Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

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The United States Needs Its Own Javier Milei

2023-11-22

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2023-11-22

On Sunday, the populist Austrolibertarian Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina. In the United States, the reaction ranged from concerned curiosity on the part of the political establishment to enthusiastic celebration across the populist Right—including, notably, some economic nationalists. Several renowned libertarians also brought attention to some of Milei’s many flaws, such as his views on geopolitics. Milei’s libertarian skeptics...

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Easy Money Undermines Social Mobility

2023-11-21

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2023-11-21

Central banks around the world target a stable price inflation rate of 2 percent annually over the medium term. This is widely considered to be monetary policy’s most important contribution to the smooth functioning of a dynamic economy. This view is wrong on multiple grounds, but there is one problem with it that is commonly ignored. Inflation, even if it remains relatively moderate, can contribute to rising inequality and undermine social...

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You’re Paying for the Israel War. You’ll Also Pay for the Refugees.

2023-11-21

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2023-11-21

Resettling Gazans in America—at taxpayer expense—will be sold as a "humanitarian" effort, but anyone who sees through the propaganda will see that it's really all a cynical effort to please Israeli politicians. Original Article: You're Paying for the Israel War. You'll Also Pay for the Refugees.

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Can Econometric Models Provide a Laboratory Setting for Economic Analysis?

2023-11-21

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2023-11-21

Econometric model building attempts to produce a laboratory with controlled variables. By means of mathematical and statistical methods, an economist establishes functional relationships between various economic variables. For example, personal consumer outlays are related to personal disposable income and interest rates, while fixed capital investments are explained by the past stock of capital, interest rates, and economic activity. A group of...

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Blaming the Free Market (Even Where It Doesn’t Exist)

2023-11-21

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2023-11-21

Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton claims that the free market cannot provide adequate medical care. Of course, he goes on to describe government failure but calls it a free market. Original Article: Blaming the Free Market (Even Where It Doesn't Exist)

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Fear of Failure is Vital to the Success of a Free Market Economy

2023-11-21

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2023-11-21

It has become popular, especially in certain fields and among certain crowds, to glorify failure. So-called entrepreneurs and social influencers often brag about their failures. Multinational corporations publish poems encouraging failure. Vapid mottos rejecting the fear of failure are ubiquitous on motivational posters and T-shirts. These efforts are apparently meant to convey an enterprising spirit and a fearlessness about trying new things in an...

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Milei’s Long-Term Victory Depends on Him Winning in the Battle of Ideas

2023-11-21

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2023-11-21

On Sunday, Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina by a comfortable margin, with 56 percent of the vote. He will be sworn in as president on December 10.  Over the past year, however, Milei has made a name for himself as an extremely vocal critic of socialism, central banks, and many types of government intervention in general. He has become memorable for fiery commentary condemning the Left's ideology and tactics while expressing an...

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American History Is a Preview of the Israel-Palestine End Game

2023-11-20

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2023-11-20

How the Israel-Gaza war ends is easy to imagine because it's following a path that has been trod many times before. We've seen it many times during conflicts between settler populations and indigenous populations worldwide Original Article: American History Is a Preview of the Israel-Palestine End Game

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Libertarianism and the Importance of Understanding Causality

2023-11-20

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2023-11-20

Even though support for the free market has become stronger in the last decades, libertarianism can still only be considered a fringe movement. Most people still believe that many social problems are due to “market failure” and therefore require state intervention to be “solved.” Despite the obvious flaws of modern socialism—with its unlikely combination of a redistributive welfare state and globalist crony capitalism—and despite libertarianism’s...

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Affective Polarization Is Making Us Dumber

2023-11-20

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2023-11-20

Original Article: Affective Polarization Is Making Us Dumber

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

2023-11-20

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2023-11-20

Regardless of one’s opinion on Israel and Palestine, people can agree that killing innocent civilians, wherever they’re from, is horrible, and whoever takes hostages for bargaining chips in negotiations is a horrific human being. Such is the case of the ongoing siege of Gaza. One has to wonder why Hamas decided that the best course of action was to commit atrocities and kidnap civilians, only to elicit a response amounting to war crimes against...

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Coauthor of War College Journal Article Tries to Backtrack on Call for “Partial Conscription”

2023-11-19

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2023-11-19

After an earlier article by Zachary Yost on a call by military “experts” to reinstate the military draft, the authors of the original paper are trying to back off on their original recommendation. But there is no doubt as to what they want the government to do. Original Article: Coauthor of War College Journal Article Tries to Backtrack on Call for "Partial Conscription"

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Statism Is the Cause of the Israel-Hamas War

2023-11-18

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2023-11-18

This latest Middle East conflict is ultimately little more than gang warfare. We oppose it as a matter of principle. Original Article: Statism Is the Cause of the Israel-Hamas War

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Mohamed El-Erian’s New Views on the Fed

2023-11-18

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2023-11-18

In this week's episode Mark reports on Pimco's former financial guru Mohamed El-Erian and his new views on the Fed. Mark also does some minor deconstruction of recent financial news to paint a clearer picture of imminent recession—something mainstream economists will be reluctant to call until 2025.  Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues.

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

2023-11-18

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2023-11-18

The first piece of legislation passed by the new Congress of the United States of America after the ratification of the Constitution included a tariff on the import of foreign sugar. Although this tariff was passed as a means to raise the funds needed to pay the debts accrued during the Revolutionary War, coincidentally it also provided elaborate protections to the nation’s wealthiest farmers of sugarcane and sugar beets. The indirect subsidies...

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Driving Up Fatalities: Why Flight Vaccine Mandates Would (Likely) Backfire

2023-11-18

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2023-11-18

During the height of the covid-19 pandemic, some politicians and voters advocated for covid vaccine mandates for air travel. And while this proposal has some intuitive pull, there are likely tradeoffs here that could result in more deaths overall as a by-product of increasing the cost and trouble of air travel, incentivizing travelers to choose another form of travel: driving. And since driving is more dangerous, flight vaccine mandates would...

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Murray Sabrin’s Memoir: From Liberal Democrat to Libertarian Running for Governor of New Jersey

2023-11-18

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2023-11-18

Murray Sabrin has a long history with the Austrian movement and is one of two people who had Murray Rothbard on his PhD committee. He talks with Bob about his memoir, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story. Murray Sabrin's Substack: Mises.org/HAP422a From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story: Mises.org/HAP422b Rothbard's America's Great Depression: Mises.org/HAP422c Bob's Blog on the Distortion of...

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Why the National Debt is Now Threatening the Regime

2023-11-18

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2023-11-18

On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop are joined by Peter St. Onge, an economic fellow with the Heritage Foundation and frequent Mises Wire author. With the costs of financing the national debt now exceeding the costs of military spending and major social programs, Peter explains why government spending is now a crisis the regime can't ignore.  "Sovereign Debt is Eating the World" by Peter St....

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China’s Inefficient and Unsustainable Central Planning

2023-11-17

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2023-11-17

China's so-called economic miracle is running into the ground as the reality of central planning becomes increasingly obvious and an economic reckoning looms. Original Article: China’s Inefficient and Unsustainable Central Planning

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The Legacy of Legacy Admissions Is Not What the Critics Claim

2023-11-17

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2023-11-17

In the aftermath of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and its companion case, race-based affirmative action is, for the most part, dead. While there are legitimate criticisms of this decision from the Right, the Left has taken the near opposite approach. Rather than simply lamenting, the Left is using this as an opportunity for taking further action against what they perceive to be racial discrimination. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) states...

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