Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

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The Power of Woke: How Leftist Ideology Is Undermining Our Society and Economy

2023-02-22

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2023-02-22

“It’s an important part of society whether you like it or not,” lexicologist Tony Thorne, referring to “wokeness,” told The New Yorker’s David Remnick in January. That’s an understatement. Wokeness is poisoning the Western workplace and constraining small and family businesses, midsized banks, and entrepreneurs while enriching powerful corporations and billionaires. It’s eating away at the capitalist ethos and killing the bottom-up modes of...

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Supporters Summit 2023

2023-02-22

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2023-02-22

Save the date!  Join us for our 2023 Supporters Summit, October 12–14, at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.  Lew Rockwell and Jeff Deist will host a weekend filled with engaging discussion and social time with other Mises members and speakers. We'll open Thursday evening, October 12 with a reception in Auburn. Friday, October 13, we'll have discussions and lunch at the Institute and close with a dinner at the new and unique Botanic in...

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Food and Shelter Prices Keep Climbing as CPI Growth Hits a Three-Month High

2023-02-22

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2023-02-22

We're still living with the consequences of the massive monetary inflation by Trump and Biden. Prices are stubbornly high, and falling real wages are driving Americans to say things are getting worse. Original Article: "Food and Shelter Prices Keep Climbing as CPI Growth Hits a Three-Month High" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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Joe Biden and Protectionism: Continuing to Make America “Grate”

2023-02-22

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2023-02-22

Nobel Prize–winning economist George Stigler once wrote of economists as preachers, which he described as involving offering “a clear and reasoned recommendation (or, more often, denunciation) of a policy or form of behavior by men or societies of men,” particularly with respect to the ethics of market competition. With regard to defending those ethics (i.e., defending mutually voluntary arrangements that individuals make with one another versus...

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Secession: Should the American Revolutionaries Have Quit to Appease the Loyalists?

2023-02-22

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2023-02-22

When advocates of secession in the United States bring up “national divorce,” a common objection we hear is that secession can’t be allowed because it would make some people worse off. For example, we’re told that if, say, a majority of Floridians voted to secede, that still can’t be allowed because there would still be a minority that opposes secession. We especially hear this in the context of so-called red states—where, presumably, a majority of...

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The Price-Gouging State

2023-02-21

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2023-02-21

Politicians and the media are blaming businesses for inflation when, in fact, the skyrocketing prices of nearly everything have a government stamp on them. Original Article: "The Price-Gouging State" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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A Student Loan Fable

2023-02-21

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2023-02-21

A student goes into a bank. He tells the personal loan banker, “I want to borrow $7,500 per year for the next four or five years.” “That’s at least $30,000 over time,” the banker says. “Personal loans have a 10 percent interest factor.” “For my loan,” says the student, “I need an interest rate close to a home mortgage, like 6 percent. Also, I don’t want to be charged interest for the first four or five years of the loan.” The banker asks, “How long...

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Lipton Matthews: A 5-Way Global Perspective on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the USA

2023-02-21

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2023-02-21

Entrepreneurship and innovation are the keys to economic growth and higher standards of living. The USA has long enjoyed leadership status on these dimensions — people see the USA as the land of entrepreneurs and the source of new ideas and advances in business. Is the reputation still deserved? Or is it being eclipsed as part of the general decline in standards and capabilities that we observe? Lipton Matthews is a global economic and...

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Yes, the US Government Has Defaulted Before

2023-02-21

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2023-02-21

While the 1979 default was relatively small, the 1934 default affected millions of Americans who had bought Liberty Bonds mistakenly thinking the government would make good on its promises. Original Article: "Yes, the US Government Has Defaulted Before" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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Forget the Liquidity Trap—Loose Monetary Policies Cause Recessions

2023-02-21

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2023-02-21

Advocates of Keynesian economics believe the Federal Reserve should pursue policies that will prevent the possible decline of the economy into a liquidity trap. But what is a liquidity trap? Economic activity often is presented in terms of a circular flow of money. Spending by one individual becomes part of the earnings of another individual, and spending by another individual becomes part of the first individual’s earnings. Recessions, by this...

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Lifting the Debt Ceiling Is Not a Social Policy

2023-02-20

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2023-02-20

Every time the United States reaches its debt limit, we read that it is important to reach an agreement to lift it. The narrative is that the debt ceiling must be raised, or the US economy will suffer a severe contraction. There is even an episode of a TV series, “Designated Survivor”, where the character played by Kiefer Sutherland places lifting the debt ceiling as the priority to get the U.S. economy on track. The debt ceiling is viewed as an...

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Does Government Create a “Level Playing Field” or Does It Make the Field More Uneven?

2023-02-20

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2023-02-20

Anticapitalist politicians claim intervention can "level the playing field," but when we look closely, we realize that government itself creates the imbalances. Original Article: "Does Government Create a "Level Playing Field" or Does It Make the Field More Uneven?" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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Why You Should Fear “Bipartisan” Agreements in Congress

2023-02-20

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2023-02-20

After the recent midterm election, when it became apparent that Americans would have a divided new Congress, it wasn’t long before the word bipartisan started showing up as an adjective to modify a whole host of legislative proposals and discussions. While in many cases the word has been aspirational rather than descriptive—as in, “the other side should follow our lead in agreeing to this”—it has often also been used as a magic modifier in an...

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How Markets Are Better than Government Regulators at Fighting Corporate Corruption

2023-02-20

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2023-02-20

Can private markets only be regulated by government? Hindenburg Research's successes against corporate corruption suggest otherwise. Original Article: "How Markets Are Better than Government Regulators at Fighting Corporate Corruption" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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Poor People in Developing Countries Find Alternatives to Commercial Banking

2023-02-20

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2023-02-20

Banking is a complicated process for working-class people who fail to comply with anti–money laundering regulations. Know your customer (KYC) requirements mandate prospective clients to provide their source of funding and possible employment history. Such policies make it difficult for working-class entrepreneurs to formalize and access funding. By restricting poorer people to informality, KYC requirements sap the growth potential of small...

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Subsidizing Higher Education Is Not Creating Widespread External Benefits

2023-02-19

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2023-02-19

Contrary to the claim that taxpayer subsidies for higher education provide great social benefits, these subsidies actually are a wealth transfer from the less-well-off to wealthy people. Original Article: "Subsidizing Higher Education Is Not Creating Widespread External Benefits" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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Is Capitalism to Blame for the Ohio Train Disaster?

2023-02-19

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2023-02-19

On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop address whether the Ohio train disaster is an example of "capitalism gone amuck". They discuss Murray Rothbard's views on pollution, the secondary consequences of the regulatory state, and the decaying qualities of modern financialization.

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The Global Currency Plot

2023-02-19

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2023-02-19

Democratic socialism—the ideology that dominates the world today—aspires to become a world state. The route toward it requires a single world currency to be created. That would undoubtedly create a dystopia. Might this become a reality? And if so, how can it be averted? This book aims to find answers to these questions.

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The Fed’s Portfolio Is Nonexistent: The Fed Does Not Invest. It Destroys Investments

2023-02-18

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2023-02-18

Economists and pundits mistakenly call the Federal Reserve System's security holdings a portfolio. It is anything but. Original Article: "The Fed’s Portfolio Is Nonexistent: The Fed Does Not Invest. It Destroys Investments" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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Why Madison and Hamilton Were Wrong about Republics

2023-02-18

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2023-02-18

The debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists in the late eighteenth century was fundamentally a debate over whether or not Americans wanted or needed a large national state. Thus, in their effort to push ratification of the new constitution, the Federalists employed a wide variety of arguments designed primarily to convince the public that the United States, as it stood in 1787, was not politically centralized enough.  We often find...

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