Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

Easy Money Is a Much Bigger Economic Problem than Debt

Many economic commentators view debt as a major risk factor as far as economic health is concerned. This way of thinking has its origins in the writings of Irving Fisher. According to Fisher, the high level of debt runs the risk of setting in motion deflation and, in turn, a severe economic slump. According to Fisher, the high level of debt sets in motion the following sequence of events. Stage 1: The debt liquidation process is set in motion...

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Bidenomics Is Yet Another Version of Failed Industrial Policy

President Biden announced recently to much fanfare that his administration will transform the US economy through central planning. This does not end well. Original Article: "Bidenomics Is Yet Another Version of Failed Industrial Policy"

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Voting with Their Feet: The Lure of Migration

The exodus of human capital is a primary concern for developing countries wishing to stem the tide of emigration. Some believe that emigration prevents poor countries from capitalizing on the talents of their best people. Critics suggest that poor countries would excel if the smartest minds did not emigrate. Theoretically, this sounds plausible; however, it obscures the inspiration for emigration. If underperforming countries could equip their...

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Against Our Limitless Regime: An Empire of Lies

From war across the globe to regulating speech to printing trillions of dollars, the American regime accepts no limits on its power. As Ludwig von Mises understood, the state will take as much power as the people will let it, and in recent years the American regime has clearly concluded it can get away with unilaterally adopting vast new powers. Join the Mises Institute in Nashville on September 23rd for an event inspired by this siege of power and...

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Why Governments Hate Honest Money

The middle class in all developed economies is disappearing through a constant process of erosion of its capacity to climb the social ladder. This is happening in the middle of massive so-called stimulus plans, large entitlement programs, endless deficit spending, and “social” programs. The reality is that those who blame capitalism and free markets for the constant erosion of the middle class should think better of it. Massive money printing and...

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Pennsylvania Legislators Want Higher Unemployment, Government Dependency, and Crime

Pennsylvania legislators don't claim to be putting people out of work or killing job opportunities. They claim they just want workers to earn more pay. Original Article: "Pennsylvania Legislators Want Higher Unemployment, Government Dependency, and Crime"

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Big Governments’ One-Two Punch: Scope Creep, Then Wartime Deprivation

Voluntary cooperation gets commandeered by the government gradually in peacetime, then suddenly through war. Peace, then World War I Starting in 1894, the USA no longer had a small-government major party. In both major parties, majorities of elected representatives were the USA’s crony-socialist Progressives. Immediately, Progressives began working to consolidate their political control. They replaced voter-informing caucuses with voter-isolating...

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The Soviet Abuse of Indigenous Peoples

Socialists and communists claim to support the rights of "indigenous" peoples. However, that support rings hollow given how the USSR abused the native peoples of Siberia, all while American socialists and communists uncritically supported the Soviet Union. Original Article: "The Soviet Abuse of Indigenous Peoples"

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Politics Has Infected Everything in Our Society, Especially the Media

One of the few things that most Americans agree about today is that there are serious problems with the current news-media environment. Conservatives have spent decades denouncing the “liberal media,” labeling it a thinly veiled arm of the Democratic Party and, recently, of Big Pharma. Meanwhile, Progressives seem to blame billionaire-created Fox News for just about every problem facing America. Even the establishment media folks are fretting over...

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Credit Crunch: The Money Supply Has Shrunk For Eight Months In a Row

Money supply growth fell again in June, remaining deep in negative territory after turning negative in November 2022 for the first time in twenty-eight years. June'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— for six months in a...

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Liberalism and Peace

Recorded at the 2003 Supporters Summit: Prosperty, War, and Depression. Ralph Raico discusses how from Jefferson to Madison, and on to Bastiat, Molinari, and Spencer, the "classical" liberals routinely denounced war as the enemy of freedom, prudence, and natural rights. Instead, militarism and imperialism have long been the domain of the enemies of private property and other apologists for the state. (32:19)

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States Can Curb Federal Power through “Soft Secession”

The use of interstate compacts by US states shows that the states don't need the federal government to dictate or manage interstate relations.  Original Article: "States Can Curb Federal Power through "Soft Secession""

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Breaking Free: How Open Protocols Foster Entrepreneurship, Spontaneous Order, and Individual Sovereignty

In the dynamic and ever-evolving digital landscape, open protocols have emerged as a powerful force, challenging closed-source models and reshaping industries. Beyond their technical merits, open protocols embody fundamental economic principles that foster innovation, competition, decentralized decision-making, and even censorship resistance. By embracing open protocols, societies can harness the creative energies of individuals and entrepreneurs,...

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“Greed” Didn’t Kill the Pac-12. Entrepreneurial Failure Did

For college football fans, it’s already been a wild August week before the first kickoff. Reminiscent of the Europe of old, and, hopefully, the America of the future, the collegiate athletic landscape in the last several years has witnessed a massive redrawing conference kingdom borders. The most powerful empires are the SEC and the Big Ten, with the former adding the Universities of Texas and Oklahoma and the latter pursuing manifest destiny in...

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Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Safety

Some residents of St. Louis, fed up with the nonprotection from the city's police, have hired private security to deal with the problem. The egalitarian Left, of course, doesn't like that. Original Article: "Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Safety"

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CBDCs: The Ultimate Tool of Financial Intrusion

“Experts” at the Federal Reserve and other central banks proudly broadcast the potential “financial inclusion” that could be achieved with a central bank digital currency (CBDC). In the Fed’s main CBDC paper, “Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation,” they make it clear: “Promoting financial inclusion—particularly for economically vulnerable households and communities—is a high priority for the Federal Reserve . . ....

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Shrinkflation and Skimpflation Are Eating Our Lunch

Government statistics on inflation in the food sector have failed to account for skimpflation and shrinkflation. Original Article: "Shrinkflation and Skimpflation Are Eating Our Lunch"

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How Conscription Ended Fifty Years Ago

United States military conscription, or the draft, ended on January 27, 1973, with the winding down of the Vietnam War. The draft law was due to expire at the end of June 1971. But US President Richard Nixon decided it needed to continue and asked Congress to approve a two-year extension. In March 1973, 1974, and 1975, the Selective Service assigned draft priority numbers for all men born in 1954, 1955, and 1956, in case the draft was extended—but...

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The United States vs. Donald J. Trump

Trump is essentially being prosecuted for questioning the outcome of an election, and federal paranoia about protecting its own aura of legitimacy is entering a new highly aggressive phase.  Original Article: "The United States vs. Donald J. Trump"

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Economic Calculation Is Nonbinary

One of Ludwig von Mises’s important contributions to economics was demonstrating the impossibility of economic calculation under socialism. He did it by showing three necessary preconditions for the generation of meaningful market prices in the factors of production—private property, freedom of exchange, and sound money. Since socialism would, by definition, socialize the factors of production, there would be no nonarbitrary and meaningful way to...

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