Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

Filter archive by: Show All Show only Articles Show only Videos

Can an Easy Money Policy Increase Employment of “Idle Resources”?

2024-01-11

by

2024-01-11

Whenever an economy falls into a recession, many economists point out that the economic slump means there will be idle capital and labor. Resources that could be employed are now unemployed because the economic slump has softened aggregate demand for goods and services. So-called experts believe the government must increase the overall demand in the economy since stronger demand will permit idle resources to be employed again. Hence, many...

Read More »

History vs Economics: Explaining the Causes of the Great Depression

2024-01-10

by

2024-01-10

“Who controls the past now, controls the future. Who controls the present now, controls the past.” That is from “Testify,” a song by newly minted rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Famers Rage against the Machine. I don’t know if Phillip W. Magness of the American Institute for Economic Research is fan enough to be familiar with that, but I bet he knows the original source: George Orwell’s 1984. Whether or not it informed a recent study he coauthored is...

Read More »

The Establishment Is Unmasking Itself

2024-01-10

by

2024-01-10

Two weeks ago, I wrote an article laying out the political class’s struggle to preserve its legitimacy by fighting to regain control over the digital information space. The piece built on Martin Gurri’s thesis that the wide adoption of the internet has caused an information revolution that, similar to the adoption of the printing press, has allowed dissent to grow and spread beyond the control of the ruling classes. The results have been political...

Read More »

Immigration and Geopolitics: Should Latvia Have an Open Border with Russia?

2024-01-10

by

2024-01-10

In the debate over immigration among laissez-faire liberals and libertarians, one aspect of the open-borders side becomes quickly apparent: the debate generally ignores problems related to geopolitics such as international conflict, ethnic strife, and expansionist states. Rather, the libertarian advocates of open borders tend to focus overwhelmingly on why rich countries should open their borders to migrants from lower-income countries. These...

Read More »

Authorities in Jamaica Endorse Cancel Culture

2024-01-09

by

2024-01-09

Jamaicans are willing to accept authoritarian behavior from the state in the name of rejecting colonialism. Original Article: Authorities in Jamaica Endorse Cancel Culture

Read More »

The Economic Wisdom of Antony C. Sutton’s The War on Gold

2024-01-09

by

2024-01-09

Economist Antony C. Sutton understood one of the most fundamental economic truths: gold is money. Thorsten Polleit reviews Sutton’s classic book, The War on Gold. Original Article: The Economic Wisdom of Antony C. Sutton’s The War on Gold

Read More »

A Free and Open Internet Is a Threat to the Establishment

2024-01-09

by

2024-01-09

Using the rhetoric of “protecting democracy,” American ruling elites have tried to censor the internet because they don’t like the results of democracy when information no longer is filtered by the political classes. Original Article: A Free and Open Internet Is a Threat to the Establishment

Read More »

Government Prohibitions on Raw Milk Are Ignorant and Dangerous

2024-01-09

by

2024-01-09

Since government regulates nearly everything, it is not surprising that regulations often prohibit the sale and consumption of raw milk. Like many other regulations, these prohibitions reflect political favoritism, not health science. Original Article: Government Prohibitions on Raw Milk Are Ignorant and Dangerous

Read More »

America’s Fiat Money Gestapo: The Untold History of the Secret Service

2024-01-09

by

2024-01-09

There is an untold story in American monetary history. Some are reluctant even to discuss it. I’m referring to the US Secret Service’s very own role in the destruction of sound money in America. As constitutional, sound money in the form of physical gold and silver coins—whether minted privately or not—became an annoying impediment to expanding the size and power of the federal government, central planners began circulating unbacked paper proxies...

Read More »

Negative Leverage: The Fed’s Latest “Gift” to Apartment Investors

2024-01-09

by

2024-01-09

The Federal Reserve’s inflation of the money supply and interest rate manipulation distort capital markets through, among other things, the creation of asset bubbles. As the cost of borrowing decreases and cheap money floods an economy, speculation in capital markets increases, leading to prices unmoored from fundamentals. Underlying these asset bubbles is a certain investor psychology—one based on expectations, encouraged by Fed actions over the...

Read More »

Wonka: A Tale of Evil Businessmen and Cronyism

2024-01-09

by

2024-01-09

Wonka (2023) is a prequel film to the beloved story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Wonka tells the story of a young Willy Wonka, an up-and-coming chocolate salesman and magician, who challenges a chocolate cartel’s dominance. As one could imagine, the film is full of scenes that cast private enterprise in a negative light. The main villains are stereotypical movie businessmen who will do anything, even murder, to achieve their...

Read More »

Headline Math, Women’s Wages, and a Very Bad Deal in Higher Education

2024-01-08

by

2024-01-08

Headline math is a simple percentage expressed as a fact without context. Its design is to create an emotional response, support an opinion, or generate a click past the paywall. Once articulated, it exists in speech as a noun. W. Brian Arthur’s paper “Economics in Nouns and Verbs” explains the use of nouns to express a conclusion as fact, excluding further discussion. Student loan statistics for women are presented as facts, needing no further...

Read More »

It Began with Carl Menger: The Austrian Intellectual Triumph

2024-01-08

by

2024-01-08

Near the end of the nineteenth century, the European intellectual scene witnessed a remarkable theoretical contest known as the “battle of methods,” or in German, Methodenstreit. This intellectual clash stood out due to the confrontation between the precepts of methodological and subjective individualization, equipped with a subjectivist and individualizing worldview of the method. It was represented by figures such as Carl Menger (considered the...

Read More »

Biden’s “AI Bill of Rights” May Just Be Another Censorship Plan

2024-01-06

by

2024-01-06

President Joe Biden is promoting his “AI Bill of Rights,” which looks to be an attempt to censor political opposition. Naturally, political and media elites are enthusiastically endorsing it. Original Article: Biden's ""AI Bill of Rights"" May Just Be Another Censorship Plan

Read More »

DC’s Debt Trap

2024-01-06

by

2024-01-06

Federal debt is soaring out of control, and perhaps it is not surprising that the CBO has not updated its forecasts with this debt uncertainty. Original Article: DC's Debt Trap

Read More »

Markets versus State Healthcare Systems: Some Points of Contention

2024-01-06

by

2024-01-06

Progressives claim that state-sponsored healthcare systems are superior to market-based systems. Their arguments don’t add up. Original Article: Markets versus State Healthcare Systems: Some Points of Contention

Read More »

Do Destroyed Monuments Represent a Past Not Worth Defending?

2024-01-06

by

2024-01-06

Many cities and states in this country have been tearing down or destroying monuments because they represent part of a past that progressives and leftists believe should not have existed. Yet each time we tear down something, we potentially lose part of an important heritage. Original Article: Do Destroyed Monuments Represent a Past Not Worth Defending?

Read More »

Secession

2024-01-06

by

2024-01-06

This week's episode begins 2024 by looking at the growing political divide among the American people—and how to solve it. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. Get your free copy of Murray Rothbard's Anatomy of the State at Mises.org/IssuesFree.

Read More »

Claudine Gay, DEI, and the War in the Middle East

2024-01-06

by

2024-01-06

A little over six months ago, Claudine Gay was appointed president of Harvard University, the first black president of that now embattled institution. She recently resigned her post, only to retain a $900,000 salary as a professor. No doubt her appointment had more to do with the imperatives of an engulfing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda and less to do with the quality and volume of her scholarship, later found to be riddled with...

Read More »

What Is Happening to College Sports?

2024-01-06

by

2024-01-06

On Monday night, January 8, the University of Michigan and the University of Washington football teams will vie for the collegiate national championship. While championships always bring excitement to fans and participants alike, this year’s game brings attention to major changes that have occurred in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I in the past few years involving both monetary payments and mobility for athletes. While there...

Read More »