Mises Wire

According to mainstream economists, inflation aids economic growth while deflation impairs growth. Austrian economists, however, point out that in much of US history, economic growth was accompanied by deflation.

Rothbard wondered whether conservatives wished to conserve the status quo, adhere to the outlook of European rightists of the previous century, or perhaps merely favor gradual to sudden change. 

Ludwig von Mises was born 144 years ago today. His economic masterpieces are as relevant and powerful today as when they were written. Mises still is the most eloquent voice against socialism.

One of the objections against anarcho-capitalism is that without government supervision, businesses will form cartels. However, free markets have their own ways of undermining these arrangements.

Left-wing activists have tried to justify the recent light train murder in Charlotte and the assassination of Charlie Kirk, citing social justice narratives. But any narrative must be based both on truth and proportionality.

Individual voters have little reason to become informed. Politicians have strong incentives to pander rather than persuade. Partisans are rewarded for tribal loyalty rather than epistemic integrity.

Bureaucracies are not only annoying and troublesome, but in the worst case scenario, a bureaucratic error can mean instant death for millions of people. We need to shrink bureaucracies, not grow them.

We are not the government, and the government is not us. This abstraction hides the truth, teaching people to equate the state with “society,” “the people,” “the common good,” or other euphemisms.

Henry David Thoreau is supposedly an American icon and his Walden an alleged work of genius. In truth, Thoreau was a fraud and his anti-capitalist screeds were intellectually and economically incoherent.

Thanks to Marxist historians, Americans are told that slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries was centered around the United States. The truth is that slavery was widely practiced in Africa long before America was settled and has continued to this present day.