Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

The Inca Empire: An Indigenous Leviathan State

One of the realities that nullifies persistent interpretations of the European colonization of the Americas as a cataclysm of subjugation is the existence of state exploitation in the precontact New World.

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Is Price Stability Really a Good Thing?

Contrary to popular thinking, there is no such thing as a price level that should be stabilized by the central bank in order to promote economic prosperity.

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No, Inflation Is Not Good for You

With the recent rise in inflation—with subsequent increases in both consumer and producer price levels—one suspects that sooner or later people on the left either would downplay it or find a way to spin the bad news into something positive like an alchemist would want to spin straw into gold. Both accounts have arrived, thanks to the New York Times and the hard-left publication, The Intercept.

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The REAL ID Means a Real Leviathan

The annoyance of government edicts, no matter how petty, challenge my emotional equilibrium in a manner different from the various vagaries of life. Sure, I do not want to experience something such as a flat tire, but neither do I want to deal with pointless tasks required to satisfy a whim of the state, though, in the balance, the former I accept like a mosquito on a hot summer’s night, while the latter aches like a hammer to my thumb.

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“Going Cashless” Isn’t as Easy as It Seems

Many economic commentators are in favor of phasing out cash. They are of the view that cash provides support to the shadow economy and permits tax evasion. It is also held that in times of economic shocks that push the economy into a recession the rising demand for cash exacerbates the downturn—it becomes a factor of instability.

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The Long Rehabilitation of Frank Fetter

Abstract:  Economics has long history of “rehabilitations,” including W.H. Hutt’s rehabilitation of Say’s law, and Alfred Marshall’s attempt to rehabilitate David Ricardo. The rehabilitation of Frank A. Fetter should be as important as either of these, especially for economists working in the contemporary Austrian tradition.

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Is Price Stability Really a Good Thing?

One of the mandates of the Federal Reserve System is to attain price stability. It is held that price stability is the key as far as economic stability is concerned. What is it all about?

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Leaving behind the Labor Theory of Value

The labor theory of value has long undermined people’s understanding of the miracles created by markets and rationalized various incarnations of socialism which mangle those miracles. Leonard Read understood why undoing that misunderstanding by all who hold to it, as well as those who just use it as an excuse for what they want government to impose on unwilling citizens, is of immense value to each of us.

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Why It’s Important to Prepare Students for “Trick Questions”

I have taught economics long enough that I have made use of a variety of “trick” questions in introductory courses. I have found them, used well, to be pedagogically helpful. But not everyone agrees.

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Since 2008, Monetary Policy Has Cost American Savers about $4 Trillion

With inflation running at over 6 percent and interest rates on savings near zero, the Federal Reserve is delivering a negative 6 percent real (inflation-adjusted) return on trillions of dollars in savings. This is effectively expropriating American savers’ nest eggs at the rate of 6 percent a year. It is not only a problem in 2021, however, but an ongoing monetary policy problem of long standing.

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Homicide Rates in 2020 Rose to a 24-Year High. Is This a Crisis of State Legitimacy?

By mid 2020, it was already becoming clear that the United States was experiencing a spike in crime. Indeed, by midyear, numerous media outlets were already reporting remarkably large increases in homicide in a number of cities. It was clear that if then-current trends continued, homicide rates in the United States would reach levels not seen in over a decade.

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Thorsten Polleit – Ein Referat über die Inflation

In diesem Beitrag, berichtet Thorsten Polleit über die verheerenden Folgen von Inflation auf das Marktgeschehen.

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What the United States Can Learn from the European City-States

Over the past year and a half, we have seen some of the largest divides in US state policy in recent history. Certain states such as California have implemented heavy lockdowns, mask mandates, curfews, and other restrictions for months on end, whereas states such as South Dakota never had an official lockdown to begin with.

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Prof Thorsten Polleit alarmiert – Der Euro ABSTURZ läuft!!!

THORSTEN POLLEIT: ALSO DIE ENTSTEHUNG DES GELDES LÄSST SICH ERKLÄREN ÜBER DIE SPONTAN KRÄFTE DES MARKTES MENSCHEN FINDEN SICH ZUSAMMEN IN EINER ARBEITSTEILUNG UND FRÜHER ODER SPÄTER ERKENNT MAN DASS DAS VERWENDEN VON EINEM INDIREKTEN TAUSCHMITTEL FÜR ALLE BETEILIGTEN

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Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Points to Even More Price Inflation

What is the worst thing a government can do when there is high inflation and supply shortages? Multiply spending on energy and material-intensive areas. This is exactly what the US infrastructure plan is doing and—even worse—what other developed nations have decided to copy.

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Will the Next “Skyscraper Curse” Be Found in the Digital World?

The vast majority of Mises Wire readers are already familiar with the Austrian business cycle theory. For those who are not, it is an Austrian perspective on what causes the sudden general cluster of business errors that results in a boom-bust cycle, with the busts being the recessions or depressions that we as a society so dread.

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Employer Vaccine Mandates: When the Feds Pay the Piper, They Call the Tune

Vaccine mandates are much easier to enforce thanks to the spread of government spending, government contracting, and monopolized government services.

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How Asset Price Inflation Is Different from Goods Price Inflation

There has been no constant concept of asset price inflation through the modern age of fiat money even amongst those who recognize the condition. The term has become most popular in the present period of inflation targeting coupled with the use of radical monetary tools.

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Thanks to Bailouts, Wall Street Banks Are More Fragile than Ever

The financial covid crash of 2020 came and went in a month as the US government threw every monetary and fiscal trick it had at the government-imposed flash panic. We’ll never know which malivestments would have been cleansed. We live on with goods and labor shortages and with higher prices we’re assured by experts are transient.

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Why There Is No Free Lunch

Caleb Fuller, an economist who teaches at Grove City College, thinks that many people have a mistaken conception of economics. It is, they think, a dull and dry subject, the “dismal science,” of primary interest to specialists. Fuller disagrees. He says that “economics changed my life” (p. 11; all page references are to the Amazon Kindle edition), and in this wonderful short book, which can be read in an hour or so, he conveys his infectious...

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