From the Editor—November / December 2024
Another national election has come and gone, and like many of our readers, I think the less awful candidate won. After all, a victory for Kamala Harris was likely to be interpreted as an endorsement of the status quo and a “mandate” for more of the same.
Unfortunately, though, opposition to the status quo is not the same thing as support for peace, freedom, or free markets. Dissatisfaction with the regime is good, but it’s not enough.
The Misesian, vol. 1, no. 6, 2024
What Modern Economists Can Learn from the Austrian School of Economics
The Austrian School of Economics represents a heterodox methodological approach to economics that significantly differs from the orthodox teachings represented by mainstream economics. The Austrian School’s approach is multidisciplinary, comprising not only economists but also historians, sociologists, jurists, and philosophers who aim to explain social phenomena stemming from human action, which serves as the fundamental pillar of the school.
There Is No Right to a Minimum Wage
One of the most popular economic fallacies of our time is the belief that the absence of a minimum wage would lead to limitless exploitation of employees in the economy. Minimum wage legislation prevents employees from being hired at pay rates below the mandated amount. Proponents of minimum wage laws claim that not having a minimum wage would lead to employees being paid very little for the amount of work they do.
Progressivism and the Murder of a Health Insurance CEO
Last week, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death on a New York City sidewalk in what was clearly a thoroughly planned-out attack. Over the next few days, as authorities hunted for the killer, online progressives did not try hard to hide their delight that a millionaire health insurance executive like Thompson was killed.
America’s Disastrous and Endless Meddling in Asia
The “loss of China” to communism in 1949 was a pivotal moment in American foreign policy, for the fall of the Nationalist government (Kuomintang, KMT) led by Chiang Kai-shek to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Mao Zedong marked a significant shift in the geopolitical landscape of Asia. It was quickly followed by the outbreak of war in Korea, and indeed Washington’s calculations regarding the peninsula became closely entangled with their calculations regarding the new regime in Beijing.