Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

Are Markets Tyrannical? Where Christian Conservatives Are Mistaken

A number of Christian conservatives are claiming that markets are as coercive as government. Try boycotting the FBI or your local police the next time they do something outrageous. Original Article: "Are Markets Tyrannical? Where Christian Conservatives Are Mistaken"

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A Ticking Time Bomb: A Huge National Debt Plus Rising Interest Rates

Those who have been predicting a recession in the United States and an associated stock market crash seem to be having a hard time. At least, it appears so. US gross domestic product grew by 2.1 percent in Q2 2023, after growing 2.0 percent in Q1; the unemployment rate was rather low at 3.8 percent in August 2023; and the S&P 500 was at 4,460 points, around 10 percent below the index record of 4,818 points from January 2022. Yet, there are many...

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Gold Will Destroy the Keynesian Fallacies

Keynes denounced monetary gold as "a barbarous relic." In the end, it will be that "barbarous relic" that overthrows the regime of paper currency. Original Article: "Gold Will Destroy the Keynesian Fallacies"

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Is the Gig Economy on the Verge of Destruction?

The gig economy as we know it is on the verge of destruction. Gig work, otherwise known as freelance work, was once held up as an entry into the entrepreneurial economy for many people seeking to dip their toes in, but that economy is currently threatened by people who do not understand its vitality for freelance entrepreneurs. There is now a push, from policy makers and a few gig contractors who think it is in the best interest of gig workers and...

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Armed Neutrality Is the Only Moral Foreign Policy

Former Vice-President Mike Pence is very concerned that Republicans are not sufficiently enthusiastic about aggressive, unnecessary wars. In a speech on Monday, Pence claimed "Some Republican candidates ...[are] embracing a new and dangerous form of isolationism.”  "Isolationism" is just a slur used by hawks to describe any policy that falls short of further expanding US interventionism across every region of the globe. Fortunately...

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Marxist States Never “Wither Away” as Marx Predicted

David Gordon continues his analysis of Graham Priest’s book, Capitalism: Its Nature and Its Replacement. While Priest might not understand either Marxism or capitalism, his book has useful insights. Original Article: "Marxist States Never "Wither Away" as Marx Predicted"

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Civilian Control, Unicorns, and Other Bedtime Stories: The Military Does What It Wants

The fundamental problem with purchasing protection from the boogeyman is that it’s impossible to assess the quality of your purchase: If the boogeyman doesn’t attack, it appears your protection succeeded. If he does, it appears you needed to purchase even more. And that, dear readers, is why the military cannot be controlled by civilians or anyone else, for that matter. In the most basic sense, people without guns cannot control people with them;...

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Government Imposed “Competition” Harms Competition

President Biden says he is going to unleash regulators to bring more "competition" to the economy. This is an oxymoron. Original Article: "Government Imposed "Competition" Harms Competition"

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Should We Uncritically Support Organized Labor?

People celebrating Labor Day often do so by attending a regional Labor Day celebration, usually organized by labor unions. One undoubtedly hears the phrase “support all labor” being thrown around at these gatherings. A Google search will reveal the most recent example of this phrase being used. In light of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strike, a film festival released the following statement: HollyShorts supports both the WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes....

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China’s Maneuvering and the New Balance of Power

Washington is paranoid of current Chinese actions. However, it is Washington that has been the aggressor in world affairs. Original Article: "China’s Maneuvering and the New Balance of Power"

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The USDA’s War on Small Farms

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"

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Bidenomics: A Boom That Awaits an Inevitable Bust

While unemployment currently is low and the rate of inflation has fallen somewhat, Bidenomics is setting off a boom that is unsustainable. We know what happens next. Original Article: "Bidenomics: A Boom That Awaits an Inevitable Bust"

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Where’s the Beef?

Americans are mad about the economy, and particularly about the Fed's inflation of prices and declining inflation-adjusted wages and incomes. Keynesian economist Paul Krugman, on the other hand, thinks that you are ignorant and that everything in the economy is great. Mark looks at Beef prices and consumption to provide some insight into why Americans are rightfully mad at the Federal Reserve, Democrats, and Republicans. Mark concludes that...

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No State Is Morally Fit to Spread Global “Freedom”

[Philosopher] Eric Mack [in his article "Permissible Defense"] uses a device employed by all too many libertarians—of holding the ideal free-market anarchist system or a limited government as virtually equivalent to the current State-ridden system. Thus, he points out quite correctly that isolationism makes no sense as a principle for a free-market protective agency; he leaps from there to the conclusion that, at least for an anarchist,...

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Threats Against the State: Anarcho-Tyranny, Murder, and Legitimacy

On August 9, the Federal Bureau of Investigation killed Craig Robertson, a seventy-four-year-old Utah man, during a raid on his home. The man had posted numerous online threats, saying he wanted several state officials dead and had the means to make that happen. The authorities took his declarations at face value, although he was a near octogenarian dependent upon a cane to walk and was described as being “frail of health” by his neighbors....

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The Eurozone: An Example of Failed Keynesianism

The eurozone economic figures show the risk of stagflation, and the short-term impact is clear in Germany and France, but it extends to the rest of the countries. Why has the eurozone lagged the United States and other developed economies in recent years? The enormous stimulus packages, including the 2009 Growth and Job Plan, the Juncker Plan, the New Green Deal, and the Europe Next Generation, are proving that central planning only delivers poor...

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Why Plea Deals Are a Miscarriage of Justice

Lawyers for two of the Proud Boys convicted for their role in the January 6 assault on the Capitol are filing appeals claiming that they are being subject to a "trial tax," being punished for rejecting a plea deal offer. Bob uses the occasion to explain his long-standing objection to plea deals. Article on the 'Trail Tax' Imposed on the Proud Boys: Mises.org/HAP413a Ex-Proud Boys Leader Sentenced Despite Not Being in Washington on Jan....

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The Great Phony Disinflation Enters Its Finale

Supposedly, the "big news" is the decline of inflation. However, the monetary and political forces driving the latest bout of inflation have not gone away. Original Article: "The Great Phony Disinflation Enters Its Finale"

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The Censorship Industrial Complex Exposes the Kleptocracy’s True Intentions

In the past decade, the growth of the Internet and social media has brought with it a dramatic uptick in populist sentiment. Legacy institutions have declared war against populism, referring to its claims as “misinformation” or “disinformation” and calling on the government or government-adjacent actors (herein referred to as “the censors”) to clamp down on such claims as they spread across the Internet like wildfire. The censors rarely decline...

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Can We Find a Basis for Private Property Rights?

Property and Justice: A Liberal Theory of Natural Rightsby Billy ChristmasRoutledge, 2021; xii + 184 pp. What is the basis for property rights? Murray Rothbard’s answer starts from self-ownership. Each person owns himself and on that basis can acquire unowned resources by appropriating them. Most contemporary political philosophers reject Lockean theories of this sort. One of their key reasons for doing so has to do with a crucial part of property...

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