United States, innovation and entrepreneurship are still important here. For now.
Original Article: "For Now, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Still Holds a High Place in the USA"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The roots of Austrian economics go back to the great theologian Thomas Aquinas, whose view of what constitutes a good was a prototype of Menger's pathbreaking theory of the good.
Original Article: "Defining a Good: The Intersection of St. Thomas Aquinas and Carl Menger"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Yuval Noah Harari, who teaches history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, denies that free will exists. However, to deny free will is to deny human action itself.
Original Article: "Objection, Professor Harari! Logic Proves the Existence of Free Will"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Ah yes, the Tea Party. Fifteen years after it was established by followers of Ron Paul, the so-called antiestablishment organization has been co-opted by establishment Republicans. Dale Steinreich is not surprised.
Original Article: "The Tea Party, Fifteen Years Later"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
University of Chicago professor Martha C. Nussbaum wants to save the world by preventing animals from eating each other in the wild. David Gordon (after pulling himself off the floor) comments on her proposal.
Original Article: "You've Got to Be Kidding: Professor Demands Animals Stop Eating Each Other"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Self-determination means the ability to make laws for one's own community free from intervention by Washington, DC. Most of the world can do this. Why can't Americans?
Original Article: "Secession: Why the Regime Tolerates Self-Determination for Foreigners but Not for Americans"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Only Father Time helps us cut through the policy nonsense and understand interest rates conceptually.
Original Article: "Father Time versus Central Bankers"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Pilgrims tried socialism at Plymouth. After two years, they returned to private enterprise. Likewise, Israel was founded as a socialist state but has back turned toward free markets.
Original Article: "A (True) Thanksgiving Tale of Socialism in America and Israel"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Long before there was the infamous German inflation of 1923, the Reichsbank created the scenario of monetary debasement.
Original Article: "The Reichsbank: Germany's Central Bank Lays Foundation of Monetary Disaster"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Critics of capitalism claim that it is responsible for creating inequality in society. Yet the precapitalist societies enforced inequality in a rigid social structure.
Original Article: "Capitalism Does Not Create Social Inequality"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Energy production in the USA and elsewhere is in trouble because of government control. We need more energy and less regulation.
Original Article: "The World Needs More Energy and Less Energy Regulation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Like the police in similar communities, the Moscow, Idaho Police have long focused on petty drug offenses while more serious violent crime and property crime receives far less attention.
Original Article: "The Student Murders in Idaho Highlight the Unimpressive Police Record on Violent Crime"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
There appears to be a six-million-man gap between the number of men in the prime age group—age 25–54—and the number of those men actually in the workforce.
Original Article: "The Jobs "Boom" Isn't So Hot When We Remember Nearly Six Million Men Are Missing from the Workforce"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
It has been a hundred years since Mises published Socialism. It is more relevant than ever.
Original Article: "Reflections upon the Centennial of Mises's Socialism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Progressives seem to believe that we improve healthcare outcomes by spending more. This is a recipe for failure.
Original Article: "Spending More Government Money on Healthcare Does Not Improve Health Outcomes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
High time preferences also mean high times in a party atmosphere. When Jamaica embraced socialism many decades ago, it wasn't supposed to come to this.
Original Article: "In Jamaica, the Tourists Party On behind High Walls and Locked Gates"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While high-quality automobiles and other manufactured goods are being produced in the Southeast, northeastern states like New York are falling behind, thanks to progressive governance.
Original Article: "Economic Progress and Economic Decay: North versus South"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Economist Christopher Coyne of George Mason University uses economic logic to expose the follies of militaristic US policies overseas.
Original Article: "An Economist Examines US Foreign Policy and Finds It Wanting"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Nearly everyone has heard of Bernie Madoff and rightly associates his name with financial fraud. Yet, the Social Security system is built on a Ponzi scheme similar to what Madoff created.
Original Article: "Who Has Better Ethics, the Social Security System or Bernie Madoff?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Keynesian economists claim that deflation is as bad or worse than inflation. But deflation not only reverses inflation's bad effects but also allows new wealth creation.
Original Article: "Deflation Is Not a Problem: Reversing It Is"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Money supply growth slowed even more in October, and is now back to levels we last saw during the repo liquidity crunch of 2019, and in the days right before the 2007–09 recession.
Original Article: "Money Supply Growth in October Fell to a 39-Month Low. A Recession Is Now Almost Guaranteed."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The so-called green energy strategy is no strategy at all. Instead, it is an attempt to cripple the energy industries in vain hopes that renewables will magically cover the energy shortfall.
Original Article: "Renewables and EVs in the Grip of Lesseps Syndrome"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
For families and friends gathering for Thanksgiving this year, many will assemble in a room called the "dining room." This is a modern luxury made possible by the bourgeois merchants of old.
Original Article: "How the Middle-Class Dining Room Revolutionized Domestic Life"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
As inflation ravages the economy, easy money is disappearing, with political and legal consequences to follow.
Original Article: "As Easy Money Crashes, the Political and Legal Effects Appear"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Federal Reserve officials, for all of their alleged wisdom and education, have a knowledge problem. Hayek and other Austrians could have told them their grandiose plans will fail.
Original Article: "The Federal Reserve's (Permanent) Knowledge Problem"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
American political, educational, and economic life is increasingly dominated by "experts." We should not be surprised that they fail most of the time.
Original Article: "Relying on Experts: A Proven Path to Failure"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Many investors forget that when the easy money is flowing, financial mediocrities and even outright frauds can be made to look like legitimate geniuses.
Original Article: "How Easy Money Fueled the FTX Crypto Collapse"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Ours is an age of the progressive expert who nearly always is wrong but still is embraced by progressive politicians, the media, and academe.
Original Article: "Are Progressive "Experts" Fallible? Yes, But Don't Tell Them That"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
One might assume that new rounds of monetary stimulus will bring new peaks in housing construction, reversing the ongoing housing shortage. That hasn't happened.
Original Article: "The Housing Boom Is Already Over. The Housing Shortage Will Continue."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Federal Reserve has not only mismanaged the US economy; even its own "portfolio" is underwater.
Original Article: "In the Red: The Federal Reserve’s Portfolio Joins the Rest of the Market"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Cheap money in the last decade has meant good times for companies that barely make money and hire employees who barely work. But those times are now ending.
Original Article: "Without Easy Money, the Tech Sector Faces Layoffs and Losses"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Historians praise the US entry into World War I because it enabled an Allied victory. But it also led to the economic disasters of the 1920s and ’30s.
Original Article: "World War I: The Great War Was also the Great Enabler of Progressive Governance"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Lutheran theologian Reinhold Niebuhr attracted numerous followers in postwar America in part because of his attacks on the free market. Perhaps he should have read Mises.
Original Article: "Niebuhr, My God, to Thee"
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Historian Jon Meacham urges Joe Biden to be a "transformational" president in the way of FDR, but he forgets that Roosevelt put the "Great" in "Great Depression."
Original Article: "Joe Biden and the "Transformational" Presidency"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The common view of inflation is that it is defined as a general increase in prices. Actually, inflation is expansion of the money supply that results in price increases.
Original Article: "Inflation Is Not Price Increases. Inflation Causes Price Increases."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
All too often, people equate their nationality with a particular state. Yet, as Mises noted, nationality does not depend at all upon a formal entity tied to a government.
Original Article: "Nationality and Statelessness: The Kuwaiti Bidoon"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
In presenting her economic plan, Liz Truss failed spectacularly on one thing: cutting spending. Otherwise, a "tax cut" is not a tax cut at all.
Original Article: "The Rise and Fall of Trussonomics"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
The 2004 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to two economists for their claim that "technology shocks" cause boom-bust cycles. They have it wrong.
Original Article: "Do "Technology Shocks" Create the Boom-Bust Cycles?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
It will be nearly impossible to make any real changes in Washington for the next two years. The real battles are now in the states.
Original Article: "The Election Won't Change Much in DC. The Real Battle Is Now in the States."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
The jobs data is worse than the latest headlines suggest, and workers are staring at falling real wages, declining savings, and mounting debt. We can thank the Fed.
Original Article: "The Number of Employed Workers Fell in October and Price Inflation Continues to Outpace Wages"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
While both the Left and Right celebrate the government's new drive to subsidize American microchip manufacturing, we should remember that political "investments" always result in crony capitalist disasters.
Original Article: "American Chip "Independence": Protectionism by Another Name"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
The dollar's petrodollar status has led the Federal Reserve to irresponsibly inflate the currency. The rest of the world has noticed and is looking for alternatives.
Original Article: "World Dollar Hegemony Is Ending (and That May Be a Good Thing)"
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Roman keynesianism that ruined the empire and destroyed the Roman economy.
Original Article: "It Didn't Begin with FDR: Currency Devaluation in the Third Century Roman Empire"
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Modern warfare is a product of the state, which engages in violence at home and abroad. Peace is possible, but only when the state loses power.
Original Article: "Clausewitz, the UN Charter, and a Libertarian View on War"
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While personal autonomy is a major topic of conversation, for Rothbard the most important thing is liberty, and liberty and automony are not always the same.
Original Article: "You Don’t Know What’s Good for You"
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After praising Mises for his work on socialism, Tyler Cowen goes on to claim Human Action is "cranky and dogmatic." "Brilliant and insightful" would have been more truthful.
Original Article: "Misunderstanding Mises, Again"
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The US Supreme Court has heard arguments for and against affirmative action in higher education admissions. Government needs to get out of the racial discrimination business altogether.
Original Article: "The Government, Race, and an Upcoming SCOTUS Decision"
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Government programs like Medicare are called insurance, yet they are anything but. There is a difference between public and private plans.
Original Article: "Private versus Government Health Insurance: They Are Not the Same"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
As fear that robots and artificial intelligence will take over whole lines of work, it is time to examine the real relationship between capital and the rest of us.
Original Article: "Are Robots and AI Really Going to Displace All Workers? Probably Not"
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The Soviet regime relentlessly expanded the money supply. To prevent inflation, the regime then created shortages through price controls and economic stagnation.
Original Article: "How the Soviets "Fixed" Inflation, but Ruined the Economy"
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As "decarbonize agriculture" becomes the watchword, powerful multinational agriculture firms have embraced the 2030 UN agenda. Their actions will result in widespread hunger.
Original Article: "Multinational Agrichemical Corporations and the Great Food Transformation"
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Mainstream economists claim that data alone can explain economic actions. Austrians know that without theory, data explains nothing.
Original Article: "Facts and Data Have No Meaning without a Theory to Explain Them"
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Pakistan, like so many other countries, is seeing inflation close to spiraling out of control. As for finding causes, monetary authorities should look in the mirror.
Original Article: "Inflation in Pakistan: Follow the Money"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
As inflation advances and the economy slowly implodes, we also learn valuable lessons.
Original Article: "The Economy Is a Mess: What Lessons Will We Learn?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
Progressives are quick to blame escalating healthcare costs on free markets, yet it's government rules and policies that are responsible.
Original Article: "In Government-Regulated Healthcare, There Is No Competition Like No Competition"
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The Ponzi game known as selling US government debt is nearing its end. The seller is running out of suckers.
Original Article: "The Petrodollar-Saudi Axis Is Why Washington Hates Iran"
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While Elon Musk says he will bring free speech back to Twitter, the forces of statism will not be still. The jury is out on how successful Musk's experiment will be.
Original Article: "Changing of the Guard: Can Musk Deliver on His Promises for Free Speech and Information?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
At a time when inflation once again ravages the dollar, we recall Murray Rothbard's wisdom in his article "The Case for a Genuine Gold Dollar."
Original Article: "Rothbard on Gold"
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Florida's government promotes a "shared adversity" plan in which individuals and organizations have distant environmental problems imposed upon them.
Original Article: "Critiquing Florida's Public Policy of "Shared Adversity""
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
While we speak of a desire for honest money, the larger problem is that the Federal Reserve System cannot coexist with an honest money regime.
Original Article: "Honest Money in Dishonest Hands"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
Government economists "seasonally adjust" data in order to better respond with policy recommendations to deal with business cycles. The problem is that government causes the cycles.
Original Article: "Are Seasonally Adjusted Economic Data Useful?"
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More than forty years ago, California voters enthusiastically passed Proposition 13, which limited property tax hikes. Politicians have been lying about it ever since.
Original Article: "Why Proposition 13 and Attacking It Are Both Popular"
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President Biden's nonsolution of partial "debt forgiveness" is in limbo, but the slow financial destruction that massive student loan debt is unleashing continues.
Original Article: "Student Loan Debt: The Financial Time Bomb Politicians Want to Ignore"
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In a free market, short-term and long-term rates would move toward convergence. Fed interference with interest rates ensures that won't happen.
Original Article: "Federal Reserve Tampering with Interest Rates Distorts the Shape of the Yield Curve"
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Progressives like Robert Reich now claim that there is no inflation, just businesses arbitrarily raising prices so they can increase profits. Such claims do not pass the test of economic logic.
Original Article: "Profits Do Not Cause Inflation (No Matter What Progressives Claim)"
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Even with near-record inflation, the US dollar still has gained strength relative to other currencies. This does not mean that the Fed has been acting responsibly.
Original Article: "The Dollar's Global Wake of Destruction"
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People still come to America, but it is because of the foundation created by private enterprise, not because of progressive politics.
Original Article: "To Many, America Still Is a Place of Opportunity (Unless Progressives Destroy That, Too)"
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War dissenters are branded "Putinists" by the foreign policy elites who casually flirt with nuclear war. But preferring negotiations to World War III hardly makes one a Putin sympathizer.
Original Article: "It's Time to Abandon America's Fetish for "Unconditional Surrender""
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Home price growth of the sort we've seen in recent years simply cannot be sustained without a continued commitment to easy money from the central bank, and it shows.
Original Article: "Without Easy Money from the Fed, Home Prices Will Keep Falling"
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Law Professor David Bernstein looks at the system of racial classifications in the USA and explains why they have been harmful.
Original Article: "Review of Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America"
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After following hyper-Keynesian policies for more than two decades, the Fed is about to create the conditions that Keynesians claimed were impossible: an inflationary recession.
Original Article: "The Fed's Current Monetary Stance Will Lead to Stagflation, Not Deflation"
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Our current deficit policy amounts to "Give me your wallet, and you will deal with the credit card balance later."
Original Article: ""Spend Now, and Deal with the Consequences Later" Is the Worst Policy"
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Insurance protects individuals from events that cannot be foreseen. As Murray Rothbard noted, however, deposit insurance exists to "protect" a system that is inherently bankrupt.
Original Article: "Housing Is Getting Less Affordable. Governments Are Making It Worse."
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Government inflation makes people’s responses much more delayed, leaving people’s value adding greatly degraded.
Original Article: "Fed Socialist Money Manipulation Cancels Individuals' Better Judgment"
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Insurance protects individuals from events that cannot be foreseen. As Murray Rothbard noted, however, deposit insurance exists to "protect" a system that is inherently bankrupt.
Original Article: "Murray Rothbard Was Right: Deposit "Insurance" Is Not Insurance at All"
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The European electricity market is probably the most state-regulated in the world. More intervention is not going to solve the problems created by politics.
Original Article: "Europe's Energy Crisis Was Created by Political Intervention"
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Gold historically has not been money by government fiat. Instead, gold has been the natural choice of people for money, something governments cannot undo (despite its best efforts).
Original Article: "Gold as Natural Money"
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The only lesson for the United Kingdom is to remember that if you follow Greece’s economic policies, you get Greek debt, unemployment, and growth.
Original Article: "The Bank of England Made Liz Truss a Scapegoat"
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This year's trio of Nobel winners in economics are short on actual economics and long on government intervention.
Original Article: "The Nobel for Government Intervention: Bernanke and Others Rewarded for Flawed Theories"
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Even while Americans deal with skyrocketing higher education costs, few would challenge the worth of college and fewer still question the campus culture. Yet, that is precisely where the problems lie, even if people don't recognize it.
Original Article: "College as an Economic and Social Problem: Dealing with the Culture"
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While Bitcoin's S2F Model has come under some criticism, the best analysis of its flaws comes from perspective of Austrian Economics.
Original Article: "A Critique of the Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow Model"
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College faculties historically have leaned left-of-center, but today, a rigid progressive ideology is enforced not only by faculty, but also by higher education administrations.
Original Article: "Higher Education in Crisis: The Problem of Ideological Homogeneity"
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As we watch the once proud edifice of higher education in the USA crumble, we realize that we are looking at institutional failure itself.
Original Article: "The Perils of Higher Education: Institutional Failure"
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It is easy to think of supply and demand curves as being key to economic analysis. In reality, they can't tell us much, and emphasizing them actually stands in the way of better understanding economic processes.
Original Article: "What Do Supply and Demand Curves Really Tell Us? Not Very Much"
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There are only painful options for bringing price inflation under control at this point, and that's all thanks to the Fed's creation of countless bubbles and malinvestments over the past decade.
Original Article: "We're Getting Poorer: Price Inflation Grew Faster than Wages Again in September"
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The modern progressive narratives claim that the wealth of the West and especially of the USA was built upon the backs of slaves. In fact, slavery retarded economic growth.
Original Article: "The West Didn't Become Rich Because of Slavery But in Spite of It"
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Hyperinflation? Yes, it can happen here, and the more officials deny hyperinflation is possible, the more they create the conditions that causes it.
Original Article: "Inflation, High Inflation, Hyperinflation"
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The idea of defamation as a punishable legal matter is based on the notion that people do not have free will and are not responsible for their own actions.
Original Article: "The Alex Jones Verdict Shows the Danger of Defamation Laws"
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The world seems to be on fire, and much of the trouble comes from the efforts of central banks to suppress interest rates. No one understands that problem better than British historian Edward Chancellor.
Original Article: "Edward Chancellor's Much-Needed (But Not Heeded) Wisdom on Interest Rates"
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This is the "American dream" the Fed has given us: work more jobs and longer hours to keep paying those bills that are now growing at 8 percent per year.
Original Article: "Thanks to the Fed, You'll Work More This Year to Keep Last Year's Standard of Living"
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While President Biden claims that forgiving student loans helps reduce college costs, it is the loan program itself that is responsible for much of the explosive growth of higher education spending.
Original Article: "Higher Education Woes: Student Loans Help Fuel Higher College Costs"
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Mainstream economists claim that Austrian economics is "discredited" because Austrians use deductive reasoning instead of employing complicated calculus and statistics. The irony is that Austrian analysis is better at explaining real-world economic phenomena.
Original Article: "A Commonsense Approach to the Austrian-Mainstream Methodenstreit"
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Language is at the front lines of the battle over institutions.
Original Article: "The Front Lines of the Language Wars"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. '
The FBI operates as an agency whose players know they are untouchable in the current regime. Vacating FISA rulings is one way to fight back.
Original Article: "To Limit the Reach of America's Stasi, the FBI, Vacate All FISA Rulings"
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Turkey's economy is reeling under inflation rates likely reaching 170 percent. Not surprisingly, the worst of it is felt by regular people just trying to make a living.
Original Article: "The Turkish Way"
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A winning political strategy, especially among Democrats, is to accuse their political opponents of racism, or at least "closet" racism. Yet simple economic analysis shows such accusations are illogical.
Original Article: "An Economic Perspective on Accusing Political Opponents of Racism"
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What happens when banks lend money? It depends the lending process itself. If lending comes about because of an expansion of credit, then it creates problems.
Original Article: "Does Bank Lending by Itself Set Off Boom and Bust Cycles?"
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The standard line is that the Federal Reserve System has two mandates, keep unemployment low and create price stability. Mark Thornton notes that the real agenda is found elsewhere.
Original Article: "The Fed's Real Mandate"
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Some claim that slavery was the main reason for the success of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, but the answer lies elsewhere.
Original Article: "What Drove the Industrial Revolution in Britain? It Wasn't Slavery"
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The Bible the ancient Israelites were warned about the dangers of having a government that would tax them heavily and oppress them. They didn't listen.
Original Article: "An Ancient Warning: Criminal Trespass Is the State’s Essential Feature"
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The US dollar is not the world's "reserve" currency because of responsibility on behalf of the monetary authorities. Instead, the dollar's "strength" wages from the USA's self-appointed role as the world's protector.
Original Article: "It's All about the Benjamins: Why the Dollar Determines US Policies"
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Virtue-signaling politicians in New Jersey have banned single-use plastic bags, claiming to "help the environment." They need to read Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson instead.
Original Article: "Hazlitt's Lesson Restated: New Jersey's Disastrous Ban on Single-Use Plastic"
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Fortunately, the world is composed of many separate states, which enables "disobedient" residents in one state to escape to others, and fleeing conscription is merely an act of self-defense.
Original Article: "Escaping Russia's Military Draft Is an Act of Self-Defense"
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Progressives are fond of telling us that we are under a "social contract" with the government, in effect justifying whatever abuses authorities inflict. Putting up with massive inflation is the latest iteration of this so-called contract.
Original Article: "The Fraudulent Social Contract of Bad Money Regimes"
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Central banks claim that their main purposes are to help an economy maintain high rates of employment and price stability. Ironically, they claim to do this through inflation targets.
Original Article: "Central Banks Claim to Preserve the Value of Money through Inflation"
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In wartime, politicians frequently attempt to claim that all the citizens of foreign states are guilty of all the crimes their regimes commit. This is a modern invention, and a barbaric one.
Original Article: "No, Ordinary Russians Are Not Responsible for the Crimes of the Russian Regime"
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Radical Charles Dunoyer wanted "the municipalization of the world" by which states would be broken up and forced to compete both with the private sector and with countless other states.
Original Article: "The Secessionist French Classical Liberals: Molinari and Dunoyer"
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Standard neoclassical definitions of money call it a means of exchange and a store of value. But is this correct?
Original Article: "Cryptocurrency as Money—Store of Value or Medium of Exchange?"
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The current bout of inflation is the latest disaster in a string of disasters caused by government debasement of once sound money.
Original Article: "History Repeats Itself: Abandoning Sound Money Leads to Tyranny and Ruin"
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The money supply is on a long and fast downward trajectory. This points toward recession and is just one more indicator of economic weakness in addition to negative GDP and an inverted yield curve.
Original Article: "In Latest Recession Signal, Money-Supply Growth Plummeted to a Three-Year Low in August"
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The Fed claims 2 percent inflation promotes "price stability." However, that policy also causes the boom-and-bust cycle, which is anything but stable.
Original Article: "How the Policy of Price Stability Generates Greater Economic Instability"
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Is there a case for an American empire? Professor Nigel Biggar of Oxford University believes so, but David Gordon sets him straight.
Original Article: "Biggar Thy Neighbor"
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Recovery is genuine only when it reaches the masses of individuals. And recovery comes only from the actions of individuals acting in a free market.
Original Article: "Genuine Recovery Is Up to Investors, Producers, and Consumer Choice"
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Barack Obama promised to "end child hunger" by 2015. Michelle Obama promised to end childhood obesity. Unfortunately, both increased in large part because of the Obama programs. Today, President Biden will declare war on "hunger in America." Stay tuned.
Original Article: "Obama's Forgotten Child Hunger Debacle"
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President Biden's recent student loan forgiveness initiative only exacerbates the real problem: the cost of a college education, thanks to government intervention, is outrageously high.
Original Article: "Student Loan Forgiveness Treats the Symptom, Not the Disease"
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The Gold Standard Restoration Act seeks to once again tie the US dollar to gold.
Original Article: "Can the Dollar Once Again Be Anchored by Gold? One Congressman Believes It Can"
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While people from poor countries seek to live in places like the USA because of its stable institutions and welfare state, could migration of people from stable countries to less-developed ones make those countries better off?
Original Article: "The Other Immigration Question: Should People from Wealthy Countries Migrate to Poorer Ones?"
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One doubts that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act will reduce inflation. However, it will wreak havoc on the US economy with its lethal mix of taxes, regulations, subsidies, and outright crony capitalism.
Original Article: "The Inflation Reduction Act: Another Unfair and Unjustified State Intervention"
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The Fed's entire "strategy" can be summed up as "hike 'til it breaks, cut 'til it inflates." That's the best all those PhDs at the Fed have managed to come up with.
Original Article: "The Fed Is Finally Seeing the Magnitude of the Mess It Created"
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While officials in the White House, Treasury, and the Fed give the appearance of being in control, but in truth, they cannot undo the damage they have done.
Original Article: "Despite Their Hubris, Monetary Authorities Do Not Have Total Control"
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At the urging of the United States, Germany and other European governments have levied sanctions against Russia. In reality, these governments have levied sanctions against themselves and their citizens.
Original Article: "Germany's (and Europe's) Self-Inflicted Upcoming Energy Crunch"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Post-Keynesians believe that capitalism is internally unstable, leading to necessary intervention by the central bank. Austrians see that as backward reasoning, as policies by the central bank to create credit from nothing is the problem.
Original Article: "Does Capitalism Itself Create Economic Instability or Is Central Banking the Culprit?"
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Why does money have value? Typical economists claim that money is valuable because the government declares it so. But that is impossible, given the true origins of money, which are best explained by Austrian economists.
Original Article: "Do People Accept Money Because Government Endorses It?"
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An enduring progressive myth is that thanks to Western technologies and compassionate NGOs, American agricultural scientists saved the developing world via the Green Revolution. Not surprisingly, the truth is found elsewhere.
Original Article: "The "Stunning Success" of the Green Revolution Is Yet Another Progressive Myth"
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Conservatives have missed the point that it is not students particularly that are at fault for the student loan crises, but the entire bureaucratic economic-political system.
Original Article: "Seeing the Student Loan Crisis as a Form of Boom and Bust"
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Joe Biden says the pandemic is over in an attempt to get a few more votes. But the administration certainly isn't acting like the "pandemic is over" in terms of actual policy.
Original Article: "The Pandemic Is "Over," but the Feds Aren't Giving Up Their Emergency Powers"
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Because government is predatory, it may seem ironic then to use the political system as a means of protecting one's own property, family, and loved ones. But there are times when such a strategy makes sense.
Original Article: "Practicing Politics as Self-Defense"
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Winter is approaching and Europeans are facing homes without heat, thanks to the US-led sanctions against Russia. Who will carry the blame when people freeze to death?
Original Article: "Europe Ditched Russian Energy. Now People Are Sitting in Line For Days to Buy Coal. Is Biden to Blame?"
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Do these things to stand apart from your peers.
Original Article: "Five Keys to Professional and Personal Development"
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The Fed is slowly increasing interest rates in the hopes that the economy will experience a "soft landing." However, there is no way to soften the blows about to fall on the economy.
Original Article: "Powell's Pivot to "Pain" but No Gain: Triggering the Coming Recession"
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While the current political narratives claim that only Europeans were involved in the infamous transatlantic slave trade, the Africans themselves were also major players in directing and overseeing it.
Original Article: "Europeans Were Not the Only Slave Traders in Africa"
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The rise of democracy blurred the lines between the regime and the people it exploits. This was less of a problem under monarchs, whose interests were clearly separate from the public's.
Original Article: "Molinari Explains the Difference between Monarchy and Popular Government"
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While historians paint the enclosure movement in negative terms, it actually played an important role in developing agricultural entrepreneurship.
Original Article: "The Enclosure Movement and the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions"
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The academic and political buzzword today is "decolonialization," but what happens when good laws are discarded on the flimsy basis that they were established during a colonial era?
Original Article: "When "Decolonialization" Creates More Problems than It Allegedly Solves"
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The reality of socialism is that it politicizes life entirely. How that is supposed to improve quality of life remains a mystery.
Original Article: "How Do We Define Socialism? By What It Does—and Does Not—Do"
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Jordan Peterson has linked identity politics to socialism. Instead, socialism is about empowering the state.
Original Article: "Socialism Is Not Groupthink, but Statethink: A Brief Comment on Jordan Peterson"
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Adherents of the famous Phillips curve believe there is a permanent tradeoff between inflation and unemployment. This is mistaken.
Original Article: "The Fed Is Wrong to Make Policies Based upon the Phillips Curve"
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Monarchs created Europe's modern states but lost the ability to control them. Then, having grown beyond the tools that helped monarchs turn themselves into absolute rulers, "the state acquired a life of its own."
Original Article: "How Monarchs Became Servants of the State"
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Vaccine mandates imposed by governments violate individual rights and further the coercive powers of the state. They also violate Kantian ethical norms, turning people into vehicles to accomplish the ends of governing elites.
Original Article: "Mandatory Vaccines vs. Logic and Kantian Ethics"
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The Fed's suppression of interest rates in the USA didn't just affect this nation's economy. It also drove investors to seek higher interest rates in questionable investments.
Original Article: "How the Fed Helped Create Another Calamity: The Ongoing Emerging Market Debt Crisis"
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Argentina is synonymous with hyperinflation, but apparently its voters have not had enough.
Original Article: "Déjà Vu: Argentines Once Again are Voting for More Inflation While Remaining in Denial"
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Typical teaching on stock prices says they are little more than a random walk. But people's purposeful actions are behind every economic transactions.
Original Article: "Short-Term Market Volatility Is Not Entirely Random"
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This is bad news for the administration, which has repeatedly attempted to downplay the relentless increases to the cost of living being inflicted on Americans after years of deficit spending, fueling inflationary monetary policy.
Original Article: "August's Price Inflation Soared, and That Means Earnings Fell Yet Again"
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Logical positivism holds that theory is irrelevant to the empirical results. It is the other way around; One cannot understand or interpret economic data until one has a working economic theory in place.
Original Article: "We Cannot Interpret Economic Data Unless We Know Economic Theory"
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By compensating slave owners for the abolition of slavery, Great Britain ended the scourge of chattel slavery long before it was ended in the Americas.
Original Article: "By Compensating Slave Owners, Great Britain Negotiated a Peaceful End to Slavery"
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Paul Krugman recently argued that the Federal Reserve can engineer a "soft landing" for the economy as it tries to deal with inflation. Such a view ignores economic realities.
Original Article: "Looking at the Economic Myth of the "Soft Landing""
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Even as population has grown, increasing the intensive margin for agriculture has led to increased food production. This may not necessarily be a good thing.
Original Article: "The False Benefit of Less Land Use for Agriculture"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Both Murray Rothbard and Harry Jaffa began as men of the Right. However, Rothbard turned toward the view that individuals possess rights outside of the state; Jaffa turned toward conservatism.
Original Article: "Promoting Natural Rights Instead of Conservatism: Looking at Rothbard and Jaffa"
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The Fed’s tampering with market signals undermines the process of wealth generation, thereby exerting an upward pressure on the time preference interest rate and the market interest rate.
Original Article: "Throwing the Fed's Machinery in Reverse: Fed Interest Rate Policies Continue to Damage the Economy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Original Article: "Everything You Love You Owe to Capitalism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Economists often deplore the corruption in developing countries, but when institutions are corrupt, don't expect people to have the incentive to be honest.
Original Article: "When Honesty Is Disincentivized, Don't Be Surprised That Trickery Abounds"
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The optics of the event were likely the idea of a proud Biden staffer leaning into the “Dark Brandon” aesthetic that has become popular among regime loyalists on Twitter. To Americans outside of this Very Online echo chamber, the imagery drew connotations of sinister authoritarian regimes.
Original Article: "Biden Declares "MAGA Republicans" Enemies of the State"
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New York City’s subways have become a nightmare, with rampant crime, delays, derailments, and poorly capitalized. This is a gift from "backdoor socialism."
Original Article: "New York City Subways: The Woes of Socialist Enterprises"
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Commodity money isn't a government creation, as so many believe. It has a definite praxeological foundation.
Original Article: "The Praxeological Origins of the Price System"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Powell isn't a villain for pulling his foot off the money-creation accelerator a little. No, Powell's villainy stems from his role in helping create the boom in the first place.
Original Article: "Blame the Fed for Both the Inflationary Boom and the Inevitable Bust"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Biden has declared that the USA has "zero inflation" at present. Austrian economists say, "Not so fast."
Original Article: "Inflation in the USA: Where Do We Stand Today?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While we often concentrate on government agents' antiliberty actions, it is easy to overlook the shadow government of private business firms and NGOs that do the government's bidding.
Original Article: "America's Secret Government by Proxy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Mainstream economists say everyone should pay the same price for the same good. But that doesn't totally make sense.
Original Article: "Why I Love "Price Discrimination""
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Original Article: "Defining and Defending Freedom"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Like many modern "conservatives," F.H. Buckley believes that America's future is conservative governance with a helping of government intervention, tariffs, and regulation.
Original Article: "Review: Progressive Conservatism: How Republicans Will Become America’s Natural Governing Party"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Aided by state intervention, disinformation is becoming a way of life in communications.
Original Article: "Modern Information Control: State Intervention and Mistakes to Avoid"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Mali Empire flourished as a trading center and gold-producing region from the late Middle Ages into the mid-seventeenth century.
Original Article: "The Mali Empire: An African Story of Gold and Greatness"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Keynesians claim that tax cuts are good because they help increase consumer spending. But here's why this doesn't matter.
Original Article: "Do We Want Real Tax Cuts? How About Cutting Government Spending?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Much of modern history portrays the African slave trade as purely a European venture. But capturing and sending slaves abroad required both approval and aid from African elites.
Original Article: "The African Slave Trade Wouldn't Have Been Possible without African Elites"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
When the Nixon administration ended the dollar's ties to gold, it was yet another sad chapter in the US government's abuse of its currency. And the government learned nothing.
Original Article: "Money Does Matter: The End of the Gold Standard Led to a Lower Standard of Living"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
When the Nixon administration ended the dollar's ties to gold, it was yet another sad chapter in the US government's abuse of its currency. And the government learned nothing.
Original Article: "Money Does Matter: The End of the Gold Standard Led to a Lower Standard of Living"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Before Steve Jobs and the iPhone, there was Malcolm McLean, inventor of the shipping container. McLean made the iPhone—and many other things—possible.
Original Article: "Malcolm McLean: The Unsung Capitalist Hero Who Changed the World One Container at a Time"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Before Steve Jobs and the iPhone, there was Malcolm McLean, inventor of the shipping container. McLean made the iPhone—and many other things—possible.
Original Article: "Malcolm McLean: The Unsung Capitalist Hero Who Changed the World One Container at a Time"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
When the Soviet Union dominated Eastern Europe, people there looked to the West—and especially the USA—in hopes of freedom. Today, it is the West promoting culture wars and collectivism.
Original Article: "Trapped by Imperialist Leviathans: The Case for Freedom in Central and Eastern Europe"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Not long ago, Germany's politicians were proudly phasing out nuclear power. Facing a harsh winter without Russian natural gas, the atom suddenly seems like a good alternative.
Original Article: "Germany's Nuclear Choice: Russian Energy Crisis Forces a Reckoning"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
We are regularly being told that we are in a "climate crisis." But what if that isn't true? What if CO2 actually is good for the greening of the planet?
Original Article: "Rethinking Climate Change: Are the Apocalyptic Models Wrong?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
For now, the dollar seems to be doing well against other currencies, but how long will that last?
Original Article: "Will the US Dollar Weaken against Other Currencies?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The "official" definition of a recession is a two-consecutive-quarter decline in GDP, but there are problems with GDP measurement in the first place.
Original Article: "Is a Recession Simply a Decline in GDP? What Does That Mean?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In colonial America, "liberty" came to mean rights one possessed outside of government approval. In revolutionary France (and in modern Canada) it has come to mean participation in a political system.
Original Article: "A Tale of Two Liberties"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Entrepreneurship is the key to real development, but cultural attitudes are often a significant barrier to entrepreneurship in the developing world.
Original Article: "Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Still a Work in Progress"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
For now, the dollar seems to be doing well against other currencies, but how long will that last?
Original Article: "Will the US Dollar Weaken against Other Currencies?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
We are regularly being told that we are in a "climate crisis." But what if that isn't true? What if CO2 actually is good for the greening of the planet?
Original Article: "Rethinking Climate Change: Are the Apocalyptic Models Wrong?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Development economists often confuse natural resources with wealth and then are puzzled when countries rich in resources experience widespread poverty. Free markets lead to creation of wealth, period.
Original Article: "Money Is Not Wealth, Nor Is Wealth Natural Resources"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Fernando R. Tesón is all mixed up. He thinks libertarians' principled nonaggression ties their hands in the face of violence against others and that this limitation extends to good-guy states.
Original Article: "Should Libertarians Get behind States Waging "Humanitarian" Wars?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Fernando R. Tesón is all mixed up. He thinks libertarians' principled nonaggression ties their hands in the face of violence against others and that this limitation extends to good-guy states.
Original Article: "Should Libertarians Get behind States Waging "Humanitarian" Wars?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Development economists often confuse natural resources with wealth and then are puzzled when countries rich in resources experience widespread poverty. Free markets lead to creation of wealth, period.
Original Article: "Money Is Not Wealth, Nor Is Wealth Natural Resources"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Not satisfied with putting thousands of people out of work with its infamous AB 5 legislation, California lawmakers now are going after fast-food businesses.
Original Article: "AB 257: Another Antieconomic California Boondoggle"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Typical discussions about the fate of our planet center around issues like war, climate change, and sovereignty. Peter Zelhan says "the halcyon days of 1980–2015 are over."
Original Article: "Can We See the End of the World from Here? Will We Still Feel Fine?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Elites are attacking the government of Mauritius for having lower tax rates than other African countries. The real issue is the levels of taxation in other African countries.
Original Article: "If Mauritius Is a Tax H(e)aven, Other African Countries Must Be Tax Hells"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Like all other places, Africa has a more nuanced history than what people previously have believed. The continent was not devoid of technology before the advent of colonialism, as there were pockets of inventiveness and small-scale manufacturing.
Original Article: "Yes, Precolonial Africa Had Technology and Economic Life before Colonialism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In the past, many Americans may have simply trusted to the regime to provide "law and order." But that sentiment is apparently becoming more and more rare.
Original Article: "Rising "Constitutional Carry" Is a Sign of Failing Trust in Government"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The efficient market hypothesis, which is popular in neoclassical economics circles, holds that markets are so "efficient" that entrepreneurial profits are generated randomly.
Original Article: "Profits Are Not Random. They're How Entrepreneurs Help Allocate Resources Efficiently."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Now that inflation is the highest it has been in four decades, the monetary authorities are trying one trick after another. Only ending artificially low interest rates will help.
Original Article: "Low Interest Rates and High Taxes Won't Help against Inflation: The Economy Needs Savings and Real Investment"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
On top of Congress passing the "Climate Relief Bill," environmentalists also demand that President Joe Biden declare a "climate emergency" in order to seize new powers ostensibly to combat dreaded climate change. However, climate alarmism is not based on reality.
Original Article: "The Agenda behind Climate Change Catastrophism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Sen. Joe Manchin has agreed to support a "Build Back Better" lite that proponents claim will reduce inflation, give us better weather, and "pay for itself" through price controls and taxes. Perhaps we should be wary of such political "victories" for the political elites.
Original Article: "A Political Victory for the Joes Is a Loss for the Country"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Fresh off destroying the agricultural economy of Sri Lanka, the Great Reset crowd now is urging people to eat insects in order to combat the food shortages that the self-appointed elites have caused.
Original Article: "The Great Reset at Work: The Dystopian Transformation of the Food Industry"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Mention Rastafarianism and most likely Reggae, dreadlocks, and Bob Marley come to mind. However, Rastafarianism helped downtrodden Jamaicans resist the oppressions of colonialism.
Original Article: "Rastafarianism's Antistate Beginnings: It's More Than Just Bob Marley's Music"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Names like Menger, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser, Hayek, and Rothbard are well-known to adherents of the Austrian school of economics. Emil Kauder isn't one of those names, but Murray Rothbard brings his contributions to Austrian thinking to light.
Original Article: "Emil Kauder as an Austrian Dehomogenizer"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
It’s impossible to simply declare nationalism itself to be good or bad. Its goodness or badness depends primarily on its effect on existing regimes and state institutions.
Original Article: "Is Nationalism a Good Thing? It Depends."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Most economists see GDP as a snapshot of the performance of the economy. However, it is better understood as a misleading statistic which fails to accurately describe what really is happening economically.
Original Article: "GDP Provides a False Reading of the State of the Economy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Lest anyone underestimate the brutality of state control, the way governments have handled the covid-19 pandemic demonstrates the authorities have not yet hit bottom.
Original Article: "Covid-19 and the Continuing Erosion of Private Property Rights"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
As the US political landscape shifts rapidly and college economics departments become increasingly hostile, the way we teach free-market economics will change.
Original Article: "How to Teach Austrian Economics in the Current Political Atmosphere"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Rather than contributing to a "soft landing," raising interest rates will continue to destroy wealth.
Original Article: "Interest Rate Tightening Will Cause Even More Economic Destruction"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While governments have been assaulting private property rights for many years, they now are ramping up the pressure. Nothing less than our civilization is at stake.
Original Article: "If Government Can Take from One Group, It Can and Will Take from Everyone"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While governments have been assaulting private property rights for many years, they now are ramping up the pressure. Nothing less than our civilization is at stake.
Original Article: "If Government Can Take from One Group, It Can and Will Take from Everyone"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
What is libertarian law and how does it function? Ludwig von Mises answered some of those questions and helped chart a path to achieving such a state of affairs.
Original Article: "Libertarian Law by Democratic Means: A Method for Conflict Resolution"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Even though the Cold War ended three decades ago, the threat of nuclear war still hangs over us. Scott Horton reminds us that preventing nuclear war should always be high on our political agenda.
Original Article: "Hotter than the Sun: Finally, a Book Worth Reading"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In the 1950s, McCarthyism targeted people who were accused of supporting Russia. Today's McCarthyism targets people accused of supporting … Russia. Some things never change.
Original Article: "Like the Old McCarthyism, the New McCarthyism Targets Russia"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
June was the fifteenth month in a row during which price inflation outpaced earnings growth. June's gap is also among the biggest we've seen in decades.
Original Article: "Inflation Hits 9.1 Percent after Months of Empty Talk at the Fed"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Progressives claim that inequality is causing poverty and making people's lives worse. In reality, inequality leads to better economic outcomes overall and pulls more people out of poverty.
Original Article: "We Need More Inequality, Not Less"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
It is hard to explain through evolution how we know any necessary truths. Does this give us reason to abandon necessary truth? Nozick thinks so.
Original Article: "Nozick on Morality and Evolution"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The ruling class is claiming that free markets are nothing more than a "trickle-down" scheme. But a free market system really does serve society best.
Original Article: "Consumers, Workers, and Monopolies: Free Markets Serve All"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Once wealthy Argentina has suffered under one interventionist regime after another for nearly a century. What are the prospects for changing things for the better?
Original Article: "Argentina's Difficult Political Landscape and Libertarian Prospects for Change"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Keynesians running our economic life may be reassured that the Fed cannot fail in a technical sense, but the public should be appalled.
Original Article: "The Fed Cannot Go Bankrupt; However, It Can Bankrupt the Country"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In an attempt to stymie the spread of covid-19, the Chinese government has imposed reckless and harmful lockdown policies in several cities. This will not end well.
Original Article: "China's Draconian Lockdown Policies: Major Consequences to Follow"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The West Indies played a vital role in growing the British economy in the eighteenth century.
Original Article: "The Industrial Revolution and the West Indies: Did the Colonies Spark Progress in the Metropole?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The New York Times claims that the "administrative state"—that is, governance by unelected bureaucrats—protects our country and enhances democracy.
Original Article: "Turns Out the Elites Like the Administrative State Better than Democracy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, pundits on the Left have demanded even more centralization of government. But federalism is the best way forward.
Original Article: "Federalism, Not Centralization, Is the Way out of the Current Conflicts"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
More than sixty years after being "liberated" by Fidel Castro and communism, Cuba has become a large slave state where people enjoy little freedom.
Original Article: "More than Sixty Years after "Liberation," Cuba Is a Communist Slave State"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
People often speak of the Constitution with reverence, as though it were infallible. However, the Constitution was a centralizing document that cast aside the decentralization of the Articles of Confederation.
Original Article: "Is the Constitution a Centralizing or Decentralizing Document?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Indian tribe sovereignty has long been a much neglected, yet important, tool in decentralizing and limiting government power in the US.
Original Article: "SCOTUS Attacked Indian Tribe Sovereignty in Castro-Huerta, and That's a Bad Thing."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
"Repealing the twentieth century" sounds like madness to many. Yet the progressivism that came from that century will be the death knell of civilization if not stopped.
Original Article: "Civil Society and Counterrevolution against Progressivism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Groups targeted by class warriors in America will achieve more if they follow the Igbos’ path and ignore the politics of grievance.
Original Article: "Africa's Entrepreneurs: The Igbos of Nigeria"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Keynesian economics is a scourge to any nation that tries it, and African countries are no exception.
Original Article: "Nine Ways Debt and Deficit Spending Severely Harm African Societies"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Paul Krugman denies that the Fed artificially suppressed interest rates. As usual, Krugman neither understands interest rates nor the effects of inflationary policies.
Original Article: "Krugman Is Wrong (Again): Artificially Low Interest Rates Created Bubbles"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
When conservatives applaud unlimited war spending, they not only harm our economy and body politic, but they give the Left a powerful talking point.
Original Article: "War Spending Gives MMTers and the Left a Strong Talking Point"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While the economic sanctions against Russia are helping to impoverish people in that country, they are doing a lot of damage elsewhere too.
Original Article: "The Unending Farce of US Sanctions against Russia"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Tightening the interest rate hurts both bubble and solid businesses. The Fed should just focus on reducing the money supply.
Original Article: "The Fed's Tightening Will Only Drag Out the Economic Slump"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
With his current timid, weak, and prevaricating position on price inflation, Powell is positioning himself as the new Arthur Burns, who did nothing to end 1970s inflation.
Original Article: "Powell Is the New Arthur Burns, Not the New Paul Volcker"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The standard line among the Great Reset crowd is that capitalism exploits poor nations and causes poverty. In reality, capitalism and free markets have reduced poverty around the world.
Original Article: "Developing Countries Don't Need Wealth Transfers; They Need Free Markets"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Since the 1940s, failed statist schemes have dragged Argentina into poverty. Javier Milei, who is gaining popularity there, hopes to change his nation's sad history.
Original Article: "Will Argentina's Next President Be a Rothbardian?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The end of Roe may force many Americans to recognize that the United States is not one place. It is many places. The key is to reject uniform federal policy.
Original Article: "To Avoid Civil War, Learn to Tolerate Different Laws in Different States"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Congress enjoys exorbitant political privilege in the form of cheap deficit spending—but it may soon come to an end.
Original Article: "Rising Interest Rates May Blow Up the Federal Budget"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The relative lack of inflation in Japan doesn't mean real wages haven't fallen.
Original Article: "Here We Go Again: The Fed Is Causing Another Recession"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Many of the best-known civil rights leaders eschewed entrepreneurship, emphasizing that blacks seek employment in the professions and government jobs.
Original Article: "Entrepreneurship Should Be the Goal, Not White-Collar Jobs"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The relative lack of inflation in Japan doesn't mean real wages haven't fallen.
Original Article: "How the BOJ Created "Noninflationary" Money While Ruining the Japanese Economy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates and we know what follows, given there has been more than a decade of malinvestments building up: severe recession.
Original Article: "Economic Winter Has Arrived"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Ben Bernanke once claimed that a monetary gold standard caused economic instability. He failed to mention that his fiat money standard causes the boom-and-bust cycles.
Original Article: "Contra Ben Bernanke, the Gold Standard Promotes Economic Stability"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Real deflation—both monetary inflation and price inflation—is necessary, and that can only be accomplished if the Fed can resist the temptation to keep doing what it's been doing since 2008.
Original Article: "What Will It Take to End Rampant Home-Price Inflation?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Federal Reserve was supposed to prevent recessions that people blamed on the lack of central banking. Not surprisingly, the post-Fed recessions have been worse.
Original Article: "How Bad Were Recessions before the Fed? Not as Bad as They Are Now"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Did you feel happy when the government gave you a check paid with printed money? Watch now as your daily groceries, gas and power become unaffordable.
Original Article: "How Governments Expropriate Wealth with Inflation and Taxes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Although social media is blamed for many social ills, the sickness doesn't come from Twitter or Facebook but from how the ruling classes have politicized life itself.
Original Article: "Don't Blame Social Media. Blame the Politicization of Nearly Everything"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Neither the Ukraine war nor tough weather changes would threaten a global food shortage in a normal market environment. Unfortunately, world markets are riddled with regulations, killing production.
Original Article: "Government Intervention Is Fueling Food Shortages"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
US foreign policy is a morass of lobbying, payouts, decisions, and power plays that violates the standards this country claims to promote.
Original Article: "Who Really Makes US Foreign Policy? Who Benefits and Who Loses?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Many think cancel culture is an odd particularity of the Anglosphere. Unfortunately, it raised its ugly head at this year's Austrian Economics Meeting Europe held in Lithuania.
Original Article: "The Austrian Economics Meeting Europe Got a Taste of Cancel Culture"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Unlike a private-sector service, police do not operate under any contractual obligations to provide services in any particular way. They can choose to do nothing at all, and face no real consequences.
Original Article: "Why Police Do Nothing While Kids Are Killed"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The United States economy may have delivered no growth in the first half of 2022 after the decline in the first quarter, narrowly avoiding a technical recession.
Original Article: "US Household Saving Rate Vanishes, Credit Card Debt Soars"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Inflation is raging and progressives want action. What kind of action? They want to return to the 1970s regime of price controls.
Original Article: "Back to the Future: Progressives Imagine the Good Old Days of Price Controls"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
As antigun studies surface left and right, it's worth remembering that the right to self-defense isn't merely about being safe. It's about having the choice to defend yourself.
Original Article: "Guns and Self-Defense"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Peter Schiff once joked that Obama should have appointed Bernie Madoff secretary of the Treasury. The government's easy money policies ultimately lead to Ponzi schemes.
Original Article: "From the Eccles Building to Vegas: The Fed Enables the Worst Ponzi Schemes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Anyone who doubts whether we are in a recession can stop doubting. The Fed's reverse repos show that we're headed for a crash.
Original Article: "The Great Crash of 2022"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Forget Jerome Powell's fanciful "soft landing" or the notion that the Fed can pull another rabbit from its hat. The banking system is headed for a crash and monetary authorities likely will make things worse.
Original Article: "A Perfect Storm Is Brewing in Banking and Finance"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Mauritius government still denies Chagossians independence, continuing colonial policies.
Original Article: "Independence for Chagossians? Time to End Colonialist Policies"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Conventional wisdom says a country should manage its debts, but what if debt has become uncontrollable?
Original Article: "In Defense of Defaulting on the National Debt"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In the wake of mass shootings, progressives claim that draconian gun laws will stop these tragic events. However, the gun control record in places like Jamaica provides contrary evidence.
Original Article: "Jamaica's Experience Shows That Even Draconian Gun Control Will Not Stop Gun Violence"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Inflation in Argentina is far worse than neighboring countries. It has only one cause: an extractive and confiscatory monetary policy—printing pesos without control and without demand.
Original Article: "How Money Printing Destroyed Argentina and Can Destroy Others"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Were these cannabis-legal states to combine to form their own country, it would be the tenth-largest country in the world.
Original Article: "144 Million Americans Now Live in States with Legal Recreational Marijuana"
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Americans are looking at a grim energy future, thanks to government.
Original Article: "The Biden Administration's Ignorant Energy Policies: Higher Gas Prices Are Only the Beginning"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Biden administration, stung by low poll numbers, insists that the president is receiving unfair PR, which is hiding the "truth" about Biden's many accomplishments.
Original Article: "For Presidents, Unpopularity Is a Simple PR Problem. Biden Is No Exception"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Janet Yellen admits she underestimated inflation, but she still does not realize that inflation is not higher prices, but the increase in fiat money that forces up prices.
Original Article: "Rising Interest Rates Are Revealing the True Damage Done by the Fed"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Janet Yellen admits she underestimated inflation, but she still does not realize that inflation is not higher prices, but the increase in fiat money that forces up prices.
Original Article: "Even after Admitting She Underestimated Inflation, Janet Yellen Still Doesn't Understand What It Is"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
By late 2021, fueled by trillions in newly printed money, gasoline prices had surged to ten-year highs. Now, even in inflation-adjusted terms, gasoline prices are surging to new highs.
Original Article: "No, It's Not "Greed" or "Price Gouging" That's Driving up Gas Prices"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
California's progressive political classes now have a scheme to impose a single-payer system for medical care. If imposed, it will be costly but also ineffective.
Original Article: "California Scheming: The Progressive Leadership's New Plan to Impose High-Cost, Low-Quality Medical Care"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Progressives believe that economies should be run by high-IQ "experts." But successful market economies require entrepreneurs with an idea and the willingness to face uncertain economic conditions.
Original Article: "Market Success Is about Giving People What They Want"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Year-over-year PPI growth came in at over 10 percent for the sixth month in a row. This will put more pressure on the Fed to "do something."
Original Article: "Wholesale Prices Rise More than 10 Percent, Pointing to Continued Price Hikes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The so-called Great Reset is an attempt by wealthy elites and their allies to control people's lives. Their schemes need to be both exposed and resisted.
Original Article: "The Great Reset: Turning Back the Clock on Civilization"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Progressives have long pushed for a state dominated by a new class of "scientific" experts who are supposedly nonpolitical and pursuing only "good government." It's a fantasy many people still believe.
Original Article: "Why Progressives Love Government 'Experts'"
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Though Kuttner thinks the New Deal a great success, he himself lays out some of its many problems.
Original Article: "The New Deal: Admissions against Interest"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Forget the notion that the Fed "fights inflation." In fact, the Fed exists to promote inflation.
Original Article: "Even When There Is Inflation, the Fed STILL Fights Falling Prices"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The theory of real business cycles won a Nobel Prize, but it ultimately confuses cause with effect.
Original Article: "Are Technology Shocks Responsible for Business Cycles? In a Word, No."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Totalitarian societies do not become that way overnight. There are recognizable signs and stages which show how a society slides into that abyss.
Original Article: "The Five Stages of Totalitarianism"
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The Fair Tax is a supposed alternative to the income tax. But the name does not matter, since a tax is still a tax.
Original Article: "The Fair Tax Is the Tax That Will Not Die"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Skyrocketing asset prices are great for hedge fund managers and Wall Street types, but they increasingly drive ordinary people into unsustainably large amounts of debt.
Original Article: "Are Today's Homeownership Rates Sustainable?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Davos crowd sold globalization as a way to bring nations together. Unfortunately, by insisting on political conformity, the globalists have set the world on fire.
Original Article: "Instead of Uniting the World, Globalization Has Set Nation against Nation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Inflation is at a forty-year high, fuel prices are wreaking havoc, and there's no end in sight. Time for Biden to tell us how good we have it.
Original Article: "Will Punch-Drunk Biden Take America Down with Him?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Since the state is incorrigible and incapable of being reformed, perhaps the best way to deal with government predations is to boycott the elections.
Original Article: "Let's Boycott Them!"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In seeking membership in NATO, Finland and Sweden seem to believe they will have more military security. But they also are giving up their precious independence.
Original Article: "Finland and Sweden in NATO: Disregarding the Benefits of Neutrality"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Although Biden presented the formula shortage as caused by "forces" outside the USA, the shortage is homegrown. Bastiat could have explained why.
Original Article: "Bastiat Predicted the Baby Formula Crisis 170 Years before It Happened"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Vladimir Putin (not unlike President George W. Bush) has led his country into a destructive war, yet the Russian political leadership enjoys wide public support.
Original Article: "Why Russia's Authoritarian Regime Continues to Enjoy Public Support"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Great Reset usually is framed as the reestablishment of democratic social principles. In reality, it's an attempt to do away with the last vestiges of classical liberalism.
Original Article: "Covid and Its Statist Legacy: How Did We Get to This Point?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Once upon a time, the progressive hero was "socialist man." Today, we have "Davos man," who is ready to plan your life for you—your wishes notwithstanding.
Original Article: "Davos Man Is at It Again: The 2022 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Because of Elon Musk's attempt to take over Twitter, Tesla has been removed from the S&P's ESG Index, an action that exposes ESG for what it really is: a woke cartel.
Original Article: "Elon Musk versus the Woke Cartel"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Great Reset usually is framed as the reestablishment of democratic social principles. In reality, it's an attempt to do away with the last vestiges of classical liberalism.
Original Article: "The Backstory of the Great Reset, or How to Destroy Classical Liberalism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Thirty-nine people were killed in school shootings in 2018 (one of the worst years). In the same period, 900 children drowned, and 1,800 were murdered via child abuse.
Original Article: "Just How Common Are School Shootings?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The African Continent Free Trade Area has the potential to serve Africans and bring about better living standards. However, it is threatened by government attempts to "manage" trade.
Original Article: "To Succeed, the AfCFTA Must Be about Actual Free Trade, Not Government-Managed 'Free Trade'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
There are two competing visions for the Right.
Original Article: "The New Postliberalism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
After the 2008 housing bust, the government supposedly set up a fail-safe mortgage program aimed at preventing future bubbles. It failed.
Original Article: "The Fed's Latest Housing Bubble"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The proabortion centralist line of "accept our definition of human rights, or else" is what we'd expect from the imperialists of old who claimed the "savages" in the colonies couldn't be trusted with self-government.
Original Article: "Federal Control of Abortion Laws Is Modern Colonialism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While supporters of the Biden administration fault Putin for shortages, Austrian economists know the answer lies in Washington's monetary and economic mismanagement.
Original Article: "Austrian Economists Are Not Surprised by the Shortages"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While the covid-19 pandemic brought sickness and death, another pandemic raged through Washington: abuse of executive power.
Original Article: "The Pandemic of Executive Overreach Comes to an End. When Will the Next One Begin?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Europeans are welcome to keep NATO going if they like. But the time has come for the United States to exit.
Original Article: "NATO Plans to Rip Off Americans Even More as Sweden and Finland Set to Join"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While the standard secular narrative is that Christianity held back science and human development, history tells a different story, one of literacy and the development of human capital.
Original Article: "Christianity and the Development of Human Capital: Challenging the Narratives"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The presence of American companies in foreign nations was once seen as a sign of American superiority and an instrument of American cultural power. Not anymore.
Original Article: "McDonald's Closes All Stores in Russia as Woke Russophobes Rage"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The combination of covid lockdowns, money pumping, and attempts to force a new green economy are taking their toll. This is not going away any time soon.
Original Article: "It's Not Just the USA: The Economic Instability Is Global"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Everything from huge Keynesian "stimulus" policies to the war in Ukraine is dovetailing in a bout of stagflation: the simultaneous growth of inflation and unemployment.
Original Article: "Massive State Economic Intervention Has Led to This Point"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Trying to interpret the actions of Vladimir Putin or politics in Russia using Western narratives is likely to end in failure.
Original Article: "Understanding Russia's War: The Strange Philosophy of Aleksandr Dugin"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Persistently loose monetary policies always have negative growth and distributional effects that impair political stability. In extreme cases, there are civil wars and armed conflicts between countries.
Original Article: "Inflation, War, and Oil: How Today's Crises Are Rehashing the 1970s"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The latest Keynesian money-printing and spending schemes are blowing up. It is time to hear what the Austrians have to say.
Original Article: "It Just Might Be Time to Listen to the Austrians"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Proponents of arming Ukraine against Russia call critics "isolationists" as a pejorative term. But these "entangling alliances" have a history of sad endings with tragic results.
Original Article: "Noninterventionism Is Not Isolationism: The US Government Should Stop Arming Ukraine"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Enforceable and accepted private property rights can help bring some solutions to the acrimonious debate over transgenderism and transgender rights.
Original Article: "The Transgender Debate Should Be about Women’s Freedom and Private Property Rights"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
France is seeing its wealth-to-income levels rise to Japan's level because it is becoming harder for people to save and build wealth.
Original Article: "France Is Catching Up to Japan, but Not in a Good Way"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Since the early 1960s, African nations have gained political independence from colonial powers, but the monetary colonialism of fiat money continues.
Original Article: "Africa's Way Out of Monetary Colonialism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Money velocity's role in forcing up prices is misunderstood because today's monetary "authorities" fail to consider how new money is injected into the economy.
Original Article: "The Fed Gets It Wrong on Money Velocity, Too"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Colonialism, imperialism, unfair trade, and more. African politicians look everywhere for the causes of Africa's poverty and chaos but in the mirror.
Original Article: "African Politicians Must Stop Blaming Others for Africa's Economic Woes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In the face of the coming hardship, central bankers and globalist institutions are going to demand more power to respond to the crisis they created. Bitcoin gives their political opponents a weapon against them.
Original Article: "From El Salvador to Africa, the Next Currency War Pits Populists against Bankers"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Here we are in 2022, worrying about if the world's oldest nuclear powers will be the ones to touch off a global nuclear war. It's not Pakistan or North Korea or "proliferation." It's Washington and Moscow, yet again.
Original Article: "Proliferation Isn't the Problem. Legacy Nuclear Powers Again Threaten the Globe."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Social issues, from abortion to critical race theory to teaching gender identity in elementary schools, dominate our politics and media.
Original Article: "Why Social Issues Dominate"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The partisan leftism of much of the tech industry has led to conservatives calling for state intervention in the digital sphere. Elon Musk's recent purchase of Twitter proves this was wrong.
Original Article: "Austrians Have Been Correct about Big Tech: Elon Musk Just Proved Them Right"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In the final days of the Soviet Union, the Washington establishment was convinced nationalism was a greater threat than Soviet despotism. Thus, George Bush tried to prop up the USSR and prevent Ukrainian secession.
Original Article: "1991: When America Tried to Keep Ukraine in the USSR"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Last year, Joe Biden and his administration claimed that inflation was "transitory." This year, Vladimir Putin gets the blame. Next year, Biden will blame American businesses. And the beat goes on.
Original Article: "No, It's Not the Putin Price Hike, No Matter What Joe Biden Claims"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The patent system in pharmaceuticals incentivizes firms to game the system for monopoly profits.
Original Article: "Postcovid America: Racked by Inflation, Americans Pay Too Much for Drugs"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
One will occasionally hear from a libertarian activist that Disney World is some sort of model for totally private governance. This is a huge exaggeration of the reality.
Original Article: "Disney's Special District Is Not a "City-State" or "Private City""
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The EU is a prime example of a tendency toward territorial expansion and political centralization.
Original Article: "Decentralized and Neutral"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Propping up congressional deficit spending, juicing equity markets, and constantly recapitalizing commercial banks are the Fed’s true mandates.
Original Article: "Inflation, Quick and Dirty"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
In 1991, Ukrainians held an election and voted for secession. Today we’re supposed to cheer that. But to suggest something similar for a region of the United States? Well, we’re told that’s just plain wrong.
Original Article: "You Support Ukraine's Independence? Then You Support Secession."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
With members of Congress claiming that the Russian invasion of Ukraine somehow threatens the US homeland, it is time to tell the truth about the military threats to this nation.
Original Article: "Where the Truth Is Hidden: Debating the Current State of the US Armed Forces"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Will Japan ever change course on its negative interest rates? Only if voters begin to realize that the lack of inflation to date in Japan is simply good luck.
Original Article: "Why the Yen Fell While the Dollar Rallied"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Fed's reckless behavior has undermined Netflix more than the losses at CNN+.
Original Article: "How Did CNN+ Get Canned by Netflix? Austrian Economists Might Have an Answer"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Moscow has used naturalization and immigration to effect demographic change and encourage conflict between ethnic groups in neighboring states. It has proven to be an effective foreign policy tool.
Original Article: "How Russia Uses Immigration and Naturalization to Grow State Power"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Politicians have become accustomed to conjuring whatever they want through the “miracle” of printing money. But in the real world, it’s still necessary to produce oil and gas through actual physical production.
Original Article: "To Fight Russia, Europe's Regimes Risk Impoverishment and Recession for Europe"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Why did Europe advance economically in the postmedieval period? Bas Spliet looks to the writings of Ralph Raico and Hans-Hermann Hoppe for answers.
Original Article: "Decentralization and the Rise of the West: The European Miracle Revisited"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
For many years, conservatives have held the FBI as being nearly infallible. It is time to rethink this devotion to a federal agency that pursues its own political agendas.
Original Article: "It Is Time To End the Fixation with Federal Law Enforcement"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Washington regards the entire world as its "sphere of influence." But now Beijing is looking to follow the US playbook on hegemony and expand Beijing's network of military bases abroad.
Original Article: "Expect Washington to Throw a Fit over China's New Deal with the Solomon Islands"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Imposing economic sanctions upon Russia is tantamount to throwing gasoline on a raging fire. The sanctions will not end the Russian invasion of Ukraine and only will make things worse.
Original Article: "The Economic Sanctions against Russia Are Destructive and Counterproductive: We Must Oppose Them"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Reparations is a buzzword in the present political climate, but most plans involve an expansion of the welfare state. But there is a form of reparations that is legitimate.
Original Article: "Reparations for Government-Imposed Property Theft Are Justified and Necessary"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
For all the talk of decolonialization, many Third World countries that became independent set up regulatory regimes that mirrored their former "mother" country.
Original Article: "The Conservatism of Decolonization"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
America's Cold War relationships have created conditions for very hot wars to take place. The current war in Ukraine is part of that sorry Cold War legacy.
Original Article: "There's a Reason George Washington Warned against "Entangling Relationships""
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The war on free speech has been given a boost by a new legal theory called "reckless associations," the "leaders" of an association that allegedly harms someone else are declared liable for that harm.
Original Article: "Reckless Associations: The Ruling Class Creates New Legal Theory to Stifle Free Speech"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Jordan Peterson is turning his eye toward Austrian economics. Unlike the many conservatives who see free market advocacy as some sort of "dangerous fundamentalism," Peterson seems to get it.
Original Article: "Jordan Peterson on Austrian Economics: Free Markets Are 'Profoundly Equitable'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Michael Rectenwald takes on the progressive canard of "socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor," in which the government protects the wealthy but throws everyone else to the tender mercies of rapacious capitalism.
Original Article: "The Great Reset VII: Capitalism for the Rich and Socialism for the Poor"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Among the states that performed the best during the pandemic were lockdown-light states like Utah and Florida. Among the states with the worst outcomes were lockdown-heavy California, New Mexico, New Jersey, and New York.
Original Article: "New Covid Study Shows Lockdown-Heavy States Had Some of the Worst Health Results"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Arguments for equal pay are popular in our body politic, but what happens if some of those arguments are based upon the faulty logic of the labor theory of value?
Original Article: "Are Equal Pay Arguments Based upon the Labor Theory of Value?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The quickest way to discredit an intellectual opponent is to accuse that person of being a "conspiracy theorist." But what happens when real conspiracies occur?
Original Article: "Do Conspiracies Really Exist? Murray Rothbard Thought So"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
It is interesting that the founder and leader of the market monetarists declared in January 2020 that the world was about to enter a "golden age" of low inflation for the Federal Reserve.
Original Article: "Keynesians and Market Monetarists Didn't See Inflation Coming"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Disney's special legal status in Florida is reminiscent of the mercantilist corporations of old. They were granted favors at the expense of ordinary businesses who did not enjoy the favor of state officials.
Original Article: "Disney's Corporate Welfare Is Modern Mercantilism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
A libertarian view of the law by definition means that there can be no immunity from legal consequences. Anything else perverts the very meaning of law.
Original Article: "Sovereign Immunity Is Antilaw: The State Must Make Restitution to Its Victims"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
We are told that economic growth goes along with liberal democracy. But social institutions play an important role that transcends the political order.
Original Article: "Do Institutions Play a Role in Promoting Economic Growth? In Short, Yes."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Despite the Left's denials that Hitler was a socialist, a careful reading of his writings and speeches tells a different story. His sympathies lay with the workers, not the bourgeoisie.
Original Article: "No, Hitler Was Not a Closet Capitalist"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Trying to understand the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the exclusive viewpoint of modern Western democracy is to ignore the long history of authoritarian leadership in Russia.
Original Article: "Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Is Just the Latest Expression of Pan-Slavic Authoritarianism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The standard line with progressives is that unless government controls medical care, prices will skyrocket. But what if the free market model costs less than government-directed care?
Original Article: "How Fully Private, No-Insurance Hospitals Help the Common Man"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The current political polarization in the USA is not a "threat" to "our democracy." Instead, democracy as we know it is the prime reason for the polarization.
Original Article: "Political Upheaval Is Not Threatening “Our Democracy.” Our Democracy Is."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The Biden administration in its desire to "save" the planet from climate change has decided to destroy one of this country's most productive and important industries in the process, putting the US economy itself in jeopardy.
Original Article: "Destroying America to "Save" It? Biden's Nihilistic Destruction of the Energy Industry"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
From globalization to sanctions, to international institutions like the UN, the US is leading a small global fragment that's little more than NATO and a handful of friends. Meanwhile, two-thirds of the global economy isn't signing on.
Original Article: "The "Rules-Based International Order" Is Dead. Washington Killed It."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The sanctions against Russia have the potential to spiral into something much larger. Indeed, many governments are using the current conflict as an opportunity to further push "green energy," rearmament, and other big-spending schemes.
Original Article: "Heavy Sanctions against Russia Could Usher in a Wider Economic War"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Is it too much to hope that the current inflation will "burn out" via similar mechanisms that have reined in inflation in the past?
Original Article: "We Still Haven't Reached the Inflation Finale"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Money printing may bring rising wages, but it also brings rising prices for goods and services. And those increases are outpacing the wage increases.
Original Article: "Real Wages Fall Again as Inflation Surges and the Fed Plays the Blame Game"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While the battlefield results are mixed, much of the action in the Russia-Ukraine war is happening beyond the warring countries.
Original Article: "After More Than a Month of Fighting, Where Do Things Stand in the Russia-Ukraine War?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Paul Krugman recently wrote that the reason we see high inflation is that people mistakenly believe inflation is in our future and act accordingly. This reasoning is false.
Original Article: "Do "Inflationary Expectations" Cause Inflation? Contra Krugman, the Answer Is No"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Russian oligarchs, American pols, and state-connected billionaires are all cut from the same cloth: they didn't earn, or fully earn, their wealth and position in society. We must withdraw our sanction of these people.
Original Article: "The Wrong Elites"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The world is in chaos, so politicians MUST do something. Hence, they demand autarky, which is like attempting to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it.
Original Article: "And Now for a Really Bad Response to Political Calamity: Autarky"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Despite assurances from politicians and the media, the Federal Reserve System is not a collection of geniuses who stand guard against inflation and recession. Instead, think of the Fed policy makers as the Keystone Cops of central banking.
Original Article: "The Fed Can't Fix the Economy, but It Can Break It"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Ukraine should have been a middle-income country by now. Instead, it is one of the poorest in Europe. If Ukraine joined the EU, it would be the poorest country and well below even Bulgaria.
Original Article: "If Ukraine Joins the EU, It Will Be the Poorest Member by Far"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
It is theoretically possible that through huge gains in productivity, the US could escape inflation and stave off a recession. But don’t count on it.
Original Article: "Why It's Looking More like the 1970s than the 1950s."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Europe wants cheap and abundant energy, but politicians demonize nuclear, gas, and oil. All the interventionist proposals that are put forward by European politicians entail a higher cost for long-suffering consumers.
Original Article: "European Environmentalists Have Made Energy Independence Impossible"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Do the low inflation rates mean that the purchasing power of Japanese and Swiss citizens has increased relative to other countries over time? The answer seems to be no.
Original Article: "What Causes Exceptionally Low Inflation in Japan and Switzerland?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Rothbard the historian explained so well how the true progressive goal was always to remake America domestically by promoting war.
Original Article: "Rothbard on Today's Progressive War Jingoism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The states of Europe have more than enough wealth and military potential to deal with a second-rate power like Russia. The American taxpayers, on the other hand, deserve a break from Europe's grifting.
Original Article: "NATO: Our International Welfare Queens"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Some blame high prices, wages, the Ukraine war, or the weak recovery. The fact is currency destruction is at the heart of generalized price rises everywhere.
Original Article: "Commodities Do Not Cause Inflation. Money Printing Does."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The usual "experts" claim inflation is a general increase in the price level. Wrong. Prices rise because of inflation, which is a government-caused increase in the amount of money in circulation.
Original Article: "Inflation Isn't What the "Experts" Say It Is. The Confusion in Terms Is Deliberate"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Lenin called World War I a war among the capitalists of Europe. He was wrong. It was a war among oligarchs, statists who extract wealth from legitimate economic activity at the barrel of a gun.
Original Article: "The State: It’s Oligarchs All the Way Down"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Those responsible for locking down much of the US during covid blame the pandemic itself for the economic and social havoc that followed. Perhaps they should look at the lockdowns themselves.
Original Article: "Lockdowns, Not the Pandemic, Created Havoc"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Saudi Arabia could flee to gold or cryptocurrencies to escape the money-printing machine, but it won't replace the US dollar with an inferior fiat currency.
Original Article: "Why Saudi Arabia Won't Abandon Dollars for Yuan"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The standard bureaucratic line after a program's failure is that the government agents didn't have enough authority or resources to handle the job. Neither explains the failure of Trump's Paycheck Protection Program.
Original Article: "No, More Bureaucracy Would NOT Have Saved Trump's Paycheck Protection Program"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Capitalism is often blamed for the effects of policies that aren't capitalism. This is why we need a better definition of capitalism.
Original Article: "What’s in a Name? Why the Definition of Capitalism Matters"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The agriculture industry is largely running as a planned economy. When the power to make decisions is delegated to bureaucrats rather than to those impacted, mismanagement is a given.
Original Article: "How Agriculture Bureaucrats Are Manipulating Food Prices—and Our Diets"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The late Dr. Thomas Szasz, who was well known to libertarians, believed using coercion to treat psychiatric patients was a form of torture. He left a legacy of freedom in a profession that has all but abandoned liberty.
Original Article: "Dr. Thomas Szasz’s Campaign against Psychiatric Coercion and the 'Therapeutic State'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Europe would have been immeasurably better off had its regimes chosen compromise instead of "countering aggression" in 1914. Sometimes this lesson is heeded, as when the US refused to intervene in 1956 and 1968.
Original Article: "We Must Now Learn the Lesson of 1914, Not the Lesson of 1938."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Beijing only ever really wanted Moscow around as a way to balance against Washington. But with the US being seen to overtly seek to punish Beijing, this will now only move it closer to Moscow.
Original Article: "A Harder Line with Beijing? Let’s Hope Not."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
There are only two ways human cooperation occurs: through voluntary means or through coercion. The free market stands for voluntary cooperation; coercion and violence are the means of the state.
Original Article: "Markets Are Peaceful but the State Is Not"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The United States is no longer in any position to remake the world in its image. It's not 1945 or even 1970. Yet the US seems to be gearing up to bully half the world into compliance with the US Russia sanctions.
Original Article: "Will Biden Sanction Half the World to Isolate Russia?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
A funny thing has happened on the way to accepting the standard ruling-class narrative on the war in Ukraine: inconvenient and unpleasant facts about the region and its recent history.
Original Article: "Facing Unpleasant Facts: What You aren’t Supposed to say about the War in Ukraine"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
It has been more than fifty years since Egyptian strongman Gamal Abdel Nasser died, but his unfortunate legacy of imposing socialism on Egypt still harms the nation and its economy.
Original Article: "Egypt Is Still Haunted By Its Ghosts of Socialism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Those gloating about Russia being "cut off" are overstating the case. In fact, many of the world's largest countries have shown a reluctance to participate in the US's sanction schemes, and even close US allies aren't going along with it.
Original Article: "Russia Isn't Nearly as Isolated as Washington Wants You to Believe"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
States continue to seek new ways to make the financial system an “economic chokepoint” enabling the state to crack down on specific organizations, individuals, or activities.
Original Article: "The West's Russia Sanctions Show Why States Want to Weaponize the Financial System"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
From the Volga Germans to the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire to the Spaniards and the Mennonites, choosing emigration as a means of avoiding military conscription has a long history.
Original Article: "America Has Long Been a Haven for Draft Dodgers from Foreign Lands"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Today, progressives govern by the law of good intentions, and when government has good intentions, the results, no matter how disastrous, don't matter.
Original Article: "Love, Fear, and the Law of Good Intentions"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The scientific method requires free and open dissent from any scientific hypothesis. Yet JAMA is requesting that medical boards become a new Inquisition to root out heresy and apostasy from CDC doctrines.
Original Article: "Real Scientific Inquiry Requires Dissent. But That's Not What the CDC and JAMA Want."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
It is one thing to follow the law for prudential reasons and another thing entirely to assume the law brings with it some sort of moral imperative. Laws rarely do.
Original Article: "In the Age of Covid, We're Reminded an Unjust Law Is No Law at All"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Imposing sanctions will advance the reach of surveillance capitalism while strengthening the power of states to control the financial system overall. The end result will be a lower standard of living and a less free economy.
Original Article: "The West's Russia Sanctions Could Lead to Many Unpredictable and Unpleasant Outcomes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Today, we see Russian athletes, artists, and musicians punished because of their government's invasion of Ukraine. The last time Russia invaded another country, President Jimmy Carter decided to punish American Olympic athletes.
Original Article: "Canceling American Athletes to Punish Russia: The 1980 Moscow Olympics Boycott"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In many ways, the liberal democracy that had its roots in nineteenth-century liberalism seems to have run its course. Can we revive it, or does something more authoritarian take its place?
Original Article: "The Progressives' Liberal Democracy Has Failed. Radical Decentralization Is the Answer."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Sanctions remain popular because they placate the voters who insist "we" must "do something," and government officials are more than happy to accept this invitation to grow state power.
Original Article: "Why Sanctions Don't Work, and Why They Mostly Hurt Ordinary People"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
While government officials and politicians denounce high drug prices, they have created monopoly privileges for drug firms, thus ensuring higher-than-competitive prices for pharmaceuticals.
Original Article: "Patents, Legal Monopolies, and the High Prices for Drugs"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Ukrainian regime thinks it knows better than husbands and fathers when it comes to caring for their families. But no bureaucrat ought to be allowed to make such a decision.
Original Article: "Ukraine's Regime Is Now Kidnapping Fathers for Military 'Service'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
President Harding wanted to see the end of war and a return to a more traditional American foreign policy.
Original Article: "The Triumphant Foreign Policy of Warren G. Harding"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Trade war means increasing the debt, eroding the public confidence, raising prices, and burdening the economy with interventions. All of it done in the name of the "public good."
Original Article: "There Is No Winner in This Trade War"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In the months since Angela Merkel’s departure from the German chancellorship after sixteen years in power, the editorials praising her reign have been legion. This is not one of them.
Original Article: "The Legacy of Angela Merkel: Kicking the Can Down the Road"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
A central bank whose policies accommodate irresponsible deficit spending by the federal government is a menace to society, unleashing uncontrollable forces.
Original Article: "Inflation: Who or What Is the Culprit?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
From economic power to demographics to military spending, Russia simply doesn't have the ability to be a great power that threatens anyone outside its "near abroad."
Original Article: "Russian Weakness and the Russian "Threat" to the West"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Bloomberg suggests that individuals should not be permitted to make their own stock selections because they are not "qualified" to make such decisions. Instead, governments should help direct their investment choices.
Original Article: "Should Government Be Your Stockbroker? Maybe So, Says Bloomberg"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Zombie companies, which were already a problem in 2019, have not only not been killed off but have multiplied. The zombie apocalypse could be closer than we imagine.
Original Article: "The Covid Panic Brought Even More Economic Zombification"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Socialization of the economy led to immediate disaster. In 1920–21, Bolshevik agrarian policy culminated in a famine with an impact unparalleled in modern European history.
Original Article: "Socialist Economies Are Impossible: Lessons from Russia, 1917–22"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
The new cold warriors are gaslighting the public on military spending, claiming spending isn't "keeping up." They want hundreds of billions in new taxpayer dollars.
Original Article: "The War Party Wants a New Cold War, and the Money That Comes with It"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Progressives will write the history of covid to hide the mistakes of progressive "experts" and to distance themselves from disastrous or pointless policies. They've done it before.
Original Article: "This Is How the Progressives Will Write the History of Covid"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
More than critiquing vaccines, this book exposes Anthony Fauci’s career as a case study in crony capitalism. The key players are the government regulatory agencies headed by Fauci.
Original Article: "Anthony Fauci: Master of Medical Crony Capitalism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Price inflation has been accelerating upward since April of last year. Yet the Fed has done virtually nothing. What's the Fed waiting for?
Original Article: "With Inflation at a 40-Year High, the Fed Is Too Afraid to Act"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Here in Canada, the trucker protesters (and their supporters) have been civil and maintained the usual Canadian niceness. This civility has not been reciprocated by the political class.
Original Article: "Report from Canada: The Regime Is Lying about the Truckers"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
With the approval of Biden's infrastructure bill, it now turns out the US government is even in control of a "kill switch" that could disable your car if you are deemed "impaired."
Original Article: "Elections Now Decide Who Can Operate Your Car"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In Orwellian fashion, if you want freedom, that makes you a "racist" and a "fascist." So, it is assumed by our overlords to be "fascism" when truckers protest for the freedom to earn a living.
Original Article: "The Canadian Truckers' Battle against Covid Tyranny"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In a remarkable pivot, the White House now says, “We’ve not been pro-lockdown—most of the lockdowns actually happened under the previous President.”
Original Article: "The White House Now Says It Never Really Wanted Lockdowns"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The evolution from gold standard to gold exchange standard to the dollar fiat system is one based largely on deception and broken promises.
Original Article: "Today's Fiat Dollar Standard Is Founded in Lies"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
SEZs are loopholes, and capitalism breathes through loopholes. But like all loopholes, they tend to benefit those who can afford to hire the lawyers who can identify said loopholes.
Original Article: "What Would Mises Have Thought of "Special Economic Zones"?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Although covid cases in Austria—and most other countries—are rapidly falling, Austria has doubled down on punishing the unvaccinated and become the first country to mandate vaccination for all adults.
Original Article: "Austria Doubles Down on Forced Vaccinations"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Wokism and US foreign policy should not be viewed as isolated phenomena but rather inextricably linked concepts given the US’s universalist foreign policy modus operandi.
Original Article: "Wokism Could Provoke a Global Anti-American Backlash"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Real wages are going down. Debt is skyrocketing. The economy has only partly recovered from an economic disaster. This isn't the "historic growth" Joe Biden wants you to think it is.
Original Article: "Biden's "Historic Growth" Is No Such Thing."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
For the covid despots, anyone who objected to government commands was the equivalent of a heretic who must be condemned or banished from every place except the cemetery.
Original Article: "The Media War on Canadian Truckers: Is Freedom Public Enemy Number One?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Sometimes people—even other economists—are incredulous that the Austrians deny the possibility of interpersonal utility comparisons.
Original Article: "Why Austrians Stress Ordinal Utility"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
California politicians say "gun owners should cover the costs of gun violence." Apparently, holding actual criminals responsible for their own misdeeds is too much work in California.
Original Article: "San Jose's Gun Tax Has Nothing to Do with Reducing Crime"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Fannie Mae is helping ensure easy money flows to apartments. That means multifamily prices are heading skyward like asset prices overall.
Original Article: "Rising Rents and Cheap Money Flowing—So Apartment Prices Are Soaring"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The US benefits in no way from a war with Russia. Fortunately, many Americans are less than enthusiastic.
Original Article: "The Usual Suspects Are Pushing War with Russia"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Under PM Mario Draghi, the Italian government has issued new edicts designed to make life even more difficult for anyone who doesn't comply with every aspect of the state's covid regime.
Original Article: "Italy's Covid Despotism Just Got Worse"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Like new money, knowledge spreads unevenly through the economy in a kind of Cantillon effect. Here's what that means for different market actors
Original Article: "Why Intellectual Property Isn't Necessary to Reward Innovation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Often the biggest barrier secession movements face is the widely held (and ludicrous) belief that our current set of lines on a map are sacred and must be preserved.
Original Article: "It's Time to Break Up New York State"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Blockchain technology might be useful in forcing banks to be more transparent in how they handle reserves.
Original Article: "Could Blockchain Technology Help End Fractional Reserve Banking?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Today, it’s easy for socialists to point to the Interstate Highway System and exclaim, "Look at what we socialists did to facilitate transportation." They're careful to always ignore the unseen downside.
Original Article: "The Unseen Consequences of the Interstate Highway System"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The reality is the primary quality of an entrepreneur can’t be taught: the stomach to risk everything and keep wanting more.
Original Article: "George Hearst: Entrepreneur in the Mises Mold"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It is time to get back to normal life, and that starts with visible human faces.
Original Article: "Unmask America"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Monetary inflation results in a general rise in prices, often called "price inflation." But rising prices are not always "inflation." In any case, more government regs and subsidies won't help.
Original Article: "When Higher Prices Are Not Inflation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Trust in the US military has plummeted according to a recent survey, and conservative Americans may finally realize that the military is just a wing of the woke, progressive American establishment.
Original Article: "Americans May Finally Be Losing Confidence in the Woke Military"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The historical guilds of Europe have long been criticized for cartelizing trade and seizing monopolistic powers. And new research suggests the situation was very similar in Africa as well.
Original Article: "The Problem with Guilds: They're Monopolistic and Wasteful"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Thanks to vast regulatory powers, regimes have many tools and many advantages in propping up fiat currencies when faced with competition from other currencies.
Original Article: "What the Regime Will Do to Fight Private Digital Currencies"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In its effort to patch together a working financial system out of postwar crises, the Federal Reserve would wildly exceed its mandate, flooding the world with dollars.
Original Article: "Money and Banking in the US after the Crises of the 1970s and '80s"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Countries must remain free to refuse the edicts of global institutions of "government" like the World Bank or the IMF. This is true even when the stated goal is advancing free markets.
Original Article: "Global Governance versus Freedom and Free Enterprise"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Germany's government is pushing a new plan for massive spending on a "Climate Fund." This is justified with the usual Keynesian myths about the benefits of government spending.
Original Article: "Germany's New Green Stimulus Plan Won't Save Their Economy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Across so many fields, from money to nutrition, I’ve found that the corollary to the government-heavy approach is a desire not to make choices for oneself.
Original Article: "Who Needs Personal Responsibility When We Can Just Trust Our Overlords?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
This is freedom: "That he is independent of the arbitrary power of his fellows … [freedom] arose in the process of social development and its final completion is the work of mature Capitalism.”
Original Article: "Will Artificial Intelligence Create a Socialist Paradise?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Latin America's antiglobalization epoch, from 1913 to 1970, was marked by high regulations and antitrade efforts that have fueled Latin America's economic problems.
Original Article: "Colonialism Isn't the Source of Latin America's High Inequality"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
When the Democratic Colorado governor slightly scaled back covid mandates, he met furious opposition from the Left. Expect these people to push mandates forever.
Original Article: "Why They Want to Keep the 'Health Emergency' Going Forever"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Gabriel Boric is no friend of free trade, low taxes, or markets in general. Yet these policies are what made Chile the most prosperous country in South America.
Original Article: "Chile's New President Threatens the Nation's Market-Driven Prosperity"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Turkey's President Erdoğan faces a series of crises as the lira collapses and the state's central bank steps in to clean up the mess.
Original Article: "Turkey's Economy Is in Big Trouble"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Contractionary monetary policy may be necessary to slow the rise of inflation, but the recessionary results of this remind us why the Fed's inflationary policy is so dangerous.
Original Article: "Inflation or Recession? The Fed Faces a Choice."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
2021 was the year of binge spending. 2022 is likely to be a hangover.
Original Article: "2022: The Year of the Hangover?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Flawed as we are and with limited knowledge about the world and ourselves, we might not know what is objectively “best for us long term.” Government planners know even less.
Original Article: "Central Planners Don't Know What's Best for You"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Overall, at least 50 percent of the consumer price index in Japan appears to be government controlled, which is reflected in the significant growth of government spending on subsidies.
Original Article: "Japan's Inflation Is Hidden behind Central Bank–Financed Subsidies"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
We will win. But how long will it take, and at what price victory?
Original Article: "How We Will Win"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Suppose some people don't like the services furnished by a "minimal state." Don't these people have the right to establish their own services to compete with the minimal state?
Original Article: "True Competition versus the Monopolist 'Minimal State'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Federal Reserve now owns $2.6 trillion in mortgages. That means about 24 percent of all outstanding residential mortgages in this whole big country reside in the central bank.
Original Article: "The Federal Reserve Keeps Buying Mortgages"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Friday's jobs report was weak, but the most alarming datapoint is that real wages are plummeting.
Original Article: "Real Wages Plummet as Inflation Hits the US Recovery"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
After many months of covid stimulus, there's a bonanza in US pandemic profits. But unlike price inflation, these profits really are likely to be transitory.
Original Article: "How Easy Money Inflated Corporate Profits"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
When we ask ourselves the question, “Can states survive without fiat currency?” the answer is clearly yes.
Original Article: "Ending Fiat Money Won't Destroy the State"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Conservatism is allegedly grounded in a recognition of the natural limits of humanity. But when it comes to free trade, conservatives throw all that out the window.
Original Article: "Conservatives and the Free Trade Straw Man"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Lockdowns and school closures will go down as one of the worst peacetime policy disasters of all time. Never again should the well-being of our children be sacrificed to placate the neuroses of adults.
Original Article: "Covid Lockdowns Will Be Remembered as One of the Greatest Policy Failures Ever"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot chided businesses for not doing enough to protect themselves from theft. But Chicago's government does a lot to prevent private businesses from doing this.
Original Article: "What Chicago's Mayor Gets Wrong about Private Security"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
An abstract state is built on patriotism. And when patriotism becomes "the highest of all virtues and the source of all the remaining ones,” states can get away with almost anything.
Original Article: "'The State' Is an Abstract Idea. So How Is the State Also So Murderous?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The evidence indicates that a prevalence of slavery in an economic system is a robust predictor of subpar economic growth and a creativity deficit.
Original Article: "A Slave-Based Economy Is Nothing Like a Dynamic Capitalist One"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Thanks to covid shutdowns, declining productivity finally brought price inflation to the fore. But the world's governments have learned nothing and cling to the same inflationist policies.
Original Article: "Western Economies Are Self-Destructing with Inflation, Debt, and Taxes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Fed admits inflation is a problem, so now begins the search to find a fix that doesn't involve a recession or anything else that might allow the economy to heal its malinvestments.
Original Article: "Welcome to a New Chapter in the Latest Boom-Bust Cycle"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Economic depressions are not caused by a strong decline in the money stock, but by a depleted stock of real savings.
Original Article: "How to Avoid Depressions? Foster Saving and Investment"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
With new mask and vaccine mandates, New York's Governor Kathy Hochul has reaffirmed the state’s status as the nation’s most zealous practitioner of covid cultism.
Original Article: "New York State Has Imposed New Covid Rituals. This Time There's Some Resistance."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Genuine change will likely come only through muddling through at the state and local level. That kind of work will be instrumental in the creation of decentralized alternatives to our present political order.
Original Article: "Ron Desantis Plans to Revive Florida's State Militia"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The true cost of America's wars—in lost productivity, resources, and opportunity cost—is far higher than even the official numbers of trillions spent on the Pentagon's many failures.
Original Article: "America's Wars Are Far More Costly than the Pentagon Admits"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Fauci-funded and Fauci-supported "AIDS research" consisted of running medical experiments on children, among other horrors. Through it all, Fauci profited handsomely with his many "partners" in Big Pharma.
Original Article: "Review: The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Fed may slow or eliminate new bond purchases but is not planning to sell. Meanwhile, producer prices have skyrocketed and Americans are consuming more but producing less. Get ready for entrenched price inflation.
Original Article: "The Fundamentals Point to Inflation That's Much More than 'Transitory'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
"Science" is now indistinguishable from politics. As the "acid rain" hysteria showed back in the 1970s and 1980s, "follow the science" is just a political slogan, unrelated to actual science.
Original Article: "The "Acid Rain" Scare and the Science-Industrial Complex"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
I was astounded at how many despots the World Bank was propping up. Bankrolling tyrants is the equivalent of a Fugitive Slave Act for an entire nation, preventing a mass escape of political victims.
Original Article: "Raiding the World Bank: Exposing a Fondness for Dictators"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Deflation empowers the citizen by allowing her modest savings to purchase more goods over time. Inflation empowers the state by reducing the size of its enormous debts in real terms—and through the inflation tax.
Original Article: "Price Deflation and the Horrors of Falling TV Prices"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Regulatory powers have enabled government agencies to push vaccine mandates in new ways. But the welfare state also offers many ways to "encourage" compliance from nearly everyone.
Original Article: "They'll Use the Welfare State to Get Compliance on Vaccine Mandates"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The US and NATO must do as little as possible to contribute to the conflict in Ukraine. This especially includes continuing to arm Ukraine and insisting that it has a future in NATO.
Original Article: "The West Must Stop Trying To Expand NATO into Ukraine"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
A lot of economic policy is based on "economics" which makes assumptions that have very little to do with actual reality.
Original Article: "Nirvana Economics: How Treating the Real World like an Imaginary Ideal World Leads to Trouble"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The benefits of decentralization don't stop at the state level. State governments themselves must be broken up into decentralized confederations that allow for local vetoes, local sovereignty, and regional autonomy.
Original Article: "State-Level Secession Isn't Enough. The States Themselves Must Be Radically Decentralized."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Joe Biden thinks that unless there's widespread government intervention in the economy, economic inequality "brews and ferments political discord and basic revolutions."
Original Article: "How Market Freedom Combats Economic Inequality"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
California has announced it seeks to become a "sanctuary state" for abortion should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. That is, the situation would return much to what it was before 1973.
Original Article: "End Roe v. Wade: It's Time to Defederalize Abortion Policy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The huge amounts of monetary inflation of 2020 have indeed been translated into price inflation in 2021. Yet with the Fed now poised to slow things down, we might find asset inflation could suddenly go into reverse.
Original Article: "The Economy May Be Finally Peaking, and the Fed Won't Help Matters"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Easy money monetary policy only serves to weaken and destroy savings and investment. And that means weaker future economic growth.
Original Article: "Money Supply Growth Is Slowing—That Points to a Slowing Economy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
There are many reasons why activists and intellectuals oppose inequality. Envy is one of them.
Original Article: "Equality and Envy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Tariffs and trade controls are little more than tax increases and a chance to further empower a bloated bureaucracy. Not surprisingly, Biden doesn't appear to be enthusiastic about embracing free trade.
Original Article: "Biden Has Embraced Trump's Protectionism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The more the EU micromanages Polish internal affairs and punishes Poland for the simple act of exercising self-determination, more the benefits of leaving the bloc altogether will continue to increase.
Original Article: "Poland's Beef with the EU Shows the Dangers of Political Centralization"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
If the private sector does not accept a currency as a general means of payment and a store of value, the currency becomes worthless and ceases to be money. Ultimately, it becomes useless paper.
Original Article: "When Fiat Currency Stops Being Money"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Washington area was traumatized for weeks by two dimwitted psychopaths who rode around brazenly shooting people from the trunk of their ancient Chevrolet. Sadly, law enforcement officials had apparently met their match.
Original Article: "The DC Sniper Rampage: The Biggest Police Debacle of the Century?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It took many centuries for regimes to secure the sort of prestige and power necessary to claim a monopoly over money. From the state's perspective, it has been worth it.
Original Article: "How Governments Seized Control of Money"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Capitalism is not a "legacy of colonialism" in Africa. In fact, markets and interregional trade have long been practiced on the continent. And markets today are still the answer to raising standards of living.
Original Article: "Africa's Long History of Trade and Markets"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
A big factor behind Youngkin’s electoral success in Virginia: the rural voter and their reaction to Richmond's overreach on guns, schools, and centralized political power.
Original Article: "Rural Voters, Guns, and Decentralization Sank the Democrats in Virginia"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Bank of Canada's stated mission is "to preserve the value of money by keeping inflation low and stable." Yet, the BOC works to inflate away the value of Canadians' purchasing power every single day.
Original Article: "The Bank of Canada's Failed Mission to 'Preserve the Value of Money'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
For decades, countless parents have been on autopilot when it comes to letting the state manage their child's education. But over the past two years, millions of parents have begun to take control.
Original Article: "We've Only Just Begun to See the Benefits of the New Surge in Homeschooling"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Larson's principal targets are Friedman and Hayek, but Mises and Rothbard are not spared. For Larson, promarket economists aren't just wrong. They're bad people.
Original Article: "This Professor Hates the Austrian School. But He Clearly Doesn't Know Much about It."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
When prices fall as a result of rising wealth that's good news. But deflation is also good news when it follows the bursting of a financial bubble caused by money creation.
Original Article: "We're All Talking about Inflation, but Deflation May Also Be on the Way"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
James Buchanan thought the state was a voluntary institution. Murray Rothbard, on the other hand, understood the reality of state violence and coercion.
Original Article: "Murray Rothbard versus the Public Choice School"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The causes of today's skyrocketing housing prices are different in many ways from what happened in 2008. But that doesn't mean we're barreling toward a happy ending.
Original Article: "Housing Hubris: Can Home Prices Spiral upward Forever?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In one recent thread, Weisenthal mocked the people worried about the falling purchasing power of the US dollar, and claimed that it would be immoral for currency to maintain its value over time.
Original Article: "Joe Weisenthal Thinks Debasing the Dollar Is the Moral Thing to Do"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
So oppressive was the Inca regime that it's no wonder the Spaniards found many enemies willing to help topple the empire.
Original Article: "The Inca Empire: An Indigenous Leviathan State"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Not all of America’s young men of the North bought into the federal propaganda. When the federal government was forced to resort to a military draft, many Americans resisted.
Original Article: "The Heroic Draft Dodgers of the American Civil War"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It is clear that there are situations in which the unions’ interests diverge from the public’s interest in transparency and good policing. But the unions’ interests also often diverge from the interests of individual members.
Original Article: "Why Don’t Police Unions Protect Whistleblowers?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The fact that various electronic money transfers are taking place does not mean that we do not require cash any longer. On the contrary, the fact that the cash exists enables those transfers to take place.
Original Article: "'Going Cashless' Isn't as Easy as It Seems"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Biden's team is dominated by liberal internationalists, and just as their aggressive approach to China is the wrong one to take in the Indo-Pacific, it has long been counterproductive in eastern and southern Europe.
Original Article: "It's Time for the US To Stop Courting Conflict with Russia"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Vaccine mandates are not a new invention, and states have long pushed a narrative exaggerating the success of mandates in the past.
Original Article: "Smallpox: The Historical Myths behind Mandatory Vaccines"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
If there’s one political fight worth seeing through, it’s the crusade against government schooling. Many parents in Virginia may have started to see just how important the fight has become.
Original Article: "The Virginia Elections Showed Some Parents Are Seeing How Bad the Government Schools Really Are"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
According to the Marxists and their fellow travelers, inflation is good because it transfers wealth from creditors to debtors, and debtors are "the 99 percent." But inflation doesn't work that way.
Original Article: "No, Inflation Is Not Good for You"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
While 9/11 is mainly forgotten, a deafening trumpet announces the presence of other supposed crises, such as covid and climate change. The Leviathan is now excited and encouraged by the possibilities of new rules and new IDs.
Original Article: "The REAL ID Means a Real Leviathan"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Combined with the US military’s turn toward “woke” politics, this latest episode around vaccine mandates will further help to undermine support for military institutions among conservatives and Republicans.
Original Article: "The Oklahoma National Guard Refused the Vax Mandate. The Pentagon Is Not Pleased."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Homicide rose at a remarkably fast rate in 2020. This may be a sign that the public is losing faith in the legitimacy of the regime. We see this from doubts about elections to outrage over riots and police abuse.
Original Article: "Homicide Rates in 2020 Surged to a 24-Year High. It's Another Sign of a Failing Regime."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
"No one, including Andrew Jackson, had ever explicitly argued before [Lincoln] that the Constitution authorized or obligated full-scale invasion and coercive measures."
Original Article: "Is the Constitution Broken beyond Repair?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
After thirteen years with on average negative real returns to conservative savings, it is time to require the Federal Reserve to address its impact on savers.
Original Article: "Since 2008, Monetary Policy Has Cost American Savers about $4 Trillion"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The ongoing success of the cannabis nullification effort has shown the uselessness of those who repeatedly chant slogans about “federal supremacy” and “If you don’t like the (federal) law, change it.”
Original Article: "Nullification Works: Republicans Look to Legalize Marijuana as States Ignore Federal Drug War"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The process of learning what’s most efficient and profitable includes merging with competitors and taking over different stages of the supply chain—all tactics that would be considered in violation of current antitrust laws.
Original Article: "Antitrust Regulation Assumes Bureaucrats Know the "Correct" Amount of Competition"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Contrary to popular thinking, there is no such thing as a price level that should be stabilized by the central bank in order to promote economic prosperity.
Original Article: "Is Price Stability Really a Good Thing?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Our largest skyscrapers exist no longer physically, but in a world of ones and zeroes. The most groundbreaking technology projects springing from malinvestment may be digital the next time around.
Original Article: "Will the Next "Skyscraper Curse" Be Found in the Digital World?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It never ends well: to clean up mountains of bad debts, the Chinese regime has employed debt-for-equity schemes that could leave countless ordinary investors in deep trouble.
Original Article: "China's Financial Bubbles Remind Us of Scams like Britain's South Sea Bubble"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
An additional—and quick—$1 trillion spending boost in energy-intensive and material consuming industries is likely to create new problems in terms of inflation and supply shortages.
Original Article: "Biden's Infrastructure Plan Points to Even More Price Inflation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
What would the effect of a 100 percent vaccination rate be on the virus? Contrary to claims, the virus will not disappear. The next outbreak would occur within a year with 100 percent breakthrough cases with a vaccine-resistant strain.
Original Article: "Why Biden's Vaccine Mandate Hasn't Delivered the Promised Results"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The US military's turn to "wokeness" is a result of decades of high military spending and public deference toward military "experts." That gave us a military that is overfunded and highly political.
Original Article: "A Fat, Comfortable Military Is a "Woke" Military"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Support for federal conscription is contrary to principles of decentralization or a "limited republic." Early Americans would have viewed this Jacobin-inspired scheme with dismay and fear.
Original Article: "Military Conscription Is a Tool for Centralization, State Building, and Despotism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Pursuing one’s dreams without a degree requires more self-discipline than serving four years on campus. One of Nietzsche’s best lines offers a warning: “He who cannot obey himself will be commanded.”
Original Article: "Is College Worthwhile? A Two-Time Dropout’s Take"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Nigerian central bank uses all the same tools as other central banks. And it uses them a lot.
Original Article: "How Nigeria's Central Bank Inflates the Money Supply"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In an economy where the ruling party controls enormous portions of the economy, attempts to redistribute some of that state-owned wealth isn't necessarily a move against the private sector.
Original Article: "Cronyism, Not Welfare, Is China's Big Problem"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
China's industrial policy has been marked by many failures and few successes. Rather, China's real growth has been fueled by the regime's limited turn to markets.
Original Article: "Industrial Policy—a.k.a. Central Planning—Won't Make America Great"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
After the Lehman collapse, Wall Street learned nothing. In fact, Wall Street instead embraced Too Big to Fail which means the financial sector is more dependent on government than ever before.
Original Article: "Thanks to Bailouts, Wall Street Banks Are More Fragile than Ever"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In an age of growing productivity and technological advancement, goods would be getting cheaper every year. This is a reason why price inflation rises more slowly than money supply inflation.
Original Article: "In a Free Economy, Prices Would Be Going down, Not Up"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Vaccine mandates are much easier to enforce thanks to the spread of government spending, government contracting, and monopolized government services.
Original Article: "Employer Vaccine Mandates: When the Feds Pay the Piper, They Call the Tune"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
China’s real estate problems are three: the massive size of the sector, its excessive leverage, and the amount of developer debt in the hands of average households and retail investors.
Original Article: "Why China's Property Bubble Is a Big Deal"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The new proposal is framed as a tax on the ultrarich. The same was true of the new income tax in 1913. If given the power to tax unrealized gains, expect the feds to expand the tax to ordinary people.
Original Article: "The Madness of Taxing Unrealized Capital Gains"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
McAuliffe could not dissociate himself entirely from national politics because he was a national Democratic figure closely allied to the Clintons for decade
Original Article: "Paul Gottfried on the Virginia Election"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Francis should note that the move toward freer markets, in India and China especially, resulted in the huge reduction in extreme poverty we have witnessed over the last few decades.
Original Article: "Pope Francis Blames Capitalism for World Hunger, Yet Again"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Our aim ought not to be to make democracy “work better” but to use revelations of corruption as a tool to question altogether its value as a political and social system of organization.
Original Article: "How Media and Tech Elites Seized Control of Elections"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In many ways, the American war crimes of Korea and Vietnam were a continuation of American military conduct in the Civil War and during the Indian wars.
Original Article: "The Historical Origins of Modern American War Crimes"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Internationalism in the interpretation of libertarian philosophy and Marxist doctrine are two completely different concepts. One is a natural outcome of human cooperation. The other is pure myth.
Original Article: "Marxism versus Libertarianism: Two Types of Internationalism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Any economist should have been able to see that having the monetary spigot on full blast to “stimulate” would raise prices down the road. We are now down that road.
Original Article: "The Federal Reserve’s Assault on Savers Continues"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Not even the US’s ostensible allies can escape. NATO members Hungary and Poland were called "totalitarian regimes" by Biden because the two countries have run afoul of the West's ruling elite.
Original Article: "Will Hungary and Poland be the Next Victims of US/EU Regime Change?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Contracts are voidable and thoroughly changeable. They can be totally ignored with the consent of both parties. But natural rights are not like contracts and can't be abolished even with consent.
Original Article: "Contract Rights Are Not the Same as Natural Rights"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The idea that supply chain problems are “driving inflation” gets the causation backward. It’s money supply inflation that’s causing the supply chain problems, not the other way around.
Original Article: "The Fed's Inflation Is behind the Supply Chain Mess"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
New tech shows some light at the end of the tunnel. But for decades, government bans on a market for human organs has condemned millions of people to early deaths and immense pain.
Original Article: "The Tragedy of the Government's Ban on Human Organ Sales"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
If a businessman pulls a gun on a customer and demands 20 percent more for a product, that is robbery. If a politician intervenes to the same effect, it is fair trade.
Original Article: "Protectionism Is Immoral, Unjust, and Corrupt"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The One Ring of power stands for the particularly evil idea of creating a state of states, a world government, a world state. A one-world fiat currency is similarly dangerous.
Original Article: "A Global Fiat Currency: 'One Ring to Rule Them All'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Government healthcare is centrally planned healthcare. Innovations in the decentralized "digitalization" of medicine could finally move medicine back in the direction of markets.
Original Article: "Digitalization Could Move Medical Care beyond 'Government Healthcare'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Thanks to central banks' easy money policies, historically low interest rates and a desperate search for yield have created new danger zones for investors trying to stay out of trouble.
Original Article: "Thanks to Central Banks, the Old Investment Rules Don't Apply Anymore"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Step 1: claim that only government can solve the problem of "externalities." Step 2: claim that externalities are everywhere. Step 3: send in bureaucrats to solve every "problem" caused by externalities.
Original Article: "Why Interventionist Economists Love to Talk about Externalities"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Whether through taxes, debt, or inflation, government spending is about ripping off the productive taxpayers. Argentina's inflation and runaway deficits provide a cautionary tale.
Original Article: "Three Ways Government Spending Is Ripping Us Off"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The more an economy is centrally planned, the more chaotic are the relationships within it. The freer people are to make their arrangements in the market, the more coordinated things become.
Original Article: "Where Does Social Order Come From? Not the State."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It is not possible to replace productive credit by means of the easy monetary policies of the central bank. If this could have been done, then the world would have already ended poverty.
Original Article: "'Idle Resources' Are Problems Caused by the Central Bank"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Biden administration will use the SEC to squeeze oil and gas companies on "climate risk." As is typical for progressive schemes that drive up the cost of living, the working classes will suffer the most.
Original Article: "Yes, They Are Coming for the Oil Companies"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The appropriate question is not “Who will build the roads?” but rather “Who will pay for them without taxation?” History suggests the answer is "lots of people" and the "public goods" theory is wrong.
Original Article: "Who Will Build the Roads? Anyone Who Stands to Benefit from Them."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Policy normalization—defined as closing down the nonconventional toolbox and restoring a well-functioning price-signaling mechanism to the bond market—is difficult but possible.
Original Article: "Three Things the Fed Must Do to Normalize Bond Markets"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Neo-Spoonerism: there is no treason against the federal government, because the federal government does not abide by the document which it claims as its foundational authority to govern.
Original Article: "What Spooner Can Teach Us in Our Age of Neofascism"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
If people decide to save rather than spend, this could lead to a fall in GDP, even though people are becoming better off beyond the short term.
Original Article: "GDP Tells Us Little about the Health of an Economy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Thanks to capital accumulation and other innovations in the West, life expectancy grew beyond anything previously imagined. The benefits spread from there.
Original Article: "How the West Pushed back the Frontiers of Death"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In spite of what they say, governments will do nothing about inflation. Even though "money printing" is the real cause of this, governments will just keep blaming red herrings like supply chain problems.
Original Article: "Governments Love Inflation, and They Won't Do Anything to Stop It"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Years of bubbles and malinvestment have a downside: the destruction of the productive, wealth-building parts of the economy. And that could mean higher interest rates.
Original Article: "Why a Bear Market in Bonds Points to a Weakening Economy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It was government policies that kick-started the engine of financial innovation, wrongly blamed by many in the press and left-leaning academia for this increased economic instability.
Original Article: "How the Fed's Easy Money Spurred Today's Financial Frenzies"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Google says it can only tolerate "accurate" information and has banned LewRockwell.com from its advertising program. This position only makes sense if one makes some faulty assumptions about how information is spread.
Original Article: "Why Did Google Ads Ban LewRockwell.com?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
We can see that these massive trillion-dollar stimulus programs generate a virtually nonexistent long-term positive impact, just a short-term bounce that lasts less than a quarter.
Original Article: "The Weak Jobs Report Shows the Failure of Keynesian Policies"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Anyone with a conscience can easily see that assassinating Julian Assange would be just plain murder. Yet, the reaction to all this from the mainstream press has been one great big collective yawn.
Original Article: "The CIA Has Stultified American Consciences"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Research reveals that in sub-Saharan Africa children in polygamous families are 24.4 times more likely to die when compared with children in monogamous families.
Original Article: "Polygamy Is a Problem for Economic Development"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The chaos economy we're witnessing is not the fault of the market economy. Rather prices in some areas of the economy need to rise so high and so fast to harmonize supply and demand that entrepreneurs can hardly keep pace.
Original Article: "We're Living in a Chaos Economy. Here's How to End It."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Age-adjusted mortality in the UK rose in 2020 to the same level last experienced in 2008. Yet the government declared no national health crisis in those years.
Original Article: "The UK's National "Crisis": Age-Adjusted Mortality Is at 2008 Levels"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Until there’s a new foreign policy class informed by an outlook of restraint, no kind of punishment or demotion of those who prosecuted the bungled wars of the past few decades should be expected.
Original Article: "Don’t Expect Foreign Policy Experts to be Held Accountable for Afghanistan"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The story of the Americas as the violent “pacifying” and corralling of free indigenous peoples by white outsiders erases the long history of statism in many areas of the New World.
Original Article: "Pre-Columbian America Wasn't Exactly a Paradise of Freedom"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
After 9/11, the security establishment was giddy about embarking on a global democratic crusade against any nation that did not submit to the US’s liberal hegemonic order.
Original Article: "The US’s Fantastical Foreign Policy: Sowing the Seeds of Failure"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Hopefully, increased interdependence and overlapping interests will help to shape a future of stability in Europe and continue the precious absence of another major war on the continent.
Original Article: "Nord Stream 2: The Value of German-Russian Cooperation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It is, ironically, antiscience to ever declare that science is settled. Since man is not omniscient, the future will forever remain unknown, and more data can always falsify current scientific laws.
Original Article: "Why Today's Abusers of the Scientific Method Are So Dangerous"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Berlin “housing crisis” has, of course, many causes. But most, if not all of them, are government made. Unfortunately, however, people blame “capitalists” for their plight.
Original Article: "Berliners in 2021 Want to Expropriate Private Housing"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Why do individuals desire to have money, which cannot be consumed and produces nothing? To provide an answer to this one must go back in time to establish how money emerged.
Original Article: "Why Does Money Have Value? Not Because the Government Says It Does."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Although the experts assured us Sweden would experience a disaster and a bloodbath without covid lockdowns, the Nordic nation has fared better than Europe on excess deaths.
Original Article: "Without Lockdowns, Sweden Had Fewer Excess Deaths Than Most of Europe"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Cultural disparities between national, linguistic, or cultural groups can prevent the spread of trade and hamper the adoption of useful economic strategies.
Original Article: "How "Cultural Distance" between Societies Can Hamper Economic Prosperity"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
While the US was able to give the Soviets a bloody nose by pouring billions into the mujahideen, it’s undeniable the US created a Frankenstein's monster that ended up turning on its creator.
Original Article: "The Roots of the Afghanistan War"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The current surge in inflation is not due to a shortage of supply as central banks want us to believe. It is primarily due to soaring consumer demand fueled by monetary creation.
Original Article: "'Shortages' Aren't Causing Inflation. Money Creation Is."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The state is making people dependent on it, both as means for control and as an outcome of many policies intended to provide relief.
Original Article: "The Postpandemic World Is One of Widespread Dependence on Government"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It is important to get some much-needed context when examining a disease which is being used to justify unprecedented increases in state power and violations of human rights.
Original Article: "Age-Adjusted Mortality Is at 2004 Levels. Yet They Tell Us Covid Is Worse Than the 1918 Flu."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Raising the debt limit will only delay the inevitable while courting fiscal and monetary chaos: higher interest rates, cuts to social programs, a declining dollar, and price inflation.
Original Article: "Defaulting on the Debt Is the Moral Thing to Do"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In the face of an “invisible enemy,” many Western nations have implemented emergency measures that were once considered dystopian and wholly incompatible with liberal democracy.
Original Article: "How the West Adopted China-Style Lockdowns"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Let's stop pretending default is unprecedented. The US defaulted on debts in 1934 and again in 1979. Today it engages in de facto default through financial repression and monetary inflation.
Original Article: "Yellen Is Wrong. The US Government Doesn't Always Pay its Debts."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
As inflation becomes more obvious, governments will be blaming businesses for causing the inflation that policymakers have fueled. This is a step on the way to price controls.
Original Article: "Inflation-Loving Governments Are Now Blaming Private Businesses for Inflation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
As US military interventions continue across several continents, we should remember that much of US foreign policy is little more than cleaning up messes the US created.
Original Article: "The Loss in Afghanistan Is Only the Latest Chapter in a Long Story of Intervention"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Justin Trudeau won with a weak "victory" in Canadian elections last week, but he nonetheless claimed a "mandate" for vaccine passports and huge increases in federal spending.
Original Article: "Canada Votes for More of the Same"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The FBI’s power and federal legitimacy are far more tenuous than Washington recognizes. Beyond the nation’s big cities, federal authority hinges largely on the consent of local citizens.
Original Article: "My Time with the FBI"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The new "2 percent average" standard from last year helped the inflationists, but there are now calls for scrapping the "too low" 2 percent inflation limit altogether.
Original Article: "Too Much Inflation? Just Raise the Inflation Target!"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Moyn fears that "humane warfare" along with programs of global surveillance, would subject the world to hegemonic control by one or a few dominant superpowers.
Original Article: "Should War Be Made 'Humane'?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The example of England in the Industrial Revolution suggests enormous amounts of innovation and growth can be achieved even without high levels of education among the general population.
Original Article: "Is an Educated Population Really Necessary for Innovation and Growth?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Despite all the data we have on lockdowns, hospitalization trends, and newly emerging vaccination data, one can only marvel at how trust in the public health system and ruling elite can persist in any capacity.
Original Article: "The Public Health Officials Say "Trust Us." The Data Says Otherwise."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
A euro collapse, rather than gas prices and bottlenecks, is the most likely source of sustained high CPI inflation in Europe following the Merkel era.
Original Article: "Europe Faces a Fragile Economy as the Merkel Era Ends"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
An economic depression is not caused by a decline in the money supply per se, but results from a shrinking pool of savings made possible by a previous bout of monetary inflation.
Original Article: "Before a Bust, There Is Always a Boom (and Malinvestment)"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Feds are sitting on a huge pile of decaying buildings. A private business would sell these off, but this task is apparently too difficult for federal bureaucrats.
Original Article: "Why Bureaucrats Are Sitting on So Much Money-Losing Real Estate"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
When asked, "'I’ve recovered from covid, is it absolutely essential that I get vaccinated?' many public health officials have put aside the data and responded with a synchronized 'yes.'"
Original Article: "Why "Natural Immunity" Is a Political Problem for the Regime"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
As with economic policy to "cure" recessions, the authorities’ health response is good at crippling markets, but never delivers what is promised.
Original Article: "From Diseases to Recessions, Government Failure Is Endemic"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The fact that NOTA is not a genuine, nonsymbolic ballot option proves that the political class merely pays lip service to the concepts of integrity and the will of the people.
Original Article: "Canadians Should Be Able to Vote 'None of the Above'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In the age of covid, governments have decided to embrace a new kind of policy: they'll hold the population hostage until the public complies with what the state wants.
Original Article: "Covid Lockdowns Signal the Rise of Public Policy by Ransom"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
It will come as yesterday's news that the speculator is perennially under attack by the social justice warriors. Yet speculators serve a crucial and valuable role in surviving economic disasters.
Original Article: "In Defense of the Speculator"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Some fed officials simply shrugged off what was an obvious conflict of interest when they traded stocks and real estate holdings while making policy. The rules don't apply to central bankers.
Original Article: "You'll Be Shocked the Learn There's Corruption at the Fed"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Isn’t a principle of nonaggression against others another way of stating the self-ownership principle? "Not necessarily," says the insightful philosopher Chandran Kukathas.
Original Article: "Is Self-Ownership Necessary?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
From the darkened cinema to the football field to the airport screening line, the US government inflated the actual threat of terrorism and the necessity of an aggressive military response.
Original Article: "US Military Propaganda in Film, Sports, and TV: It's Everywhere"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
When a politician says "do the right thing," what he means is "do what I say, or else."
Original Article: "What They Really Mean When They Say 'Do the Right Thing'"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Without establishing the underlying causes of boom-bust cycles, employing policies in response to changes in economic indicators to counter economic cycles is likely to destabilize the economy.
Original Article: "Can Economic Data Explain the Timing and Causes of Recessions?"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Fed is dumping cash into Fannie and Freddie which is helping investors buy up more trailer parks.
Original Article: "The Fed Is Helping Facilitate Trailer Park Evictions"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Thanks to private property, trade, and the Industrial Revolution, there isn't much to be gained from wars among rich countries anymore. But things are different in the developing world.
Original Article: "War Has Declined in the West Because War Isn't "Worth It" for Rich Countries"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Biden's vaccine mandates are yet another dangerous frontier in using a perceived or real crisis to justify an immense expansion in state power and control over the population.
Original Article: "Biden's Vaccine Mandates: It's about Power"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
As long as Big Pharma wants it, and if there's a profit to be made, apparently our government will be there to provide lots of taxpayer funding. Actual healthcare is apparently a secondary concern.
Original Article: "A Legacy of Corruption in the FDA and Big Pharma"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
What we’re beginning to see is policy ghettoization, wherein states pass laws that the most fervent activists on the left and right, respectively, cannot enact at the federal level.
Original Article: "What Texas's Unilateral Immigration Policy Tells Us about Washington"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Fed’s apparent plan to somehow get to full employment and then deal with inflation sounds nice, but reality could easily derail the plan. Meanwhile, job growth is low and prices are rising.
Original Article: "The Fed's Plan Is Failing: Stagflation Looms as Job Growth Stalls"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The Fed is backed into a corner. If price inflation continues, the public could demand action and the Fed could be forced to cut back the flow of easy money, which may lead to a depression.
Original Article: "Why the Fed Is So Desperate to Hide Price Inflation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Paul Krugman’s “logical problem” with ABCT derives entirely from his superficial understanding of the theory.
Original Article: "Rebutting Paul Krugman on the "Austrian" Pandemic"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Calculating "multiplier effects" is perhaps the most common method of cheating with benefit-cost analysis.
Original Article: "How to Cheat with Cost-Benefit Analysis: Double Count the Benefits"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The people who really run California aren't going anywhere. Even if California voters throw out Newsom very little will change in state government.
Original Article: "Is California an Economic Paradise? Paul Krugman Thinks So"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Contra Mr. Biden, this is entirely about freedom and personal choice.
Original Article: "Against Biden's Mandates"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Some slippery slope arguments are a case of bad reasoning, but those presented by Mises and Hayek are not among them.
Original Article: "Slippery Slope Arguments and Tyranny"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
While bankruptcy has a negative connotation in the business world, “Bankruptcy fulfills the crucially important social function of preserving the available stock of capital."
Original Article: "Preserving Capital through Bankruptcy"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Governments are seeking to mandate vaccine usage in a variety of ways, even while vaccine producers are shielded from full legal accountability should their treatments cause harm. That should raise some red flags.
Original Article: "WaPo Editors: "Liberty" Requires Us to Implement Vaccine Passports"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Life in American changed twenty years ago after the 9/11 attacks. Many Americans became enraged at anyone who did not swear allegiance to Bush’s antiterrorism crusade.
Original Article: "Remember When Conservatives "Canceled" Anyone against the War on Terror? I Do."
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
China is a rapidly aging, inefficient, conflict-ridden, and relatively poor country that simply is not on the road to seriously challenging the US’s hegemony.
Original Article: "China’s Military Strength Has Been Greatly Exaggerated"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The federal government, along with pharmaceutical, alcohol, and tobacco companies have spent money trying to put the legalization genie back in the prohibition bottle, so any argument or propaganda will suit their purposes.
Original Article: "Some Conservatives Still Pine for the Good Ol' Days of Cannabis Prohibition"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Many landlords just received a crash course about how irrelevant their property rights are in Washington.
Original Article: "An End to the Bizarre CDC Rent Moratorium"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In a free, unhampered market, businesspersons in the pursuance of their goals will not require macroeconomic indicators. Entrepreneurs require an entirely different kind of data than what government data provides.
Original Article: "Macroeconomic Data Is a Tool for Government Intervention"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Canadian hospitals operate under fixed budgets dictated by the government. When this tax revenue is depleted before the end of the year, as often happens, new patients are put on a waiting list. This problem isn't getting any better.
Original Article: "British Columbia’s Supreme Court Gets an F in Healthcare Economics"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
There won't be a taper tantrum if the Fed seriously moves toward tapering. Investors now understand how the game works. Tapering doesn't actually mean the end of monetary inflation, and everyone knows it.
Original Article: "Don't Be Fooled by the Fed's Taper Talk"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Because people strive to improve their condition, they exchange goods and, in this sense, they create the necessary conditions for the emergence of prices. Prices are simply an unintended consequence of the human quest to improve one's life.
Original Article: "Where Prices Come From: Menger Explains"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Eleven states ban happy hour. These laws restrict the sale of alcohol at discounted prices during specially designated times. Unfortunately, many citizens regard these backdoor price controls as perfectly legit.
Original Article: "Happy Hour May Be Getting a Little Happier"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Many Lithuanian politicians are embracing outright segregation of unvaccinated Lithuanians. Fortunately, many Lithuanians are resisting. This fight is not about opposing vaccines, but about protecting basic freedom of choice.
Original Article: "Lithuania's Crackdown on the Unvaccinated"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Some think that beer's history of regulation begins with hops, but beer has been hemmed in by government red tape for much longer.
Original Article: "Beer: A Short and Bitter History of Regulation"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
Gold was only included in the plans for the Bretton Woods system because of the veneer of solidity it gave.
Original Article: "Bretton Woods and the Spoliation of Europe"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The gold standard supposed a limit to the fiscal voracity of governments, and suspending it unleashed the perverse proclivity of the states toward indebtedness and to pass the current imbalances on to future generations.
Original Article: "The End of the Gold Standard. Fifty Years of Monetary Insanity"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
The collapse of the monetary order in 1971 reflected the massive dislocations and malinvestment of resources that ultimately turned the decade into one crisis after another. Keynesians are doing something similar today.
Original Article: "The Great Keynesian Coup of August 1971: Fifty Years Later"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.
In 1971, Nixon used a fiscal crisis to justify severing the dollar's last connection to gold. It was the same old story: "we must vastly expand government power because of a 'crisis.'" The government never gives up these new powers.
Original Article: "How Nixon and FDR Used "Crises" to Destroy the Dollar's Links to Gold"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.