Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

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Contra Ben Bernanke, the Gold Standard Promotes Economic Stability

2022-06-29

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2022-06-29

Currently the world is on a fiat money standard—a government-issued currency that is not backed by a commodity such as gold. The fiat standard is the primary cause behind the present economic instability, and is tempted to suggest that a gold standard would reduce instability. The majority of experts however, oppose this idea on the ground that the gold standard is in fact a factor of instability.

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How Governments Expropriate Wealth with Inflation and Taxes

2022-06-28

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2022-06-28

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen admitted that the chain of stimulus plans implemented by the US administration helped create the problem of inflation.

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A Critique of Neoclassical and Austrian Monopoly Theory

2022-06-28

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2022-06-28

One of the most controversial areas in Austrian economics, and one where even long-established Austrian theorists differ sharply, is monopoly theory. Indeed, as we shall see below, the differences are not merely semantic, nor are they confined to detail or some minor theoretical implication.

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Markets Promote Real Equality Much More Than Progressive (and Conservative) Critics Claim

2022-06-27

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2022-06-27

The economy consists of a huge chain of the division of labor that is interlocked to such a limit where there exists hardly any single individual or firm that produces the whole of the product alone. This is famously illustrated in the essay “I, Pencil,” by Leonard Read.

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Episode 756: *Throwback* Jeff Deist And Pete Discuss Their Post-Election Predictions from Nov 2020

2022-06-27

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This is an episode Pete released on Nov 1 2020 in which he and Jeff make predictions for all possible scenarios in a post-2020 election world. What did they get right?

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Wholesale Prices Rise More than 10 Percent, Pointing to Continued Price Hikes

2022-06-26

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2022-06-26

Year-over-year PPI growth came in at over 10 percent for the sixth month in a row. This will put more pressure on the Fed to "do something." 

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The Return of the Anguish of Central Banking: Why the Fed and Inflation Go Hand in Hand

2022-06-26

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2022-06-26

The recent outbreak of price inflation with the jump to an annual rate of 8.6 percent in May 2022 came as a surprise to the US central bank (the Federal Reserve). Having ignored the warnings of the Austrian school economists, the policy makers were paralyzed in the face of a phenomenon they deemed impossible to happen. None of their forecasting models had triggered an inflation alert.

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Back to the Future: Progressives Imagine the Good Old Days of Price Controls

2022-06-25

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2022-06-25

When the Bourbon dynasty was restored to power in France in the early 1800s after Napoleon’s abdication, the French statesman Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand famously said of that family: "They had learned nothing and forgotten nothing." In modern economic parlance, one can say the same thing about progressives, who once again are demanding price controls to "fight inflation."

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US Household Saving Rate Vanishes, Credit Card Debt Soars

2022-06-25

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2022-06-25

The United States consumption figure seems robust. An 0.9 percent rise in personal spending in April looks good on paper, especially considering the challenges that the economy faces. This apparently strong figure is supporting an average consensus estimate for the second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) of 3 percent, according to Blue Chip Financial Forecasts.

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The Great Crash of 2022

2022-06-23

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2022-06-23

We are now well past the corona crisis of 2020, and most of the restrictions around the world have been repealed or loosened. However, the long-term consequences of arbitrary and destructive corona policies are still with us—in fact, we are now in the middle of the inevitable economic crisis.

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In Defense of Defaulting on the National Debt

2022-06-22

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2022-06-22

With the acknowledged national debt now a politically and economically unpayable $30 trillion (in reality, its unfunded liabilities are far greater), Americans should start to become acclimated to the realities of the United States’ eventual, inevitable default.

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Juneteenth and Secular Holidays as Tool of the Regime

2022-06-22

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2022-06-22

Last year Congress officially declared Juneteenth a federal holiday. While Very Serious talking heads attempted desperately to convince those that would listen that Juneteenth was a long-celebrated American holiday, the reality is that it was largely unknown around the nation prior to congressional action. The episode is a useful illustration of how the state weaponizes secular holidays to promote a larger cultural agenda.

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How Money Printing Destroyed Argentina and Can Destroy Others

2022-06-21

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2022-06-21

The most dangerous words in monetary policy and economics are “this time is different.” Argentine politicians’ big mistake is to believe that inflation is multicausal and that everything is solved with increasing doses of interventionism.

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Powell’s “Soft Landing” Is Impossible

2022-06-20

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2022-06-20

After more than a decade of chained stimulus packages and extremely low rates, with trillions of dollars of monetary stimulus fueling elevated asset valuations and incentivizing an enormous leveraged bet on risk, the idea of a controlled explosion or a “soft landing” is impossible.

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Even after Admitting She Underestimated Inflation, Janet Yellen Still Doesn’t Understand What It Is

2022-06-19

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2022-06-19

According to the June 1, 2022, Financial Times, Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary conceded she was wrong last year about the path inflation would take.

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On the Digital Future of Markets and Money

2022-06-18

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2022-06-18

Thank you very much for the invitation. I am delighted to have the opportunity to share some thoughts with you on a topic I am very much interested in and that I believe is of the utmost importance to people around the globe—and that is “the digital future of markets and money.”

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No, It’s Not “Greed” or “Price Gouging” that’s Driving up Gas Prices

2022-06-18

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2022-06-18

Both consumer prices and producer rose near to multi-decade highs last month. Price inflation rose to 8.6 percent while wholesale producer prices rose by more than 10 percent. In both cases, a significant factor behind rising prices—but certainly not the only factor—was high energy prices. This has been reflected in prices related to transportation and shipping.

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The Inverted Yield Curve and Recession

2022-06-17

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2022-06-17

The “yield curve” refers to a graph showing the relationship between the maturity length of bonds—such as one month, three months, one year, five years, twenty years, etc.—plotted on the x axis, and the yield (or interest rate) plotted on the y axis.1

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The Great Reset: Turning Back the Clock on Civilization

2022-06-17

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2022-06-17

The covid-19 pandemic featured an unprecedented fusion of the interests of large and powerful corporations with the power of the state. Democratically elected politicians in many countries failed to represent the interests of their own citizens and uphold their own constitutions and charters of rights.

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Even When There Is Inflation, the Fed STILL Fights Falling Prices

2022-06-16

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2022-06-16

Under any remotely sound money regime the aftermath of war and/or pandemic is highly likely to feature a sharp decline in the prices of goods and services on average. Even under unsound money regimes there are powerful forces operating towards lower prices once the war/pandemic recedes. Strong injections of monetary inflation, however, can overpower them.

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