The “no hire, no-fire” job market continues. While we’re not yet seeing a trend toward widespread layoffs, it is increasingly difficult to get hired. As we saw earlier this month here in Power&Market, hires are becoming increasingly rare. And, while new layoffs may be moving sideways—and not swiftly rising—the number of people who remain unemployed for a significant period after a layoff is rising.
In this in-depth interview, Steve H. Hanke—renowned economist, seasoned trader, Professor of Applied Economics at The Johns Hopkins University, and Distinguished Senior Scholar at the Mises Institute—reflects on his remarkable journey from rural Iowa to global economic advisory. With stories spanning egg futures, all the way to currency reform, Hanke offers insights into the practical application of economics, the value of hard work, and the evolution of his thinking over the course of decades in academia and policy.
There is not a single person in the world, or even a group of a hundred persons, that could make me. I am Mises University, the annual flagship week-long Austrian economics mini-university held at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. I start with online applications by students following an announcement on mises.org. I therefore require all of the technology that goes into producing internet communications that involves thousands of individuals, over decades, from all over the world.
Human beings act. That is: they engage in purposeful behavior aimed at transforming their conditions into a state they prefer more. This fundamental axiom is apodictically certain. To deny it is to affirm it—for even the act of denial is itself an action: a purposeful attempt to assert a position. Thus, the truth of human action is not contingent on empirical verification; it is valid in all possible worlds where action occurs. It is a category of the mind, a necessary precondition for understanding human behavior.
Lectures in Austrian Economics, Volume 1 by Jesús Huerta de Soto. (Palgrave Macmillan 2024)
In a previous article, I made the case that the policy of inflation—both from the Continental Congress and the states—not only led to detrimental consequences, but threatened the cause of independence itself. During the course of researching and writing, I discovered that I was barely scratching the surface of this topic—finding quote after quote, resource after resource.
