According to Milton Friedman, the key cause of the business cycles is the fluctuations in the growth rate of money supply. Friedman held that what is required for the elimination of these cycles is for central bank policymakers to aim at a fixed growth rate of money supply:

The following thoughts have been presented on October 10, 2020, at a broader public conference in Germany. The conference was intended to discuss environmental policies from a free market perspective. Although my research does not concern this field, I have always been interested in the general theory of interventionism and therefore agreed to comment on climate change policy. Sometimes the fresh look of an outsider can be helpful. If my remarks spur further thought on climate change policy, they will have fulfilled their purpose.

Austrian economics puts forth the axiom of human action—a nonfalsifiable, self-evident truth. From this axiom, it derives logical conclusions—truths—about individual human behavior, social order, and cooperation, i.e., markets. The conclusions drawn by this logical analysis are such that the optimal allocation of resources, the optimal modes of production and consumption, etc. each can only emerge—and therefore only be known—as the result of the free choice and voluntary actions of individuals.

In “No, the Nazis Were Not Socialists,” which appeared online in Jacobin, the philosopher Scott Sehon makes a surprising claim. In the course of criticizing some remarks by Senator Rand Paul, Sehon says,

Paul seems to quote the mid-century economist Ludwig von Mises:

The new history of capitalism (NHC) offers libertarians an exciting opportunity to defend the vitality of capitalism. Scholars like Sven Beckert, Walter Johnson, and Edward Baptiste argue that slavery provides fascinating insights into the workings of early American capitalism and that it furnished the capital to fuel industrial development.

The Mises Institute continues to hold live, in-person events this year. We did cancel our March research conference, because so many faculty presenters were forbidden to travel by their respective universities. Since then, however, we have held our summer Mises University in Auburn with a great group of kids, events in Birmingham and Orlando, and our annual gala this past weekend on Jekyll Island (which was remarkable). Next month we return to Texas for a postelection symposium with Dr. Ron Paul, which is sure to draw a great crowd. You can join us in Texas and wish Dr.