Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

Statism and the Unmaking of Reality

The state is, first and foremost, an institution whose overarching goal is the forcible subjugation of all the people who inhabit a given territory. However, what makes the state different from other coercive entities, such as organized crime groups, is that it enjoys some form of popular legitimacy. In other words, in addition to enslaving its inhabitants physically, it needs to secure their mental servitude as well. Many forms of such servitude...

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What Will It Take for Cryptocurrencies to Become Full-Fledged Money?

Bitcoin is the beginning of something great: a currency without a government, something necessary and imperative.1– NASSIM TALEB The crypto-unit bitcoin2 holds out the prospect of something revolutionary: money created in the free market, money the production and use of which the state has no access to. The transactions carried out with it are anonymous; outsiders do not know who paid and who received the payment. It would be money that cannot be...

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2SLGBTQ+IA and the Law

The acronym 2SLGBTQ+IA stands for two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, androgynous, and asexual. The 2SLGBTQ+IA community is often described as seeking “rights and equality” for its members. What fair-minded person could object? Increasingly, however, the community appears to want privileges and equity as well. These goals are diametrically opposed. Rights, such as freedom of speech, are universal and...

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Closing Remarks and Awards Ceremony

Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 29 July 2023. [embedded content]

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Socialism Cannot Work, Not Even in an AI-Driven Economy

Many of us seek products and services from sellers with goods of the best quality and relatively lower prices. Sellers seek the highest prices for selling the least amount of goods. Sellers compete for customers but would much rather be the only seller in the marketplace or market space. Furthermore, consumers want more for themselves and less for other consumers. This depiction of market behavior is normal and may seem chaotic to some who view the...

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The Marxian Doctrine of “Ideology”

Even Marx must dimly recognize that not "material productive forces," not even "classes," act in the real world, but only individual consciousness and individual choice. Even in the Marxian analysis, each class, or the individuals within it, must become conscious of its "true" class interests in order to act upon pursuing or achieving them. To Marx, each individual's thinking, his values and theories, are all...

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Everything You Need to Know About FedNow

David Brady Jr. discusses his recent article at Mises.org, in which he argues that the newly launched "FedNOW" system isn't a CBDC. Even so, there are dangers from FedNOW, such as exacerbating bank runs. David also explains the new Mises Apprenticeship program, of which he is a member. David's Article on Mises.org: Mises.org/HAP406a George Selgin Cato Article on FedNow: Mises.org/HAP406b Everything You Need to Know...

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Economic Prosperity

Download the slides from this lecture at Mises.org/MU23_PPT_38. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 28 July 2023. Economic Prosperity | Shawn Ritenour Video of Economic Prosperity | Shawn Ritenour

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The Government Wants to Turn Blockchain Firms into Servants of the State

In recent years, blockchain surveillance (BS) companies have become increasingly important players in the cryptocurrency industry. Their business model consists in developing proprietary software that collects and interprets public data available on public blockchains and in selling their services to governments, banks, exchanges, and others that need access to this data. Usually, governments are interested in collecting information about financial...

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Energy Economics

Some principles for understanding environmental issues. Can government steer energy use decisions to improve outcomes? Download the slides from this lecture at Mises.org/MU23_PPT_37. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 28 July 2023. Energy Economics | Timothy D. Terrell Video of Energy Economics | Timothy D. Terrell

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Mises U Students Interview Some of Their Favorite Faculty Members

This year during Mises University, we want to share the perspective of students in the program. The following are YouTube shorts from some of this year's Mises Apprentices, interviewing some of their favorite faculty members. [embedded content] [embedded content] [embedded content] Mises University is going on the entire week. You can watch live from home at mises.org/live.The Best Week of the Year is only possible due to the generosity of our...

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What Marxists Say about “Market Socialism”

After the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union, many socialists, reluctant to abandon their socialist convictions, shifted to a belief in “market socialism.” The great Marxist philosopher G.A. Cohen was not among them, and in this week’s column, I’d like to examine what he says about market socialism in his essay “The Future of a Disillusion,” published in the New Left Review (November–December 1991). Cohen acknowledges that socialists were...

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Economic Inequality

Inequality is a good thing in the free market. Economic equality is a disastrous government policy that leads to economic ruin for all—including the poor and workers. Download the slides from this lecture at Mises.org/MU23_PPT_36. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 28 July 2023. Economic Inequality | Mark Thornton Video of Economic Inequality | Mark Thornton

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Firms, Managers, and Entrepreneurship

Experienced entrepreneurs are Austrians. Download the slides from this lecture at Mises.org/MU23_PPT_35. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 28 July 2023. Firms, Managers, and Entrepreneurship | Per Bylund Video of Firms, Managers, and Entrepreneurship | Per Bylund

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Higher Education in Crisis

Ineffective teaching, the enrollment cliff, stifled academic discourse, and government driving up tuition. Download the slides from this lecture at Mises.org/MU23_PPT_34. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 28 July 2023. Higher Education in Crisis | Timothy D. Terrell Video of Higher Education in Crisis | Timothy D. Terrell

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Modern Socialism Is Forced Socialization

Modern socialism is based upon state interference in normal human relationships, economic and otherwise. It is as disastrous as the older state-planning model. Original Article: "Modern Socialism Is Forced Socialization"

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Even in Slave Economies, the Division of Labor Was Inescapable

Status inequality is inevitable due to the uneven distribution of talent. Even in poor societies, talented people eclipse their peers by joining the ranks of the elite. Inequality is an indication that ability is recognized by society. The absence of inequality suggests that talent is uncultivated. Failure to cultivate talent hampers the organization of society. In all societies there are people more equipped to perform some tasks than others, and...

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The Rise of State-Controlled Medical Care

Dr. Terrell discusses the impacts of price controls, occupational licensure, the FDA, and more. Download the slides from this lecture at Mises.org/MU23_PPT_32. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 27, 2023. [embedded content]

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Bureaucrats in the Deep State

Bureaucrats operate with de facto electoral unaccountability. Download lecture slides at Mises.org/MU23_PPT_31. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 27 July 2023. Bureaucrats in the Deep State | Tate Fegley Video of Bureaucrats in the Deep State | Tate Fegley

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Private Corporations Don’t Cause Price Inflation. Governments Do.

Interventionists always blame inflation on everything and anything except the only thing that makes aggregate prices rise: Issuing more units of currency than the real demand. Seller inflation is the same excuse and fallacy as cost-push inflation. A way to confuse citizens and assign causation to something that cannot make aggregate prices rise. Let us debunk some myths. No corporation or conglomerate can make aggregate prices rise. Some...

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