Per Bylund on The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized
Dr. Bylund and Jeff Deist discuss Covid and government responses against the backdrop of ripple effects, Say's law, "market failure," and the inability of bureaucrats to make rational tradeoffs.
Recent Podcast Episodes
The Rise of Mega–Gambling Facilities: A New Skyscraper Curse?
Circa casino’s new three-story, 78 million–pixel, high-definition screen in its sportsbook gambling compound may represent a new frontier in mega–building trends similar to those of skyscrapers.
The Myth of America as a “Reluctant Superpower”
In this outstanding study, Stephen Wertheim shows that both views that dominate American foreign policy are wrong. In doing so, he vindicates for our time the merits of a noninterventionist foreign policy.
The Absurdity of Lockdown 2.0
As Ludwig von Mises said, “whoever wants peace among nations must seek to limit the state and its influence most strictly.” This is applicable to peace within nations, too.
The Future of Trump’s Populism
The GOP is at its worst when it's run by the old Bush-Romney-Cheney faction that was in power before Trump. Will "Trumpism" endure, or will the party go back to its old warmongering, pro-establishment ways?
Why Governments Hate Decentralization and “Local Control”
Decentralized societies that value local customs, institutions, and governments are obstacles to the expansion of the regime's power. Not surprisingly, central governments do all they can to destroy this.
Privacy, Power, Fiscal Policy, the Poor: Four Reasons to Worry about CBDCs
Central bank digital currencies need to be centralized and manipulable to some extent in order to use them to implement monetary policy, which is central bankers' goal. This characteristic makes them a very risky proposition.
China’s New Five-Year Plan Exposes the Wishful Thinking behind Socialist Regimes
The trouble with China’s new five-year plan is that it attempts to solve problems while leaving their underlying structural causes unaddressed. In this it is not unlike the final Soviet five-year plans of the 1980s.
Why Commies Hate Your Thanksgiving Dinner
In 1923, Lenin released a propaganda pamphlet titled Down with the Private Kitchen. It explained how private dinners with one's family are reactionary, bourgeois, and generally something requiring total destruction.
Modern Monetary Collectivism
No, “societal” value is not what you want or think is good, and “we” are not a homogenous entity of observable, aggregated preferences.
Lockdowns Destroy What Makes Us Human
Government planners have embraced a materialistic view of human beings which cheapens the importance of family and social events. These "experts" fail to understand what being human really means.
The Right to Own a Gun Isn’t Just for Americans
Private firearms ownership decentralizes coercive power, transferring some of it from the state to the private individual. Naturally, political regimes oppose this. But even many non-Americans embrace private arms.
Covid Is Just the Latest Excuse for Canada’s Politicians to Violate the Constitution
If the word “free” is to have any meaning, it should mean something more than whatever freedom remains after the government has finished restricting it.
Another Pointless Antitrust Campaign by Federal Regulators
The feds claim the chicken industry is trying to exploit the consumer. Yet several decades ago, chicken was more expensive than beef, but thanks to industry efforts, chicken is exceptionally affordable now.
What the Covid Vaccine Hype Fails to Mention
If there were a reduction in mortality from these vaccines, that information would be in the first paragraph of the announcement. But it's not there, which suggests the vaccines aren't as effective as claimed.
2021 Would Be a Great Time to Audit the Fed
In spite of its relentless public relations efforts claiming the opposite, the Fed remains a leading reason for the impoverishment of working-class and middle-class families.
Giving Thanks to Society’s Economic Benefactors
As Thanksgiving approaches, we should be thankful to society’s economic benefactors rather than condemning them because of the wrongheaded ideology of egalitarianism.
Debunking Seven Common Criticisms of Austrian Economics
If people want to dismiss this school of thought, which many seem inclined to do for political (not theoretical) reasons, at least they should do so based on facts and knowledge, not on falsehoods.
Election 2020: Rout of the Technocracy
This victory is not of one candidate or party over another in this race or that, but rather a resounding ideological defeat of one of the most illiberal and menacing forces we face at the moment: technocracy.
Being Pro-union Means Being Antiworker
The problem with Biden’s Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is that it would help unions at the expense of the vast majority of American workers.
