What inspires us about the life of Mises, writes Lew Rockwell, is not his victimhood but his triumph over evil.
Audio Mises Wire
Audio recordings of Mises Wire articles, offering contemporary news and opinion through the lens of Austrian economics and libertarian political economy.
In attacking progressivism in a recent speech, Clarence Thomas has been pilloried in the media and by politicians and academics. However, Thomas was correct: progressivism has brought one disaster after another, all the while empowering the worst of state actors.
For too long, people have thought of the airwaves and waterways as “public” property that is best controlled by government. However, Murray Rothbard and others held that one could apply the institution of private property to both.
As I see it now, there are really two economies—two distinct systems of producing and exchanging wealth. Or rather, two systems that purport to do these things.
Public goods theory often assumes what it seeks to establish, namely, that the state is the indispensable precondition of production, even though the state itself depends upon prior production for every resource it possesses.
The White House leaks that a deal is almost done. Markets surge. Insiders profit. The deal collapses. Repeat. Now the markets barely move. Nobody believes it anymore. A government that cries wolf this many times eventually finds itself alone.
The popular pastime of modern democracies of punishing the diligent and thrifty, while rewarding the lazy, improvident, and unthrifty, is cultivated via the State, fulfilling a demo-egalitarian program based on a demo-totalitarian ideology.
Mamdani’s election is not the cause of economic decline. Instead, New York City’s slide into chaos has been ongoing for many years, and Mamdani promises to make things even worse.
Remembering Murray Rothbard on our imperialistic wars: "The true principle of isolationism is that the government should be isolated and people who trade, interchange, and engage in voluntary travel, migration, and so forth should be allowed to peacefully do so."
Historically, many sovereign states have granted separatist cultural and ideological groups political autonomy as a means of avoiding full secession. The US legal system prevents this.
Zohran Mamdani’s proposal reflects a growing belief that economic problems can be solved through public ownership and political management. But a grocery store is still a business governed by costs, and economic reality regardless of who owns it.
Social contract theory was used to critique a form of the state, but was also used to legitimize the modern nation-state.
Buc-ee’s—the roadside travel phenomenon—seems to cater to the extremes in our society. Either customers love shopping at the place or it is yet another symbol of capitalist oppression.
While upholding the radical ideal, Rothbard combined idealism with realism, scholarship with accessibility, and boundless curiosity with commitment to truth.
Economics is far more than what people see as “the economy.” It is the central organizing factor for civilized society.
Washington is pursuing industrial policy again, this time being an attempt to form a minerals consortium with other countries to secure minerals vital to US manufacturing. No doubt, this initiative will end up on the ash heap of bad policy.
The US fiat monetary regime not only has given us inflation and boom-and-bust cycles, but it also is the main contributor to the out-of-control government spending and debt accumulation.
The standard line among most economists is that deflation is as bad or even worse than inflation. In reality, the economy needs deflation now more than ever.
Last week’s CPI report, and this week’s PPI report both showed price inflation surging to multi-year highs, and not just on oil prices.
What might be the process of a society moving from being unfree to being free? Here is one scenario.
