Last Day to Double Your Gift

2023-09-30

In Argentina, the libertarian presidential candidate Javier Milei made headlines when he came in first in the primary on August 13. His economic program calls for a strong reduction in government spending and the role of government in general and would, if implemented, greatly improve the conditions of economic life in Argentina.
There is, however, one weak point—namely, his proposed monetary reform. Faced with high inflation rates and a depreciating peso, Milei proposes to dollarize the Argentinian economy. The details are not clear, but the idea is to swap pesos for dollars at the market rate (effectively making pesos claims on dollars) before finally abolishing the Argentinian peso.
All contracts, assets, and demand deposits would from then on be denominated in dollars, converted from

2023-09-28

The argument over trade is one that has been foisted back onto America by the likes of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. While most hold to the notion that Adam Smith ended the debate on trade policy in the 1770s, the issue has always been a prominent one in American history. The Hamiltonian Whigs and Lincoln Republicans have long stood opposed to the Jacksonian Democrats and their policy of laissez-faire capitalism. Perhaps the one shining light of the neoconservative and neoliberal world order was lip service to the idea of free trade across borders, even if that was not quite true. The rise of Trump—as a rejection of this neoliberal order—was not only a rejection of the foreign policy failures of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but it was also a resurrection of Hamiltonian protectionism.

2023-09-27

The US consumer sentiment index, compiled by the University of Michigan, fell to 69.5 in August from 71.6 in July. A weakening consumer sentiment index is seen as indicating a potential downturn in consumer spending and the economy in general.
Most economic commentators agree that individual consumption rather than saving is the key to economic prosperity. Saving, they believe, hinders economic growth because it coincides with weakening demand for goods. In this theory, economic activity is depicted as a circular flow of money in which one individual’s spending is part of the earnings of another.
If, however, individuals become less confident about the future, they are likely to cut back on their outlays and hoard more money, thereby diminishing the earnings of some other individual, who

2023-09-25

In the last century, states have had great control over channels of media. In most of the West, lobbying groups and cartels working with “liberal” and “democratic” governments regulated who could broadcast while governments, with their endless pools of money and political force, competed alongside private, or foreign, establishments. South Africa banned television entirely, and then after legalizing it in the ’70s, the industry was still controlled by the state.
All media in the Soviet Union was centralized and controlled by the state immediately after the October Revolution—the Bolshevik leaders understood the importance of media control. Every state in the last century has had some grip over the country’s media, propagating favorable narratives and restricting the unfavorable to maintain

2023-07-01

Most cartels and trusts would never have been set up had not the governments created the necessary conditions by protectionist measures. Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency immanent in capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laisser-faire.
—Ludwig von Mises, Socialism
The concept of natural monopolies has often intrigued economists and policymakers, serving as a cornerstone for proponents of statism. They argue that certain industries naturally lead to a dominant firm, impeding competition and requiring government intervention. However, closer inspection reveals that these “natural monopolies” are illusions caused by harmful government interference.
To understand the fallacy of natural monopolies,