Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

We Are All Counterfeiters Now

Intellectuals and politicians often try to verbally summarize or justify conventional thinking in pithy ways. Milton Friedman (in 1965) and Richard Nixon (in 1971) both said different versions of the phrase “we are all Keynesians now.” . . . Friedman and Nixon were describing the thoughts behind the implementation of Great Society redistribution programs and an inflationary monetary policy designed to offset the cost of those programs. —Brian...

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Roald Dahl and James Bond Books Are Getting Woke Rewrites. Copyright Law Ensures You Can’t Stop Them.

Thanks to copyright laws, the estate of Roald Dahl can not only rewrite his books, but can also essentially outlaw the old versions. Only books in the public domain are safe from this. Original Article: "Roald Dahl and James Bond Books Are Getting Woke Rewrites. Copyright Law Ensures You Can't Stop Them." This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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Gustave de Molinari, First Anarcho-Capitalist

Of all the leading libertarian French economists of the mid- and late nineteenth centuries, the most unusual was the Belgian-born Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912). Born in Liege, the son of a Belgian physician and a baron who had been an officer in the Napoleonic army, Molinari spent most of his life in France, where he became a prolific and indefatigable author and editor in lifelong support of pure laissez-faire, of international peace, and in...

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Slavery in the Americas: Separating Fact from Fiction

The history of transatlantic slavery is riddled with fables and errors. Erroneous claims have been propagated in the media because history is currently perceived as a political project that must justify present sensibilities. History has become so politicized that rigorous research is unable to disabuse activists of inaccuracies. Due to the rampant politicization of academia, noted scholars are usually cajoled into apologizing for defending...

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Is Democracy under Attack in Canada? No, but It Should Be

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.

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Biden’s Executive Order on Equity: It Will Create Greater Inequality

On February 16, 2023, President Joe Biden issued his second executive order to strengthen equity within federal agencies. Among other things, it ordered them to install equity officers and implement action plans with the superficial aim of making it easier for “underserved communities” to access federal resources. Although there is plenty of commentary on the specific content of the new order, that is not what this article is about. Rather, the...

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Loss of Religious Belief Is a Greater Loss for a Civilized Society

Secularists cheer the decline of religion in Western societies, but that loss comes at a huge cost: the decline of civilization itself. Original Article: "Loss of Religious Belief Is a Greater Loss for a Civilized Society" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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China’s Emerging Global Leadership Isn’t Just the Result of Subsidies: Entrepreneurship Still Matters in This Market

It is easy to dismiss Chinese advancements in electric vehicles as the result of government subsidies, but private entrepreneurship also is playing a major role. Original Article: "China's Emerging Global Leadership Isn't Just the Result of Subsidies: Entrepreneurship Still Matters in This Market" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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Artificial Intelligence Can Serve Entrepreneurs and Markets

In our technocratic age, it is easy to dismiss the latest technological developments as an avenue toward freedom, but some of them still bode well for markets. Original Article: "Artificial Intelligence Can Serve Entrepreneurs and Markets" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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The Fed’s “Disinflation” Story Just Flew Out the Window

Mark talks about the recent price inflation reports, as well as reports of job openings from private sector job placement companies. Inflation was higher than expected and job openings declined. What will the Fed do? People are making painful adjustments—Domino's reported disappointing sales, because their customers are "eating in". Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues.

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Austrian Economics Stands against the Collectivism of Progressive Thought

Recently, I published an article in the Mises Wire, “Woke Egalitarianism and the Elites,” in which I presented the true intentions behind woke egalitarianism. The article also described how elites attempt to rebuild society through collectivism. But more than discussing the goals of progressivism, we need to discuss the intellectual basis of these attempts. What assumptions and intellectual framework guide these actions? Progressivism is based on a...

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Altruism vs. Materialism in Market Exchange

[Excerpted from chapter 6 "Antimarket Ethics: A Praxeological Critique" of Power and Market.] One of the most common charges levelled against the free market (even by many of its friends) is that it reflects and encourages unbridled “selfish materialism.” Even if the free market—unhampered capitalism—best furthers man's “material” ends, critics argue, it distracts man from higher ideals. It leads man away from spiritual or intellectual...

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Losing Control of Money

With global worldwide debt now over $300 trillion and interest rates rising, the US dollar is once again a relative safe haven in a slowing economy. Currencies competing with the Dollar face a deadly race to stave off a sovereign debt crisis. Is the dollar now unbound, as the dominant political tool of the dominant nation? The Dollar Milkshake Theory: Mises.org/HAP385a Thorsten Polleit, The Global Currency Plot: Mises.org/HAP385b Bob's book,...

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Biden versus Bastiat

President Biden's recent call to "buy American" is doomed to failure, just like all other protectionist schemes. Original Article: "Biden versus Bastiat" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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When Military Strategy Ignores Economics: The Sad Story of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan

It is a great tragedy that many modern military leaders and strategists do not understand economics. If they did, I suspect that there would be a lot less war, a lot less military spending, and a lot less wastefulness. Certainly, there would be greater awareness of the appalling human and economic costs of war in a capitalist age. Ludwig von Mises, the great Austrian economist, understood this point well. In his 1927 book Liberalism, he noted that...

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Once More unto the Veatch

Human Rights: Fact or Fancy?by Henry B. VeatchLSU Press, 1985; xii + 258 pp. Henry Veatch was one of the foremost philosophers of the twentieth century, though sadly neglected by most contemporary analytic philosophers. He was a resolute defender of Aristotelian ethics against rival ethical systems, and in this week’s column, I’d like to look at an argument which he deploys against these rivals in his book Human Rights: Fact or Fancy? The argument...

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Secession: Should the American Revolutionaries Have Quit to Appease the Loyalists?

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.

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Public Transit Projects Are the Perfect Recipe for Financial Disaster

The largest urban mass-transit systems across the US are entering an all too familiar point in their long history: another looming financial disaster caused by financial mismanagement and the consequences of covid. No urban transit system exemplifies this problem more than the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York. Ridership in New York has not rebounded to precovid levels, and the MTA is projected to have a funding gap of $1.6...

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The Impossibility of Equality

[Excerpt from chapter 7 of Power and Market in Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, pp. 1308–12.] Probably the most common ethical criticism of the market economy is that it fails to achieve the goal of equality. Equality has been championed on various “economic” grounds, such as minimum social sacrifice or the diminishing marginal utility of money (see the chapter on taxation above). But in recent years economists have recognized that...

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Poor People in Developing Countries Find Alternatives to Commercial Banking

People are innovative—if government doesn't get in the way. Entrepreneurs in developing countries find alternatives for people cut off from commercial banking services. Original Article: "Poor People in Developing Countries Find Alternatives to Commercial Banking" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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