Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

Friedman versus Rothbard

When we think of Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard, what come to mind first are their contrary views on economics, but I’d like to discuss a different subject that might surprise some of my readers because they don’t associate Friedman with positions on it: American foreign policy. Jennifer Burns’s outstanding new biography Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023) enables us to grasp more fully the differences...

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Millions and Billions and Trillions—Oh My!

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends had to worry about wild animals and wicked witches. Today, Americans face a much more formidable foe: their own free-spending government. Original Article: Millions and Billions and Trillions—Oh My!

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Biden Is Providing an Opportunity for a New “Outreach to the Deplorables”

It was an entirely different time when support for Israel was a uniform consensus on the right. Back in the middle of the 2010s, when many liberals and leftists were being “red-pilled,” part of becoming a right-winger included defending Israel against the incoherent woke Left-Muslim alliance. Only Republicans would defend a bastion of freedom and democracy in a place where autocracy is the norm, according to “red pill” conservative outlets like...

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Silent Cal Had a Lot to Say

(Originally published July 1, 2004.) Historians have trivialized Calvin Coolidge as a do-nothing President naive enough to believe that "the business of America is business," and many have rated him as one of the worst of all time. However, he produced remarkable results without sacrificing our freedoms. And given that he was born on the 4th of July, there is no better time than our Independence Day to remember him. Under Coolidge, the...

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Lew Rockwell on NOW with Bill Moyers

Lew Rockwell appears on NOW with Bill Moyers. Lew discusses Bush, Iraq, and the US economy. Originally broadcast on March 7, 2003. "We have to educate ourselves, and educate others about our own history, our real history, about what's actually going on these days, about real economics, and the principles of liberty. And I think that is: if we have any salvation, it's through that, and certainly in secular terms." [embedded content]

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Pfizer Faces Lawsuit for Covid Vaccine Lies

On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop are joined by Dr. Gilbert Berdine, an associate professor of medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and an affiliate of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University. In 2020, Dr. Berdine was warning about efficacy and risks claims being made over covid vaccines, which are at the forefront of a recent lawsuit by the State of Texas against Pfizer. Ryan and Tho...

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Can Econometric Models Provide a Laboratory Setting for Economic Analysis?

Econometric models are constructed with the idea that they can be substituted for authentic human action. Not surprisingly, they fail badly. Original Article: Can Econometric Models Provide a Laboratory Setting for Economic Analysis?

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Understanding Anti-Capitalist Fallacies

Capitalism, defined as a form of social organization in which there are means of production such as private property and wage labor, is not the moral principle upon which liberalism is based. The reason for this is that there are nonliberal scenarios that capitalism, as a moral principle, allows for—for example: slavery, sexism, racism, and various forms of violence. However, semantic compatibility does not imply a causal relationship between such...

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The First Enemies of Free Markets Were Conservatives, Not Socialists

As with the Republican party and the conservative movement in the United States, conservatism in the United Kingdom does not constitute a coherent ideological movement. It is, rather, a coalition of ideological groups and interest groups. Some of these are fairly libertarian in nature, as with the Thatcherites. On the other hand, conservative parties and activist groups also contain traditionalist conservatives and nationalists, neither of which...

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The awakening of the working class 

Part II of II, by Claudio Grass, Switzerland One of the maxims I tend to mention quite often in sociopolitical debates or in response to arguments about the flawlessness of the democratic process is “the smallest minority is the individual”. To some, it might sound trite or banal, and perhaps it is; but it does carry a meaning that I believe is an essential human value and a fundamental building block for any civilized, productive and...

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Libertarianism and the Importance of Understanding Causality

A bedrock of Austrian economic thinking is the notion of causality. A libertarian worldview also requires the understanding of causality. Original Article: Libertarianism and the Importance of Understanding Causality

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A Rising Stock Market Does Not Drive Economic Growth

Many people believe that a general increase in stock prices is an important factor in economic growth. However, this is a questionable observation. The view that the stock market drives economic growth originates from the observation that changes in stock prices precede changes in economic data. We suggest that various economic indicators are heavily influenced by money supply, which also drives stock prices. The price of something is the amount of...

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Preserving the Statist Quo: Creating a Generation of Welfare-ing, Libertine Narcissists

Not only is Washington in political turmoil, but the policies emanating from the Beltway are more incoherent than ever. Original Article: Preserving the Statist Quo: Creating a Generation of Welfare-ing, Libertine Narcissists

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Israel: A Rich Nation Receiving the Bulk of US Foreign Aid

Why is Israel a primary benefactor of United States foreign aid? Is Israel a proxy for US imperialism in the Middle East? Does American aid to Israel benefit constituencies other than the defense industry? The ongoing feud between Israel and Palestine has raised these questions to the forefront of public debate. Israel is the leading recipient of American foreign aid, despite its wealth. In 2022, The Economist ranked Israel as the fourth most...

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America the Obese: How Taxpayers Are Forced to Ruin Their Health

Since the original sugar tariff of 1789, US government policy has been to subsidize sugar, a policy that has led to serious consequences, including a health crisis of obesity. Original Article: America the Obese: How Taxpayers Are Forced to Ruin Their Health

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What Would Happen If the US Stopped Supporting Ukraine?

Over the weekend, border-policy negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans fell apart. The talks were meant to firm up Republican support for the president’s massive $105 billion military support proposal ahead of Wednesday’s vote by including additional funds for border security in the spending package. Now, with no imminent approval of further aid to Ukraine, hawks in government and the media are trying to stoke panic about what will...

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Progressive Interventionism Is Ruining American Healthcare

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is at it again: demanding government intervention in the nation's healthcare system to deal with problems caused by earlier government intervention. Original Article: Progressive Interventionism Is Ruining American Healthcare

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The Money Supply Continues its Biggest Collapse Since the Great Depression

Money supply growth fell again in October, remaining deep in negative territory after turning negative in November 2022 for the first time in twenty-eight years. October's drop continues a steep downward trend from the unprecedented highs experienced during much of the past two years. Since April 2021, money supply growth has slowed quickly, and since November, we've been seeing the money supply repeatedly contract year over year. The last time the...

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30-Year Mortgages Are Still a Sweet Deal—For People who Already Have Them

The thirty-year mortgage, of all things, came under attack in a piece by Ben Casselman in the New York Times. The three-decade fixed rate loan is, of course, a creation of the government and adds constant fuel to the US housing market. The title of Casselman’s piece calls the most popular debt instrument for home purchases “weird,” “cushy,” and “old.” He blames low interest rate thirty-year fixed loans for the broken housing market. Casselman...

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Socialism vs. Economic Freedom

[From Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow (1979), Lecture 2, "Socialism" (1958)] I am here in Buenos Aires as a guest of the Centro de Difusión Economía Libre.1 What is economía libre? What does this system of economic freedom mean? The answer is simple: it is the market economy, it is the system in which the cooperation of individuals in the social division of labor is achieved by the market. This market is not a place; it...

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