Mises Wire

Real ID is the latest example of the government using 9/11 as an excuse to grab more power.

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 define inflation as the increase in an imaginary “price level” that is relatively neutral in its effects. Austrian economists, however, know better, as they realize that the effects of inflating the money supply are anything but neutral.

Once a recession sets in, markets can only repair themselves if prices — including wages — are allowed to fall where necessary. The resulting increases in real interest rates are the key to spurring new economic activity.

With the deadline for obtaining the federal government‘s Real ID technically upon us, it‘s important to understand that this is not an irritating but necessary program to keep Americans safe. It's the latest example of the government using 9/11 as an excuse to grab more power.

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.

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.”

Jonathan Newman joins Bob Murphy to explore what economics really is, why it matters, and how the revamped Mises Academy is helping teach it the right way.

Although government officials and true believers in “green energy” are denying it, the collapse of the electric grid in Spain and Portugal proves that reliance on renewables for electric production is doomed to failure. Whether people listen is another story.