Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

Government Agencies Exploit Data Brokers as End-Around to Legal Restrictions

Even when Congress tries to restrict government agencies from illegally gathering information on people, the agencies simply exploit legal loopholes or just break the law—without consequences. Original Article: Government Agencies Exploit Data Brokers as End-Around to Legal Restrictions

Read More »

How the Fed Undermines Prosperity

The boom-and-bust cycles are not natural to a market economy, contra Keynes. Instead, government through monetary manipulation creates them—and then politicians blame markets themselves. Original Article: How the Fed Undermines Prosperity

Read More »

Why Must Supply Precede Demand? Understanding Economic Foundations

Popular economic thinking holds that consumer spending is the most important driver of the economy. Actually, demand can’t exist without something first being supplied. Original Article: Why Must Supply Precede Demand? Understanding Economic Foundations

Read More »

Mounting Deficits Mark the US’s Road to Ruin

According to the U.S. Treasury, year-end data from September 2023 show that the deficit for the full year 2023 was $1.7 trillion, $320 billion higher than the prior year’s deficit. As a percentage of GDP, the deficit was 6.3%, an increase from 5.4% in FY 2022. This means that the United States will likely post the worst GDP growth excluding debt increases since 1929, or, in other words, that the country is in a recession disguised by bloated...

Read More »

On the Cultural Impact of the Paper Dollar

On this week's episode, Mark recaps Professor Guido Hülsmann's recent lecture on the cultural impact of the paper dollar. Hülsmann explains how an ever-inflationary monetary system and depreciating currency are leading to moral decay and divisiveness in America. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. Additional Resources "The Cultural Impact of the Dollar" by Guido Hülsmann: Mises.org/Minor_42A "Abundance,...

Read More »

The Specter of Hyperinflation Looms over the Economy

The threat of hyperinflation has haunted fiat money economies throughout history. Although past empires crumbled under the weight of unrestrained money printing, modern bankers at the Federal Reserve assure us that today’s financial system is immune to such a fate. Austrian business cycle theory, however, reveals that current economic stimulation may be propelling us toward a crisis of catastrophic proportions: a crack-up boom that marks the...

Read More »

Kendi’s Critical Race Theory Is a Failed Marxist Doctrine

Ibram X. Kendi, the controversial author of How to Be an Antiracist, has been revealed as not only a hustler of horrid ideas but also a poor businessman. Kendi was appointed the head and founder of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research in 2020 following the aptly named “summer of love,” which saw riots in most major cities over calls for “racial justice.” Now, Boston University is committing mass layoffs of employees, as the Center has...

Read More »

American History Is a Preview of the Israel-Palestine End Game

As news of the Hamas attack on southern Israel began to trickle in on October 7, many who follow the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict knew the bad news was just beginning. It was immediately obvious that the ferocity of the Hamas attack, and the high proportion of women and children among the victims, would provide the Israeli state with political justification to launch devastating and revanchist attacks against civilians within the Gaza strip in...

Read More »

The Regime Plans More for Us Than Just Hillary Clinton’s “Deprogramming” Demands

While Hillary Clinton’s call to have Trump supporters “deprogrammed” has been met with snickers, her attitude is in line with most of this country’s governing elites. Original Article: The Regime Plans More for Us Than Just Hillary Clinton’s "Deprogramming" Demands

Read More »

Mises on the History of Warfare

“The market economy involves peaceful cooperation. It bursts asunder when the citizens turn into warriors and, instead of exchanging commodities and services, fight one another.” So Ludwig von Mises begins a short chapter in Human Action called “The Economics of War.” While brief, the eleven pages (pages 817–28 in the scholar’s edition) are densely packed with Mises’s take on the history of warfare, what leads to total war, how wars are won, the...

Read More »

Responding to Yaron Brook’s Critique of Anarcho-Capitalism

Recently Yaron Brook and Bryan Caplan debated the merits of anarchism at the Soho Forum. Bob critiques Brook's opening statement. The Soho Forum Debate: Mises.org/HAP419a Bob's Book on Market Anarchy, Chaos Theory: Mises.org/HAP419b Rothbard's Book on Natural Rights and the State, For a New Liberty: Mises.org/HAP419c Hans-Herman Hoppe's Book on Private Defense, The Private Production of Defense: Mises.org/HAP419d Responding to...

Read More »

Battling Beasts and Bureaucrats: Naomi Wolf and the American Medical-Government Police State

Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith, and Resistance in a New Dark Ageby Naomi WolfChelsea Green Publishing, 2023; 232 pp. Naomi Wolf was, until the covid era, “a well-known feminist nonfiction writer for thirty-five years . . . privileged to be part of the cultural ‘scene’ made up of influencers on the progressive Left.” With great courage, she rejected the masks, lockdowns, and vaccines urged upon us by the state, viewing them as totalitarian...

Read More »

The Federal Reserve Turns 110: A Review of the Damage Done

It's about much more than just price inflation. Ryan and Jonathan Newman look at the many ways that America's central bank causes economic chaos while making us poorer and more unequal.  Check out the lectures from Supporters Summit Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at Mises.org/RadioRothbard. Radio Rothbard mugs are now available at the Mises Store. Get yours at Mises.org/RothMug  PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off

Read More »

Spending More Taxpayer Money on Foreign Policy Boondoggles Has Solved Nothing

The US government doesn't just blow money in the US. Indeed, the reach of its wasteful spending spans the globe, and Congress seems incapable of stopping it. Original Article: Spending More Taxpayer Money on Foreign Policy Boondoggles Has Solved Nothing

Read More »

Pushing the False Narrative of U.S. Isolationism

Every mainstream school curriculum and state narrative regarding American history includes a common story between the years 1919 and 1941, and it is the myth of American isolation. Americans, as they say, foolishly forgot that they too were part of the world and so left themselves and their allies vulnerable as totalitarianism swept across Europe and Asia. The conclusion that is being pushed with this fictitious tale is shockingly unsubtle....

Read More »

Police Mergers Are Not the Answer, but Privatization Is

Some small municipalities in Pennsylvania have disbanded their police departments, so others want to tax them for “depending” on state police. There is an even better course of action: allow private policing. Original Article: Police Mergers Are Not the Answer, but Privatization Is

Read More »

Federal Flood Insurance Drains Taxpayers

The US government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is flush with debt. The NFIP owes the US Treasury roughly $25 billion. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the NFIP will pay $280 million in interest in 2022. “The program was never intended to generate a profit. It was established because due to the nature of flood risks, commercial insurance was not generally available.” Congress created the NFIP in 1968 to make...

Read More »

Government Is the Hidden Hand Directing the Culture Wars

American culture wars are not the product of religious fundamentalists or even activist groups. They exist because of state interference in the private lives of individuals. Original Article: Government Is the Hidden Hand Directing the Culture Wars

Read More »

Reason versus Emotion in Economics: A Praxeological Response

According to a relatively new economics field called Behavioral Economics (BE), one’s emotional state rather than reason influences their economic decisions. Vernon Smith, the BE economist who won a Nobel in economics, wrote: People like to believe that good decision making is a consequence of the use of reason, and that any influence that the emotions might have is antithetical to good decisions. What is not appreciated by Mises and others who...

Read More »

The Cato Institute’s Belated, Squishy Stance on the Latest Middle East Crisis

The alarming events taking place in the Middle East are growing worse and have more than a small potential to entangle the United States in another foreign war. Hamas’s well-coordinated, surprise attack on Israel from Gaza clearly blindsided Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. However, Israel is now responding with overwhelming force—as it has to previous, smaller-scale attacks over the decades. The bombing of civilian neighborhoods in...

Read More »