Frank Shostak recently wrote that an increase in the supply of gold by itself cannot cause a boom-bust cycle as described by the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT). If that were true, then Austrians would have no explanation for booms and busts prior to central banking.

Austrian economics is a scholarly tradition that consists of a body of theory that explains how an economy works. Austrian economists develop theory a priori, meaning explanations are derived logically from sound starting points (i.e., the “action axiom” to Mises). This means the theory is true and can therefore be used to uncover the actual causalities behind observable phenomena.

In the years leading up to the 2024 presidential election, the Democrats and establishment Republicans who wanted to see Joe Biden, and later Kamala Harris, remain in office went all in on one overarching narrative above all: that Donald Trump represented an existential threat to American democracy. Biden’s team and their allies in politics and media repeated this claim day after day, essentially trying to convince millions of Americans that elections would literally stop happening in this country if Trump won.

On December 8, 2024, the 24-year reign of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad came to an end after a rebel coalition of  Al-Qaeda offshoots, Turkish proxies, and other Islamist militants overwhelmed the capital of Damascus.

The recent murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health Care, has led many people to claim that private health insurance is an example of what is wrong with the free market, and that we ought in consequence of its manifest failures to institute a government run single-payer system. Some ghoulish leftists went so far as to post messages on Twitter expressing joy that Thompson had been killed. The Daily Mail reports: “The assassination of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson has triggered tasteless celebrations and bad taste support for the gunman who killed him.

Americans regularly complain about wait times to obtain medical appointments, especially with primary care physicians and certain specialists. Waiting several weeks or a couple of months for an appointment is not uncommon, which can sound to Americans like purported wait times in Canada and other countries with socialized medicine.