Monthly Archive: January 2024

Taking Money Back (Part I)

2024-01-17

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2024-01-17

Money is a crucial command post of any economy, and therefore of any society. Society rests upon a network of voluntary exchanges, also known as the “free-market economy”; these exchanges imply a division of labor in society, in which producers of eggs, nails, horses, lumber, and immaterial services such as teaching, medical care, and concerts, exchange their goods for the goods of others. At each step of the way, every participant in exchange...

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Spring 2024 Mises Book Club

2024-01-17

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2024-01-17

By special request, the Mises Institute will hold its next in-person Mises Book Club, our new program to promote deep reading in Austrian economics, on campus at Oklahoma State University beginning Tuesday, February 6. In celebration of the 80th anniversary of F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom, this classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics will be the focus of the next meeting. For eight riveting weeks, ten...

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Mises Circle in Fort Myers

2024-01-17

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2024-01-17

Save the date!  Join the Mises Institute for a special Circle in Fort Myers, FL this November.  Registration, speaker details, and agenda forthcoming.

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2024 Political Circus Begins in Iowa

2024-01-16

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2024-01-16

On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop discuss the results of the Iowa Caucuses. What does Trump's overwhelming win mean for American politics, and what is the future for candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis? Also, did anyone know Asa Hutchinson was still around? Ryan and Tho discuss this and more. Claim your free book: Mises.org/RothPodFree Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at Mises.org/RadioRothbard....

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Can Classical Economics Explain the Approaching Fiscal Disaster?

2024-01-16

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2024-01-16

Today’s US fiscal predicament includes unprecedentedly high federal spending financed by inadequate tax revenue and high federal budget deficits. There is a lack of sufficient buyers of US Treasury debt. Rating agencies have recently downgraded the US debt, and entitlement benefits are forecast to outstrip their trust funds in a few years. How might a nineteenth-century English economist be relevant to this predicament? Might this fiscal...

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The Oregon Problem: It’s Not Drugs! It’s the Socialistic Political Culture

2024-01-16

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2024-01-16

Not many people know that Oregon decriminalized all drugs through a ballot initiative. The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article: “Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs: It Is Not Working.” The question here is, why not? In 2020, the State of Oregon decriminalized all drugs, including hard drugs such as heroin, crystal meth, which you will remember as the centerpiece of the hit series Breaking Bad, and fentanyl, a highly dangerous synthetic...

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Greenback Surges as Rates Back Up

2024-01-16

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2024-01-16

Overview: The US dollar is bid across the board and posting its best session of the month. It is up between about 0.5% (Canadian dollar) to almost 1.0% (Australian dollar) among the G10 currencies. Among the emerging market currencies, only the Russian ruble is holding its own.

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Why You Should Read Human Action—Very Carefully

2024-01-15

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2024-01-15

May 16–18, 2024:  Join Dr. Joseph T. Salerno, Dr. Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Dr. Jörg Guido Hülsmann, Dr. Joseph T. Salerno, Dr. Mark Thornton, and more for a conference in honor of the 75th anniversary of Human Action at our campus in Auburn.

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Forget the Alleged Social Contract: Taxes Are Coercive

2024-01-15

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2024-01-15

Taxes are not a contractual obligation between the state and the individuals it governs. By definition, taxes are noncontractual debts in which the state is the creditor, and the payment of these debts is demanded through coercion and violence.

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Switzerland marks start of China’s ‘high-level exchange’ with Europe

2024-01-15

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2024-01-15

Chinese Premier Li Qiang is visiting Switzerland this week. The official state visit by China’s second highest ranking official signals a renewal in Sino-Swiss ties and the kick-off of his “high-level exchange” with Europe. Here’s what you need to know about official Swiss-Chinese relations.

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Introduction to the Chinese Edition of How to Think about the Economy: A Primer

2024-01-15

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2024-01-15

To the Chinese reader: It is safe to say that economics suffers at least as many fallacies and misunderstandings as any other field of study. Had physics suffered the same level of issues, we would not have seen much—if any—of the progress that we have made over the past centuries. Yet, economics—the queen of the social sciences—keeps being misrepresented, if not abused, and we suffer the consequences. Those consequences are primarily in the form...

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BIS, Swiss National Bank and World Bank Launch Token Project Promissa

2024-01-15

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2024-01-15

Today, many international financial institutions (including multilateral development banks) are partly funded by financial instruments known as promissory notes, most of which are still paper-based. While the current system provides the operational controls for member nations to make subscription and contribution payments to institutions like the World Bank, the custody of outstanding promissory notes can be digitised to address operational...

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Privatizing Roads Solves the Problem of Road Closures

2024-01-14

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2024-01-14

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

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The Escalating Tensions in the Red Sea Are a Bad Omen

2024-01-14

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2024-01-14

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

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Reflections on the Rothbard Graduate Seminar

2024-01-14

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2024-01-14

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

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What is a “Fed Pivot,” And When Is It Likely to Happen?

2024-01-13

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2024-01-13

Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome “Jay” Powell, recently sent mysterious shock waves into financial markets with comments that suggested that Fed rate cuts might come sooner than expected. Stock and bond markets took this as a good sign. They were already in a Santa Claus rally and broke out to new highs for the year. The interest rate on ten-year government bonds, which had already fallen by almost 1 percent since October, threatened to...

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The December Jobs Report Is Mostly Bad News

2024-01-13

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2024-01-13

According to a new report from the federal government's Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday, the US economy added 216,000 jobs for the month while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%. NBC news was sure to tell us that this "beat expectations."  Market estimates suggested total jobs added at 170,000 with the unemployment rate at 3.8%.  The media's general consensus on the report is that the jobs economy is "robust" and...

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The Draconian Budget Slashing Act of 2024

2024-01-13

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2024-01-13

On this week's episode, Mark opens the Congressional Political Playbook to examine the proposed Congressional compromise spending legislation—and what they might name it. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. Get your free copy of Murray Rothbard's Anatomy of the State at Mises.org/IssuesFree.

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Week Ahead: Real Economy

2024-01-13

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2024-01-13

Given the world's turmoil, including the escalation, and broadening of the conflict in the Middle East and China's continued aerial harassment of Taiwan ahead of the election, the capital and commodity markets have remained firm. February WTI fell about 1.7% last week and March Brent slipped around 0.65%. Shipping costs are rising as the Rea Sea is avoided and supply chain disruptions are threatened. Still the MSCI index of developed equity market...

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Are You an Enemy of the State? Most likely

2024-01-13

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2024-01-13

Donald Trump, Julian Assange, Alex Jones, and Rudy Giuliani are in deep trouble with the US state. How about you? Most likely you feel safe because your voice hasn’t attracted a large following. What would the state’s enforcers gain by attacking a little guy? They’re big-game hunters. Pull the plug on the big guys and their everyday followers float away like bathtub water down a drain. Possibly you believe you aren’t really attacking the state with...

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