Economic Policy

While Trump has not yet turned to price controls to address America‘s absurdly high drug prices, Monday‘s executive order suggests that he soon may.

Not only are modern monetary theory (MMT) cultists dishonest about the role of money, they also are dishonest about money‘s history. By taking issue with Carl Menger‘s historical version, they expose their own ignorance of how money came about.

Mainstream economists have been obsessed with finding “optimal” tax rates, and Nicholas Kaldor‘s 1940 formalization of the “optimal” tariff is no exception. Austrian economists, however, know that there is no such thing as an “optimal” tax, given the harm taxation causes.

The Trump White House has enacted tariffs in the belief that other countries are “cheating” by enacting tariffs against US goods and “manipulating” their currencies. However, with the US dollar being the world's reserve currency, the US has engaged in dollar manipulation through inflation.

The antitrust lawsuit against Google by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks to dismantle the tech giant on the grounds that it has “monopolized the internet search market.” This is nothing but an overreach that shatters the very pillars of a free and competitive marketplace.

When people speak of “social justice,” they are not speaking of justice in any historical form but rather an imaginary state of affairs in which the state enforces a progressive view of equality. F.A. Hayek wrote that “social justice” is “wholly devoid of meaning or content.”

Although politicians, pundits, and the media claim that a trade deficit is harmful to a country, the reality is much different. In a free economy, individuals interact with each other in mutually-beneficial exchanges. As Murray Rothbard noted, free exchanges do not produce winners and losers.

As egg prices rise, the usual progressive suspects claim it is due to monopoly power by egg producers, calling for government intervention. However, the real reason is government intervention itself.

Profits aren’t immoral—they’re necessary. Just as organisms need a net energy surplus to live, societies need profits to sustain themselves.

The welfare state is supposed to signal the existence of the “compassionate” society that provides care for all. However, this “compassion” has resulted in the proliferation of social pathologies that undermine civilization itself.