Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org
The Betrayal of Free Speech: Elon Musk Buckles to Government Censorship, Again
In April 2024, STF Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil ordered the suspension of dozens of accounts on X for allegedly spreading disinformation. Musk denounced the orders as censorship and refused to comply. The dispute escalated, leading to the ban on X in Brazil. After months of defiance, Elon Musk’s social media platform has decided to comply with Brazilian court orders, censoring users at the behest of the government.As a staunch defender of...
Read More »
Read More »
The Complex Legacy of George Orwell
George Orwell, one of the most influential political writers of the 20th century, is widely recognized for his searing critiques of totalitarian regimes in his novels Animal Farm and 1984. Orwell’s portrayal of state control, propaganda, and the manipulation of truth has resonated with readers across the political spectrum. However, Orwell’s personal political ideology and his critiques of totalitarianism are far more complex than is often...
Read More »
Read More »
A View from The Top
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...
Read More »
Read More »
Historical Revisionism: What It Is and What It Is Not
An activist historian in the United Kingdom, who rose to prominence as a supporter of Black Lives Matter, recently expounded to the Times on what he sees as the proper role of historians: “I think [the job of historians] is to try to stand there at this arsenal of dangerous ideas and to make it more difficult for people to raid that arsenal to use it for their political projects. It is to complicate the picture; it is to show that these simple...
Read More »
Read More »
All States are Empires of Lies
This article is a version of a speech delivered at the 2024 Mises Institute Supporters Summit.“Most economists are political apologists masquerading as economists,” wrote Doug Casey in one of his columns. “They prescribe the way they would like the world to work and tailor theories to help politicians demonstrate the virtue and necessity of their quest for power.”Moreover, wrote Casey, “The field of economics has been turned into the handmaiden of...
Read More »
Read More »
Why Kamala Harris Lost the Election
Kamala Harris’s 2024 bid for the White House was met with high expectations but ultimately resulted in a resounding defeat. Her campaign strategies, media approach, and messaging choices are seen as pivotal in alienating core constituencies while also failing to resonate with the broader American electorate. A major blunder was her campaign’s inability to connect with white men and key segments of her base, such as white women and Hispanic voters....
Read More »
Read More »
QJAE: Common Fallacies in the 2023 Debt-Ceiling Debates
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...
Read More »
Read More »
Contrived Scarcity and Antitrust Lawsuits—“It’s Not a Bag, It’s a Birkin”
Seemingly defying logic and common sense, many fashionistas vie to pay $12,000 (and even up to as much as $100,000 for versions made of exotic skins such as snake or alligator), for a women’s leather purse known as the “Birkin bag.” Handmade by the French firm Hermes, and named after British pop star Jane Birkin, who popularized the bag several decades ago, these bags today grace the arms of celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Kim...
Read More »
Read More »
Congress Should Fire Jerome Powell
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...
Read More »
Read More »
Congress Should Fire Jerome Powell
There were a few seemingly tense moments at the FOMC press conference on Thursday when two reporters asked Jerome Powell about the prospect of Donald Trump asking Powell to resign. The first reporter asked “would you resign if asked to do so by Donald Trump?” To this, Powell responded with a resounding “no” followed by silence. A few moments later, Powell was asked by another reporter if it was lawful for Trump to either remove or “demote”—that is,...
Read More »
Read More »
Discrimination and Opportunities for Women
Many media outlets emphasize discrimination as the leading barrier to women’s achievements, capturing widespread attention despite empirical evidence that suggests otherwise. Proposed solutions often include gender quotas, anti-discrimination laws, and other interventions aimed at addressing institutional sexism. Yet policy-makers remain puzzled by the underrepresentation of women in certain fields and the persistence of the alleged “gender pay...
Read More »
Read More »
What Is Consent?
James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock’s The Calculus of Consent—published over sixty years ago in 1962—has been one of the most influential books that apply economic ideas to politics. The authors were by no means libertarians, but they favored, for the most part, a limited state and the free market. An additional point in their favor was that both authors read my book reviews. In this week’s column, I’m going to discuss some points of interest in the...
Read More »
Read More »
What Is Consent?
James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock’s The Calculus of Consent—published over sixty years ago in 1962—has been one of the most influential books that apply economic ideas to politics. The authors were by no means libertarians, but they favored, for the most part, a limited state and the free market. An additional point in their favor was that both authors read my book reviews. In this week’s column, I’m going to discuss some points of interest in the...
Read More »
Read More »
QJAE: The Myth of the Price Premium
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...
Read More »
Read More »
JLS: Libertarian Film Critics in the Late Twentieth Century: A Brief Introduction
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...
Read More »
Read More »
How Can Mining Asteroids in the Future Make Us Richer Today?
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...
Read More »
Read More »
After Victory, Trump Faces the Big Economic Problems
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...
Read More »
Read More »
How the Government Created Exorbitant Insulin Prices
The high price of insulin is increasingly present in American political discourse as presidential candidates boast of interventions; whereas, the Federal Trade Commission, states, and even counties and school boards have brought forth lawsuits, alleging price gouging and collusion between pharmaceutical giants and pharmacies. However, as is par for the course in American politics, policymakers ignore the reality that they—not the market—created...
Read More »
Read More »
National Elections Expose the Sham that Is Centralized “Democracy”
The 2024 election is over, and in some states, big majorities voted for the winner Donald Trump. In Wyoming, Trump won 72 percent of the vote. In fact, more than 60 percent of the voting population went for Trump in 13 states.Fortunately for the majorities in those states, they’ll get the president they voted for.However, the outcome would have been different if fewer than a million people—in a nation of 330 million—had changed their votes in...
Read More »
Read More »
Why Trump Routed the D.C. Establishment, Again
After the media complained nonstop for months about Donald Trump offering a dark message on the presidential campaign trail, a New York Times headline bewailed his election victory on Wednesday morning: “America Hires a Strongman.” So anyone who cast a ballot became the moral equivalent of a mafia don hiring a hitman?The Times news analysis lamented, “This was a conquering of the nation not by force but with a permission slip. Now, America stands...
Read More »
Read More »