Category Archive: 6b) Austrian Economics

Leviathan Is on the Menu

The State of California, unable to unionize fast food workers, now is trying to create workers councils that will set labor policies for fast food restaurants. This will not end well.Original Article: "Leviathan Is on the Menu"

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Will Jamaica Embrace True Economic Reform or Just More Socialism?

Jamaica is at a critical juncture in its history, and the world is watching. Long seen as a powerhouse in the developing world, Jamaica is on track to become a republic. Like in the 1950s and ’60s, decolonization is brewing, so Britain’s ex-colonies want to sever ties with their former overlord. Jamaica has therefore established a constitutional reform committee to fast-track the process of becoming a republic. As a political process,...

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The FTC Should Answer Its Call of Duty to Gamers

The Federal Trade Commission is heavily scrutinizing the proposed merger between Microsoft and Activism. Why? Sony is against it, demonstrating that antitrust law is about protecting favored producers, not consumers. Original Article: "The FTC Should Answer Its Call of Duty to Gamers"

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The White House, the Fed, and the Economy: Mises Circle in Ft. Myers, FL

Every day, Americans feels the costs of the political capture of the economy. Inflation, taxes, and regulatory costs hit our paychecks and savings. The regulatory capture of medical industries, food and energy production, and the various instruments of Big Tech empower the regime with new tools to promote their latest ideological cause. The ever-growing burden of government debt has become a crisis without any political will to address it. This...

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Tampa Group Declares Independence from the Dollar

On this episode of Good Money, Tho Bishop is joined by Wesley Schlemmer, president and co-founder of Bitcoin Bay. Wesley discusses the benefits of creating local professional networks around common values and how Bitcoin Bay is helping Tampa residents convert Bitcoin into real goods and services, including locally raised beef. Learn more about Bitcoin Bay at Bitcoinbay.live.  Good Money listeners can order a special $5 book bundle that...

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Much of the World’s Oil Is Owned by Governments. There’s No Good Reason for This.

It is as if the average human assumes that a coercive governance must be established or assigned despite the fact that such a government is often not very efficient or even involved in the outcomes we ultimately want, peace and prosperity. —Walter Block and Stefan Sløk-Madsen, “Who Should Own the North Pole?“ In many oil-producing countries, governments own the resource (namely, oil) that they’re extracting. Whether this is a favorable state of...

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How US States Could Pave the Way for Currency Competition

The US dollar has been the world reserve currency since 1944. At the Bretton Woods Conference, the dollar was pegged to gold and every other currency was pegged to the dollar. The fixed exchange rate system that emerged provided a stable environment for international trade and investment, as all countries had a currency value that was, directly or indirectly, tied to a fixed gold price. The system began to unravel in the 1970s due to economic...

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Disarm All Federal Agents

There are now more armed civilian federal agents than there are US Marines. These well-funded armies of federal enforcers from the alphabet agencies are there to be used against US citizens at the whims of federal policymakers. Every last one of them should be disarmed.  New Radio Rothbard mugs are now available at the Mises Store. Get yours at Mises.org/RothMug  PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off

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The Trouble with the Constitution and the “Social Contract”

Politics is of its very nature biased in favor of intervention and planning. Even in its “minarchist” or “night-watchman” version, politics is based at root on the idea that some decisions must be made coercively and imposed on unwilling minorities — or even majorities, as the case may be. This is contrary to the principle we observe in private life every day: the consent of both parties is necessary for a transaction to take place. The state never...

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It’s Raining Entrepreneurship at a Taylor Swift Concert

While rain at an outdoor concert is a nuisance for most attendees, a few entrepreneurs saw not "pennies from heaven," but dollars. Original Article: "It’s Raining Entrepreneurship at a Taylor Swift Concert"

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Producers, Not Consumers, Are the Engine of Economic Growth

Keynesian economists believe that recessions occur because of a weakening in aggregate demand, so boosting demand will end the downturn. Whenever an economy shows signs of weakness, most experts believe that increasing aggregate demand will prevent the economy from sliding into a recession. Since private spending is declining, Keynesians say the government should counterbalance this decline by increasing government spending on goods and services....

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David French Gets to Sit with the Cool Kids at the NYT Lunch Table

New York Times columnist David French likes to think of himself as an honest broker. In reality, his "Never Trump" mentality leads him to overlook government lawbreaking. Original Article: "David French Gets to Sit with the Cool Kids at the NYT Lunch Table"

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The Reality of the Market Process

As we enter the dog days of summer, I have heard several media conversations and a few private ones that express exasperation over languishing capital markets. Why do things take so long to unravel? What will happen next? When will X, Y, or Z happen? Why are tech stocks so bullish now? The market takes time to process the information that it already has — or is in "process" — and everyday brings new data. The Austrian perspective...

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Housing Prices Are Falling As Reality Sinks In

The local paper’s headline posed the question, “Do renters have the upper hand in Las Vegas right now?” “[The apartment project] offered us two weeks of no rent to get us moved in on the timeline we wanted,” said a renter who was also given passes to the Life Is Beautiful music festival as part of the deal. “They also throw resident events every month providing food and entertainment,” she added. Las Vegas Review-Journal business reporter Patrick...

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You Can’t Depend on the State to Maintain Public Order

Crime is increasing in American cities, but don't count on police to protect you. The Defund the Police movement has less to do with that than most people think. Original Article: "You Can’t Depend on the State to Maintain Public Order"

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Daniel Ellsberg Was Right. So Are Assange and Snowden.

Daniel Ellsberg died on June 16, and he remains one of the nation's most prominent whistleblowers who leaked secret government information to the public. Upon his death the general consensus among the writers of memorials for Ellsberg was that he was right to leak government secrets. As the editorial board at The Orange County Register recently put it, he was "a true American hero."  They're right about Ellsberg. During the Vietnam War,...

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The MMT-and-Bailey Fallacy

One hears this kind of thing from modern monetary theory (MMT) advocates whenever their economic theories are attacked: “We say not spending constrained,” they grumble, “We don’t mean ‘now spend’.” However, what politicians hear is that they can have anything they really want because they can just print the money for it. “It’s a fact,” an MMTer might say. “Sovereign governments with their own currencies can never go bankrupt. They can always print...

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A Great Man Cannot Salvage a Bad Idea

Einstein might have been one of history's most brilliant men, but even his great mind could not have made socialism work. Unfortunately, he wasn't smart enough to see that. Original Article: "A Great Man Cannot Salvage a Bad Idea"

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Do Boycotts Really Work? Another Look at the Bud Light Situation

For the past ten weeks, American conservatives have been boycotting Bud Light in response to a beer can featuring transgender figure Dylan Mulvaney. Since then, sales of the beer have been plummeting. However, this week, a new benchmark has been passed: Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light is no longer the top-selling beer in the United States. Instead, it has been overtaken by Modelo, as the following graph from the Wall Street Journal shows: Source:...

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Radical Decentralization Was the Key to the West’s Rise to Wealth and Freedom

It is not uncommon to encounter political theorists and pundits who insist that political centralization is a boon to economic growth. In both cases, it is claimed the presence of a unifying central regime—whether in Brussels or in Washington, DC, for example—is essential in ensuring the efficient and free flow of goods throughout a large jurisdiction. This, we are told, will greatly accelerate economic growth. In many ways, the model is the United...

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