Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

Abolish the Department of Homeland Security

The Trump transition team on Wednesday announced that he is nominating South Dakota governor Kristi Noem as the next head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the coming weeks, we’ll hear a lot about Noem’s personal politics and origins. We’ll also hear about how the DHS is, as the AP puts it, “one of the biggest government agencies that will be integral to his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation...

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Elections: Do They Really Matter?

This article is adapted from a speech delivered at the Mises Circle in Fort Myers, Florida on November 9, 2024.The answer to the question posed in the title is: Yes and No. Yes, some elections have made a significant difference but in general, no, they have not. There are many reasons why elections generally no longer make much of a difference in terms of the economy. One is that for the past half century the average reelection rate of incumbents...

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Freedom and Property: Hans-Hermann Hoppe Talks About the Essence of Anarcho-capitalism

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...

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Powell’s Reluctance to Bend Presents an Opportunity to Break the Fed

The democratic mandate of the incoming Trump administration, along with Republican control of Congress and a confrontation of wills between the President-elect and the Federal Reserve Chairman make ending the Fed a bit less unthinkable. Jerome Powell accurately stated, in a slightly defensive tone, that it is not (currently) lawful for a President to fire a Federal Reserve Chairman. Where some see obstacles others see a challenge, and where Powell...

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The Fed’s “Temporary” Mortgage-Backed Security Experiment Will Last Decades

It has been nearly 14 years since Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that the Fed’s emergency quantitative-easing policy, of which the most radical part was buying mortgage-backed securities, was “temporary” and would be “reversed.”  The Fed made huge mortgage-backed securities purchases. The purchases pushed mortgage interest rates to artificially low levels, stoked the second great house price bubble of the 21st century and made...

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What Trump’s New Political Appointees Are Telling Us

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...

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The American Addiction to Transfer Payments

There is plenty of commentary today about continuing large annual US federal budget deficits and the large federal debt that keeps mounting as a result of these relentless deficits. The budget deficit for federal fiscal year 2024 clocked in at $1.8 trillion, representing about 5 percent of US GDP, and the federal debt is now $35.5 trillion, approximately 100 percent of GDP.The Congressional Budget Office projects that annual budget deficits and the...

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Politics and Economics of the Deep State Monopoly

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...

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Will DEI Ever DIE?

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...

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Subjectivity and Demonstrated Preference: A Possible Paradox

A few years ago, I bought a unique item. When I first became aware of it, I was intrigued and interested, but the price was $50 more than I was willing to pay ($450 versus $400). Wanting it, at my price or less, I kept watch over various websites looking for a sale price that matched my price point. After a number of months searching, I found a site that offered the item for $390 and I bought it.Now, since the manufacturer has gone out of...

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The Context Behind Donald Trump’s “Takeover” of the American Right

Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s election reinforced the impression that he and his followers have “taken over” the Republican party. The campaign saw Republicans like Liz and Dick Cheney switch sides and back the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris. Now—after Trump won a second term—the right is locked in an impassioned struggle to pressure the president-elect to appoint some Republicans to important executive roles and to freeze others out of...

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Spring 2025 Virtual Mises Book Club

Students apply hereIn January 2025, the Mises Institute will hold its next Mises Book Club, a program that promotes deep reading in Austrian economics.The reading for this book club will be The Great Austrian Economists, edited by Randall Holcombe.Each chapter discusses an important Austrian economist (and some proto-Austrians like Richard Cantillon and Frédéric Bastiat). The contributors are all eminent Austrian economist, including Jesús Huerta...

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Elections and the Economy: Do They Really Matter?

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...

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Biden’s Economic Time Bomb: A Warning to Trump

The insane neo-Keynesian policies implemented by the Biden-Harris administration have created persistent inflation and record levels of debt with two objectives: to bloat Gross Domestic Product and jobs with public spending and government jobs.The United States’ insane inflation is solely due to out-of-control spending and currency printing. Corporations, wars, or supply chains cannot cause aggregate prices to rise, nor can they consolidate the...

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Wanted: Critics of Austrian Economics

Present-day Austrian economics suffers from a significant and rather interesting problem: a lack of critics. What I mean by this is not that there are not enough trolls, hecklers, and politically-motivated anti-economists. No, I mean that there are very few, if any, real and knowledgeable critics of Austrian economic theory.The Austrian tradition has had an important and lasting impact on economics over the past century and a half. Much of this was...

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Bipartisan Spending, Money Printing, and Debt: The Myth of the Two-Party System

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...

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Voting on Drugs

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...

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Video: Exposing the Fed, and Why We Must End It

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...

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Presidential Elections Are a Lot Closer than You Think

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...

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Digital Currency, Metal Recycling, and Loss of Liberty

In July 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) announced FedNow as their foray into the US dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) payment service. The service is offered to insure immediate CBDC payments are made to a registered individual and/or business buying and selling products and/or services. The FRB offers CBDC as a quick payment convenience to Americans when many see it as a subtle expansion of FRB monetary management power and...

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