Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

Biblical Critical Theory Is Not Biblical. It’s Watered-Down Marxism

Christianity Today magazine, founded by Billy Graham, chose Christopher Watkin’s book, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, as one of its 2024 Book Awards and the book most likely “to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.” Other Christian organizations promote the book too. Nonreligious readers won’t care, but they need to keep in mind that most people won’t take a class or read a...

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No, the Civil War Did Not Forever Settle the Matter of Secession

There are many arguments against secession. Some of them are quite prudent, such as those that simply contend that national separation may not be a good idea at this time.  Many others are premised on the refusal to acknowledge the human right known as self-determination. This argument is wrong and immoral, and is nothing more than the traditional imperialist-colonialist argument repackaged for modern audiences.  Perhaps the worst...

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Anti-Wild Cards

In this week's episode, Mark looks at the type information that investors need, but do not have. These anti-wild cards are going to appear in the economy, but no one really knows what, where, or when. Mark looks back at some historical examples. See also Surprised Again! The Covid Crisis and the New Market Bubble by Alex Pollock and Howard Adler: Mises.org/MI_59A Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. Get your free copy of Dr....

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Javier Milei Ended a DC-Sized Deficit in…Nine Weeks

Argentina’s Javier Milei is racking up some solid wins, with the fiscal basket case seeing its first monthly budget surplus in 12 years. Apparently, it took Milei just nine and a half weeks to balance a budget that was projected at 5% of GDP under the previous government. In US terms, he turned a 1.2 trillion-dollar annual deficit into a 400 billion surplus. In 9 and a half weeks. How did he do it? Easy: he cut a host of central government agency...

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Javier Milei Ended a DC-Sized Deficit in…Nine Weeks

Argentina’s Javier Milei is racking up some solid wins, with the fiscal basket case seeing its first monthly budget surplus in 12 years. Apparently, it took Milei just nine and a half weeks to balance a budget that was projected at 5% of GDP under the previous government. In US terms, he turned a 1.2 trillion-dollar annual deficit into a 400 billion surplus. In 9 and a half weeks. How did he do it? Easy: he cut a host of central government agency...

Read More »

No, the Civil War Did Not Forever Settle the Matter of Secession

There are many arguments against secession. Some of them are quite prudent, such as those that simply contend that national separation may not be a good idea at this time.  Many others are premised on the refusal to acknowledge the human right known as self-determination. This argument is wrong and immoral, and is nothing more than the traditional imperialist-colonialist argument repackaged for modern audiences.  Perhaps the worst...

Read More »

Anti-Wild Cards

In this week's episode, Mark looks at the type information that investors need, but do not have. These anti-wild cards are going to appear in the economy, but no one really knows what, where, or when. Mark looks back at some historical examples. See also Surprised Again! The Covid Crisis and the New Market Bubble by Alex Pollock and Howard Adler: Mises.org/MI_59A Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. Get your free copy...

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Biblical Critical Theory Is Not Biblical. It’s Watered-Down Marxism

Christianity Today magazine, founded by Billy Graham, chose Christopher Watkin’s book, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, as one of its 2024 Book Awards and the book most likely “to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.” Other Christian organizations promote the book too. Nonreligious readers won’t care, but they need to keep in mind that most people won’t take a class or read a...

Read More »

The Tyranny of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

In Freedom and the Law, Bruno Leoni argues that the main threat to liberty comes not from overweening officials but from the law that empowers them. As Murray Rothbard puts it, “The real and underlying menace to individual freedom is not the administrator but the legislative statute that makes the administrative ruling possible.” In that light, we can see that woke tyranny does not come from the self-important diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)...

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Human Action Conference 2024

Students apply for a scholarship here. "Once in a great while, a book appears that both embodies and dramatically extends centuries of accumulated wisdom in a particular discipline, and, at the same time, radically challenges the intellectual and political consensus of the day. Human Action by Ludwig von Mises is such a book, and more: a comprehensive treatise on economic science that would lay the foundation for a massive shift in...

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Does Libertarianism Require Support for Open Borders?

Dave Smith makes the Rothbardian/Hoppean case for government restriction on immigration, arguing that it's a second-best solution given the undeniable fact of government control of "public" property. Bob plays devil's advocate to raise possible objections to Dave's framework. Rothbard, "Nations by Consent": Mises.org/HAP436a Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "On Free Immigration and Forced Integration": Mises.org/HAP436b Bryan...

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US States Have a Long History of Defaulting

The American bankruptcy show of the twenty-first century continues unabated with federal and state government spending. History reveals that some states have defaulted through not meeting a required bond payment, leaving the bondholders and that state’s taxpayers with a debt problem. Today, we might call a state government bond payment default a bankruptcy. Many bankruptcy filings today are governed by Chapters 7, 9, 11, and 13 of the United States...

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Misunderstanding Both Lincoln and Basic Economics

Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experimentby Allen C. GuelzoAlfred A. Knopf, 2024; 247 pp. Allen Guelzo has been carried away by Abraham Lincoln’s magniloquent rhetoric. Guelzo, a historian who has written a number of books about Lincoln, would like very much to believe that his hero was a champion of individual rights and economic freedom. Lincoln’s ideal for America was of a nation with a large number of small businesses,...

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US States Have a Long History of Defaulting

The American bankruptcy show of the twenty-first century continues unabated with federal and state government spending. History reveals that some states have defaulted through not meeting a required bond payment, leaving the bondholders and that state’s taxpayers with a debt problem. Today, we might call a state government bond payment default a bankruptcy. Many bankruptcy filings today are governed by Chapters 7, 9, 11, and 13 of the United States...

Read More »

Hubris Runs Rampant at the Fed

Prices will always increase, some small banks will fail, and the Fed was asleep at the switch when the run on Silicon Valley Bank occurred. Fed chair Jerome Powell admitted those three things in response to Scott Pelley’s questions on 60 Minutes. “But the overall price level doesn’t come down. It will fluctuate. And some . . . goods and services will go up, others will go down. But overall, in aggregate, the price level doesn’t tend to go down...

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Misunderstanding Both Lincoln and Basic Economics

Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experimentby Allen C. GuelzoAlfred A. Knopf, 2024; 247 pp. Allen Guelzo has been carried away by Abraham Lincoln’s magniloquent rhetoric. Guelzo, a historian who has written a number of books about Lincoln, would like very much to believe that his hero was a champion of individual rights and economic freedom. Lincoln’s ideal for America was of a nation with a large number of small businesses,...

Read More »

Hubris Runs Rampant at the Fed

Prices will always increase, some small banks will fail, and the Fed was asleep at the switch when the run on Silicon Valley Bank occurred. Fed chair Jerome Powell admitted those three things in response to Scott Pelley’s questions on 60 Minutes. “But the overall price level doesn’t come down. It will fluctuate. And some . . . goods and services will go up, others will go down. But overall, in aggregate, the price level doesn’t tend to go down...

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Welfare for Migrants Ensures the Border Crisis Will Continue

Earlier this month, The New York Post reported that the mayor of New York is giving away pre-paid cash cards—each carrying "up to $10,000"— to foreign nationals in New York. Most of these foreign nationals—i.e., "illegal immigrants"—have arrived in New York with no invitation, no employment prospects, and no plan for housing. But most of them plan on staying. And why shouldn't they? Upon arrival, thousands of them immediately...

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Another Reason Why Individual Freedom Is So Much Better than Central Planning

Much of the developed world is slipping into a hyperregulated malaise. Growth rates are down across most major economies, and the developing countries are catching up to our errors almost as fast as they are growing. Increasingly, even in the US you would have to be outside the norm to afford a house by age forty. The median age of a first-time homebuyer in 2023 is the same as a repeat buyer in 1981. We’re not allowed to build and grow, but we’re...

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They’ll Never Pay Down the National Debt

Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop talk with Jane Johnson about why the feds will never pay down the debt. Instead, they have two choices: rampant inflation or default.  Discussed on the Show  "The Federal Mega-Debt is Here to Stay" by Jane L. Johnson: Mises.org/RR_174_A Claim your free book: Mises.org/RothPodFree Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at Mises.org/RadioRothbard. Radio Rothbard mugs are now available at the Mises Store. Get...

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