Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

Exposing Our Fed-Driven Bubble Economy

The Great Money Bubble: Protect Yourself from the Coming Inflation Stormby David A. StockmanHumanix Books, 2022; 229 pp. David Stockman served for a short while as budget director during Ronald Reagan’s first term as president, but he soon resigned owing to Reagan’s refusal to cut government spending. He has since that time worked as a private investment adviser, at which difficult profession he has been highly successful, and he has written a...

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The Fed and the Fate of the Dollar

Recorded at the Mises Circle in Fort Myers, Florida, 4 November 2023. Special thanks to Murray and Florence M. Sabrin for making this event possible. Read Bob's book Understanding Money Mechanics: Mises.org/Mechanics The Fed and the Fate of the Dollar | Bob Murphy Video of The Fed and the Fate of the Dollar | Bob Murphy

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Are We Headed for a Recession in 2024?

Recorded at the Mises Circle in Fort Myers, Florida, 4 November 2023. Special thanks to Murray and Florence M. Sabrin for making this event possible. Are We Headed for a Recession in 2024? | Patrick Newman Video of Are We Headed for a Recession in 2024? | Patrick Newman

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The Dangers of a “Cashless” Economy

While the ruling elites and the Federal Reserve try to sell digital money as “modern” and “convenient,” it poses threats to financial privacy and civil liberties. Original Article: "The Dangers of a ""Cashless"" Economy

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Four Economic Activities and the Wealth of Nations

Trading, forecasting, aggregating, and innovating—referred to from here on out as the Four—are activities that people have engaged in since the beginning of humanity. They are part of the human fabric because they stem from mankind’s peculiarities—heterogeneity, inclination to forecast, sociality, and inventiveness. The Four are key social interactions in human life at both the individual and aggregate levels. In 2022, the value of worldwide global...

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The Fed Has No Plan, and Is Just Hoping for the Best

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) last week left the target policy interest rate (the federal funds rate) unchanged at 5.5 percent. This "pause" in the target rate suggests the FOMC believes it has raised the target rate high enough to rein in price inflation which has run well above the Fed's arbitrary two-percent inflation target since mid-2021. I say "believe," but perhaps the more appropriate word...

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False Virtue: The Life and Death of “American Exceptionalism”

The impending decline of the dollar is apparently imposing a real Halloween scare on the American foreign policy establishment. An August 22, 2023, article on the Council on Foreign Relations website entitled “The Future of Dollar Hegemony” explained that  the dollar’s global hegemony gives the U.S. government power to impose crippling sanctions and wage other forms of financial welfare against adversaries. . . . In 2022, more than twelve thousand...

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If the Fed Goes, The State Will Soon Follow

The leviathan US state would not be possible without the Fed underwriting its growth. But the Fed is not all-powerful, nor can it continue to exist by only creating chaos. Original Article: If the Fed Goes, The State Will Soon Follow

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Dollar Hegemony Fuels America’s Foreign Crusades

Mises Institute president Thomas DiLorenzo joins Ryan and Tho to discuss the moralistic claims behind American foreign policy. These claims intensified with the American Civil War and became a creed of American nationalists by the twentieth century. With the rise of the global dollar and dollar hegemony, America's foreign crusades became ever larger and more frequent.  "False Virtue: The Life and Death of 'American...

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Time Preference Is the Key Driver of Interest Rates

By popular thinking, whenever the central bank raises the growth rate of the money supply through the buying of financial assets such as Treasuries this pushes the prices of Treasuries higher and their yields lower. This is labeled as the monetary liquidity effect. This effect is inversely correlated with interest rates. Furthermore, an increase in the money supply after a time lag strengthens economic activity and this pushes interest rates...

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The Fate or Wealth of Nations: AI, Robotics and Automation

The AI and robotics revolution continues. As entrepreneurs find new ways to use these things profitably, the overall wealth of nations increases. Original Article: The Fate or Wealth of Nations: AI, Robotics and Automation

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Individual Health Insurance Mandates Are Mandates, Not Taxes

Imagine that you are a healthy 30-year-old young man who has a respectable job, makes a good living, but decides, you know what? I am not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I am healthy, I do not need it. But something terrible happens, suddenly you fall into a coma and need it. Who is going to pay for your coverage? In a society where you accept welfarism and socialism to be the answer, you would expect the government...

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Can the American Government Wage a Just War?

Murray Rothbard asked this question and concluded that the current American regime, if the wisdom of Aquinas’ words is taken seriously, cannot wage a just war. Original Article: Can the American Government Wage a Just War?

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Statist Ideology and War: Israel versus Hamas

As I wrote in my previous piece on statism and the Israel-Hamas conflict, states are organized crime rackets. Wars between states thus represent warfare between rival gangs. The proper libertarian position with reference to such gang wars is neutrality, or the opposition to all state parties to war. Neutrality includes opposition to interventionism, including opposition to sending arms and aid to other nations. Foreign aid increases the tax...

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The Radical Uncertainty of a Polymorphic Fed

Recorded at the Mises Circle in Fort Myers, Florida, 4 November 2023. Includes audience question and answer period.  Special thanks to Murray and Florence M. Sabrin for making this event possible. The Radical Uncertainty of a Polymorphic Fed | Jonathan Newman Video of The Radical Uncertainty of a Polymorphic Fed | Jonathan Newman

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The Oil Price-Stock Market Connection, the 100 Year Financial Cycle, and the Next Crash

Recorded at the Mises Circle in Fort Myers, Florida, 4 November 2023. Special thanks to Murray and Florence M. Sabrin for making this event possible. The Oil Price-Stock Market Connection, 100 Year Financial Cycle, and the Next Crash | Murray Sabrin Video of The Oil Price-Stock Market Connection, 100 Year Financial Cycle, and the Next Crash | Murray Sabrin

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The “Climate Emergency”: Fueled by 21st Century Marxism

Europe currently faces several challenges that potentially harm the quality of life for people in general but especially for young individuals, preventing them from developing their lives autonomously and independently. The housing crisis, reflected in overcrowded accommodation affecting 28 percent of young people aged 15 to 29, is just one example. Freedom of expression in Europe also seems more threatened than ever. Highly controlled content is...

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Is a Welfare State Consistent with Libertarianism?

David Gordon reviews Dan Moller's book Governing Least: A New England Libertarianism, in which the author examines the issue of a welfare state in a libertarian society. Original Article: Is a Welfare State Consistent with Libertarianism?

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How Washington Hawks Helped Create the New “Axis of Evil”

In 2002, President George W. Bush cited the now famous “axis of evil”—Iraq, Iran, and North Korea—as he tried to get the American people to look beyond those responsible for the 9/11 attacks and greenlight a global military campaign to “rid the world of the evil-doers.” The result was the $8 trillion global war on terror that continues to this day. Now, in the wake of the Hamas attacks in southern Israel one month ago, the same language is being...

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What is Software Quality? An Austrian Approach

Even something that seems as objective as software development falls under the Austrian view of subjective utility. Original Article: What is Software Quality? An Austrian Approach

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