On his podcast “Verdict” November 13, Ted Cruz mentioned one of my favorite books by Ludwig von Mises: Bureaucracy. He mentioned it in reference to the “Department of Government Efficiency” that was also announced by President-elect Donald Trump on the same day. Cruz brings up a crucial point to the conversation surrounding this plan, pointing at Mises for getting it right. The idea lingers that this Department will make government efficient; that is why you need two businessmen—Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy—at the helm. At a surface level, this idea is compelling, but a closer examination shows that it runs into roadblocks. That roadblock is Ludwig von Mises and his analysis of socialism. Mises’s theory of socialist calculation put an end to the debate over socialism, but it reaches just

Left or right, the enemy is the free market. Every problem is the fault of the free market. On the left, the supposed radical deregulation of the 1980s paved the way for the financial crisis and the destruction of the environment. On the right, free trade is responsible for the gutting of manufacturing. The free market is made out in this mythos to have had its heyday in the 1980s and ‘90s and destroyed everything. Even free market advocates fall into this trap, saying that this time in the near past was a free market victory. The results—they try to argue with the market critics, but they agree with the causal analysis: Markets won! Hooray!The fact is that all three of these groups are wrong. There was no American market revolution in the ‘80s.It is important to make note of the rhetoric

The internet has blown up in rage at the recent capture and euthanization of a famous TikTok/Instagram Squirrel named “Peanut.” Peanut was rescued over 7 years ago by his owner Mark Longo. Since then, Peanut has become a hit on TikTok and Instagram where he garnered millions of views and support. But the State of New York has declared war on this little critter, as well as his companion, “Fred” the raccoon. Mark Longo described in a TMZ interview: Ten to twelve DEC officers raided my house as if I were a drug dealer. I was sat outside my house for five hours. I had to get a police escort to my bathroom. I wasn’t even allowed to feed my rescue horses breakfast or lunch. I was sat there like a criminal after they interrogated my wife to ask about her immigration status… then [the officers]

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Perhaps nothing is so vilified as “capitalism” in the modern world. According to a study by North Dakota State University, only a quarter of college students have a positive view of capitalism. Bernie Sanders was wildly popular in 2016, nearly dethroning the neoliberal Hillary Clinton, in part because of his disdain for “millionaires and billionaires” and “capitalism” in favor of socialism (though his views of “millionaires” changed once he became one!). As a sad response, proponents of free markets have fled from the term “capitalism” in favor of lukewarm terms like “market processes.”Many may point to the popular coining of the term by French socialist Louis Blanc or Pierre-Joseph Proudhon as an example. Their argument has been that “capitalism is a term invented by our enemies and so we

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

ESG has become a buzzword for both the American Left and Right. For the Right, it is just a Trojan horse for progressive social attitudes to sneak into business. For the Left it is an alternative to the “cruel” profits-only business model of Milton Friedman. Some on the Right abhor ESG because they worship profit in some abstract material sense. They treat it as if consumerism and profit are materialistic ends to worship in of themselves. But what they ignore is the crucial insight that all action accounts for social welfare.ESG does not improve care for the environment or social causes, it actively undermines social welfare.Humans are not only impelled by their physical desires to act, but also social, cultural, and religious desires. Mises describes this in Human Action:Whether it is

In their Space, Elon Musk spoke with Donald Trump about the cause of inflation being government overspending.Elon is right about this, that government fiscal and monetary policy causes inflation. So let’s do a walk through how deficit spending causes inflation:We first have to understand what inflation is. Inflation isn’t just prices going up, otherwise we are cornered into saying every supply shock or price increase is inflationaryInflation is an increase in the money supply. It is seen through an increase in prices.Inflation involves the increasing of the cash balances of some, who can spend at the expense of those who receive them later.Real goods go to the first receivers of this new money. Their spending increases demand and thus prices.Inflation is always a tax on the population, an

National Conservatives are a growing movement on the political right. They are largely united by their belief in the failings of liberalism, in protectionist trade policy, a halt to mass migration, and a more Christianized nation. The attendees of this year’s conference, hosted by the Edmund Burke Foundation, focused on many topics: free trade, their desire to decouple from China, weaponization of government, bureaucracy in government, and even the building of parallel institutions. But one topic, one that should be vitally important to anyone wishing to preserve a nation, was absent. That, being monetary policy.In my time listening to many panels, and many a plenary speaker, the Federal Reserve and monetary policy was brought up once: by Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) who made allusions to

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

This weekend a wannabe-assassin tried to kill former President Donald Trump, injuring him and two others and killing another man: Core Comperatore, who shielded his wife and daughter from gun fire. The man responsible is reported to be Thomas Matthew Crooks, who missed Trump’s head by mere inches. Crooks shot from atop a building to Trump’s right, somehow not being halted by the Secret Service. Tensions have been high since seeing it as a gross act of violence from leftists that have drummed up fear against Trump since 2016.I don’t see this as a possible conspiracy from the DNC, Biden Administration, or whatever three letter agency folks are wont to blame. If the attempt was to take Trump’s life, one would imagine selecting a much better shot with a much more concealed location. If the

So many of the problems with higher education stem from the involvement of government in the market.Not a day goes by without a TikTok video surfacing of unhappy Gen-Zers or millennials lamenting their career choices that stemmed from college education. On top of this, student debt has become a hot-button political issue. And nearly every conservative laments the rise of such degrees as “gender studies” or “sociology” that seem to be little more than proxies for progressive ideological indoctrination with a price tag. Higher education has become a mess.Though the above issues may only seem loosely connected by their relation to higher education, they share a more specific point of connection: government funding of universities. From direct funding to student loans, the United States

Many small colleges are shutting their doors, and it is largely the fault of overexpansion, government protectionism, and bureaucratic infiltration.If you are following any news in higher education, you are probably aware of the continued closures of many small colleges and universities. This has picked up as of late—almost to one small college a week—and comes as covid-19 relief money dries up, along with rising costs that are no longer covered by federal money, declining enrollment rates, and overall pessimism with higher education. However, all these problems can be traced back to one core issue: bureaucracy.What is called “administrative bloat” by corporate media is a staggering trend that has continued since the 1970s. A study by independent researchers for the Review of Social

The most pervasive and prevalent aspect of government to the average American is the regulatory bureaucracy. Starting a business requires the acquisition of a license. Bureaucrats were given powers to create new legal requirements, accounting measures, and deviations from profit management. This was enabled by the law, through the delegation of powers by Congress to the bureaucrats, but also by the Supreme Court. But, that is coming to a close in the near future as the Supreme Court has overturned a 40-year precedent.Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (a lengthy name–I will just call it ‘Chevron’ going forward) set forward a precedent that gave deference to regulatory agencies in interpreting and implementing regulations allowed for by law. Taking it as a given

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Donald Trump recently addressed top CEOs with a proposal that he sells as helping to reduce income taxes. Trump came out in favor of possibly abolishing income taxation and replacing it with tariffs to finance the federal government. It is likely that the trade-off is simply rhetoric to sell everyone on his protectionist policy, but it is still worth picking apart a critical flaw in the idea regardless.Let’s assume there will be no cuts to spending, but also no expansion. Some publications have tried to crunch the numbers and posited it may take an 85 percent tariff to make up for the loss of federal income tax revenue. Unless this is done, there is likely to be deficit spending, borrowing, and eventually inflation from debt monetization.But even this reality misses the problem: that

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

In responding to economic fallacies that mainstream free traders make, the American Compass makes some of their own.The American Compass—headed by Oren Cass, who once staffed Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign—is the modern descendant of Alexander Hamilton. To those unfamiliar with Hamilton beyond the Federalist Papers, that is hardly a compliment.The Compass, whose writers and staffers join a long list of protectionists gunning for a future Trump administration, echo the rhetoric of Hamilton of rebuilding (or in Hamilton’s time, just building) industry through tariffs and trade restrictions. However, these protectionists have met resistance in the form of a neoliberal consensus that only truly support free trade as justification for a cronyist empire.In attempting to swat down the

The Board of Trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on May 13, announced that they would be diverting the $2.3 million that the university spends on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies toward campus safety amidst protests over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. UNC-Chapel Hill joins a list of universities like the University of Florida and the University of Texas that have eliminated their DEI programs in part due to lawmaker pressure.Protestors have boiled up on college campuses, voicing their concerns and demands for schools they claim are supporting the Israeli war effort in Gaza. At Chapel Hill, the school was woken up on the morning of May 11 to vandalism of an administration building, the same day as its commencement ceremony. It has since voted to

Biden’s newest proposal for steel tariffs join a long list of tariff policies that ignore the unseen damage that will be done to the U.S. economy by raising them.This week, President Biden announced that he would seek to triple tariffs specifically on Chinese steel imports from 7.5 percent to 25 percent. This is an aspect of his campaigning in Pennsylvania where he seeks support from blue-collar steel workers who face competition from foreign steel imports. Both candidates have leaned away from free trade and into protectionism as a cheap political tactic. Voters and donors who benefit from the artificially high prices caused by tariffs will flock to whichever candidate can pander to them best. Trump has campaigned on a baseline of 10 percent tariffs across the board and a

The raid on an Amish family farm is the direct result of government protectionism of big agriculture through needless and cumbersome regulations.Amos Miller is an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania who has become a thorn in the side of the State of Pennsylvania and the federal government for his selling of raw milk and other unregulated products. Miller first came to the attention of the Food and Drug Administration in 2016 when they claimed his milk was linked to several cases of listeria bacteria causing listeriosis in individuals who drank raw milk. Their dispute continued until 2023, when Miller was forced to pay out $30,000 and continue to pay out $305,000 in fees levied by a judge following federal lawsuits.Conflict has resumed as the Pennsylvania attorney general announced it would be

The raid on an Amish family farm is the direct result of government protectionism of big agriculture through needless and cumbersome regulations.Amos Miller is an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania who has become a thorn in the side of the State of Pennsylvania and the federal government for his selling of raw milk and other unregulated products. Miller first came to the attention of the Food and Drug Administration in 2016 when they claimed his milk was linked to several cases of listeria bacteria causing listeriosis in individuals who drank raw milk. Their dispute continued until 2023, when Miller was forced to pay out $30,000 and continue to pay out $305,000 in fees levied by a judge following federal lawsuits.Conflict has resumed as the Pennsylvania attorney general announced it would be

Ludwig von Mises is known for his theory of the business cycle and his development of praxeology, but he is best known for discrediting socialism. This critique is found in Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (Mises 1990) and Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (Mises 1951). In a similar vein is a work written near the end of the Second World War: Bureaucracy (Mises 1944). Mises observed shifts away from the market toward interventionism following the Great Depression and the Second World War. Mises presents crucial distinctions between market-profit and bureaucratic management. Yet, Mises’s theory of bureaucracy is best understood if one divides it into a theory of two rather than one. Mises presents his definition of bureaucracy but describes two kinds:

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito

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If one follows news relating to the economy, they surely have come across certain mainstream rhetoric in support of the Federal Reserve System. Everyone is familiar with the typical claims that the Federal Reserve strives for maximized employment and low inflation, and that the Fed is the regulator of the banking industry.

Super Tuesday saw Donald Trump sweep all possible state delegates except for the state of Vermont. However, hovering just below the surface were a series of propositions that were voted on by the Texas Republican Party. Various propositions touched on topics of gold as legal tender, border security, and school choice, but the most interesting was Proposition 6. Proposition 6 reads as follows: “The Texas Legislature should prohibit the deployment of the Texas National Guard to a foreign conflict unless Congress first formally declares war. YES or NO.”The Texas GOP voters voted over 84% in favor of this proposition that would halt the national guard from being deployed abroad. The scale is astonishing as well, as 84% is near 1.9 million Texans. This proposition is commonly called “Defend the

Among the most persistent of myths in the sphere of economics is of the supposed benefits of government spending in the economy. Apologists will include government spending in gross domestic product measures, as if government production is truly “productive.”

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito

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Mises Institute is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent the law allows. Tax ID# 52-1263436

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

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?

School Choice has become a hot button political topic, especially for right-wing America. Conservatives, libertarians, and everyone that is to the left of the Democratic Party have grown increasingly more skeptical of the public education system. Between ideological indoctrination, what might be rightfully described as “grooming” into social contagions, and declining educational gains, public education has demonstrated its utter failures.
The obvious alternative to many conservatives and libertarians is school choice. School choice has a variety of forms, but all are focused on a core idea: that government funding of schools should follow students (rather than go directly to districts) to allow competition between schools. Surely, it does follow that allowing choice might improve quality.

Intellectual property laws provide another example of how government stifles innovation and competition.
Original Article: Bye Bye Willie: The Political Rent-Seeker

As a frequent X/Twitter user, I follow a variety of accounts that touch on a number of niches: whether that is economics, finance, Catholicism, college football . . . or in this case, Lord of the Rings. A popular Twitter account that regularly shares content related to J.R.R. Tolkien’s work broke from character to offer an insight on another tweet. In the tweet he refers to, a food inspector is shown interrupting the business of a diner, which the poster laments. Middle-Earth Mixer, the Lord of the Rings account, offers insight:
The problem with Libertarianism is it leans on the old Marxist adage, “You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.” Except in this case the idea is, “A few people need to die of food poisoning before we know which diners are good.”
While this may be too much

On January 1, 2024, the famous Steamboat Willie entered the public domain. The intellectual property that is the original Mickey Mouse design has been controlled by the Walt Disney Company since 1928. The internet blew up in excitement as a result. Within minutes of the world waking up to the news, horror games were announced based on the design of the famous mouse. The editors of Wikipedia were practically Olympic racers, waiting for the moment it hit midnight to upload the entirety of the cartoon to Wikimedia Commons.
This cartoon, under eight minutes long, and its long-awaited release to the public domain is a perfect example of political rent seeking and corporate protectionism.
American copyright and patent law has a long history that goes back to the colonial period. The 1623 English

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

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

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

In light of Nobel Prizes being given to two researchers of mRNA covid-19 vaccinations, beltway establishments like that of the Cato Institute have lauded praises onto the decision. To Cato, as evidenced by a blog post by Ian Vásquez, the production of these vaccines was a “victory of globalization!” Whilst it certainly required a vast scale of global resources and networking, it was hardly what one could consider a free market victory. The development of these vaccines was done so by plundered resources, granted legal immunity, and captured market positions.
One aspect lost by the English Cato blog is that of Vásquez’s defense, or rather the lack thereof, of the funding of this research. Rather than discuss where the funding for research in covid-19 vaccinations truly came from, he

Ibram X. Kendi, the controversial author of How to Be an Antiracist, has been revealed as not only a hustler of horrid ideas but also a poor businessman. Kendi was appointed the head and founder of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research in 2020 following the aptly named “summer of love,” which saw riots in most major cities over calls for “racial justice.”
Now, Boston University is committing mass layoffs of employees, as the Center has lost the $43 million that was donated to it at its opening. There have also been several complaints about management practices. The Center is laying off much of its staff as it switches to a new model that it hopes will keep it alive. It is another profound case of fiat academia being inefficient and unproductive, as well as peddling half-baked

Seemingly coming out of nowhere was the song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” by singer-songwriter Oliver Anthony. Overnight, the laments of one man from Appalachia over the state of the American economy and government spread like wildfire.
In “Rich Men North of Richmond” Anthony decries the declining value of the US dollar, the lack of accountability for those on Jeffrey Epstein’s client list, and the use of taxpayer dollars to fund obesity through food stamps amidst high taxation. Whilst one could deconstruct the individual issues pointed at by Anthony, it can best be understood by the song title and the chorus:
Livin’ in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And

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.

The Biden administration is unleashing the USDA on small farmers, attempting to regulate them out of business. This is done to protect not the public’s health, but politically connected agriculture interests.
Original Article: "The USDA’s War on Small Farms"

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"

Most students in America are introduced to the writings of Upton Sinclair. While they aren’t shown his incredible cover-up of the Holodomor or his other Soviet apologisms, they are presented with his most famous work: The Jungle. This work tells the tale of Sinclair’s investigation into the wretched working conditions of the meat-packers of its age. Between lost limbs and failed inspections, Sinclair writes about the meat being contaminated and barbarously prepared.
This tale is meant to show the supposed failures of laissez-faire capitalism, with its disregard for workers and health. Readers are supposed to walk away with a firm belief in the need for the regulation of these firms. Hurrah! Here comes the mighty state to provide safety to the masses that would otherwise be made sick by

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"

Austrian economics properly understands the ability of commercial banks to create money by mismatching their depositor liabilities with their issuing of money substitutes (i.e., the creation of credit). One possible place for further exploration is the role that nonbank or foreign financial institutions play in the creation of credit and the broader implications on business-cycle creation.
Let us take the dollar as an example. Say Deutsche Bank operates a branch in the United States. This branch, according to the Federal Reserve’s Regulation D, would be subject to the Fed’s reserve requirements. However, a London branch of Deutsche Bank would not be subject to such a regulation on its US dollar holdings. Similarly, a market mutual fund, acting as a creditor, is not subject to the reserve

Starting in July, the Federal Reserve will be rolling out a new payment service dubbed “FedNow.” Among many on the dissident side of politics, there is a growing worry that this new service may be a trojan horse for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The concern is a valid one. A CBDC, depending on how it is implemented, could eliminate the privacy allowed by a cash system, allow the freezing of accounts with greater ease, and open the door to social credit scores for individuals. One asks, is the fear of FedNow truly justified? Or is it a risk for another reason?
To analyze whether FedNow is a trojan horse for a CBDC, one must first understand what a CBDC would be in function. A CBDC, as defined by the Federal Reserve itself, would be “money that is a liability of the central bank.”