Audio recordings of Mises Wire articles, offering contemporary news and opinion through the lens of Austrian economics and libertarian political economy.
Total war against civilians didn't begin with World War II. It was official policy of the Union during the Civil War to lay waste to southern cities, towns, and farms. Tactics northern generals used against civilians became the blueprint for armed forces in Europe and Japan 80 years later.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/total-war-against-civilians-never-justified
The standard argument for government services is that only government can build enough roads to meet transportation needs. However, the disconnect between production and consumer choice ensures misallocation of resources under government roads, including traffic congestion.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-government-helps-create-congested-traffic
When politicians intervene in the economy, they often do it in the name of mitigating “greed” or “profiteering.” While they can pass laws regulating prices and the like, they cannot repeal economic laws. Instead, they can only make things worse.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/exploiting-moral-unseen
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Why Haters of Free Markets Love the Fruits of Free...
There are numerous critics of free markets. However, all of those critics also are consumers and they gladly depend upon free markets to satisfy their needs.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-haters-free-markets-love-fruits-free-markets
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Jimmy Carter’s Legacy Is Much More than Good Deeds...
Most editorialists and pundits have labeled Jimmy Carter's presidency a failure, but his activities after he left office as a rousing success. The truth is that his successful deregulation efforts have left a positive and lasting legacy.Original article: Jimmy Carter’s Legacy Is Much More than Good Deeds Done in His Later Years
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A Praxeological Critique of the Equation of Exchange...
No macroeconomics or monetary theory course is complete without introduction of the Equation of Exchange, or MV = PQ. However, this equation explains nothing, praxeologically speaking. Instead, it clouds our understanding of how money fits into our economy.Original article: A Praxeological Critique of the Equation of Exchange and Neutrality of Money
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The Manifestation of Economic Laws Across Societies...
Contra Marx, the laws of economics are immutable and are the same no matter what historical epoch exists. Economies cannot flourish unless market prices, private property rights, and profits and losses are unhampered.Original article: The Manifestation of Economic Laws Across Societies and Epochs
One sign of a fraying society is that its laws increasingly become political tools. The latest round involves Democrats trying to use criminal law in a very questionable way to try to put Donald Trump in prison, while Trump promises to retaliate if he is elected.Original article: The Perils of Lawfare
Progressives claim that the state grants us our rights, and that liberty can flourish only in the presence of a powerful state. The truth runs in the opposite direction.Original article: The Presumption of Liberty
In the spirit of a new Cold War, Matthew Kroenig and Dan Negrea have written a new book, We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War, which tries to fuse the foreign policies of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. The result is a foreign policy Frankenstein.Original article: We Lose, They Lose: A Reagan-Trump Fusion
Einstein's name is synonymous with brilliance, yet his great intelligence did not translate to logical economic thinking. Instead, Einstein embraced socialism, thinking that one could guide an economy like one guides a mathematical equation.Original article: Einstein Was the Greatest Physicist but Was Economically Illiterate
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Simple Counters to Simplistic Critiques of Austrian...
Critics of Austrian economics often claim that real economic events are too complex to be dealt with via free markets. However, because Austrian economics is based upon understanding human action, it better explains why economic intervention routinely fails.Original article: Simple Counters to Simplistic Critiques of Austrian Economics
Vegas expected Renato “Sound Money” Moicano to lose his UFC fight against Benoit Saint Denis. Instead, he won and used the opportunity to promote the work of another Austrian economist. This time, it was Hans-Hermann Hoppe.Original article: Underdog Moicano Wins UFC Fight, Bashes Macron in France, Promotes Hoppe
Western governments are keen on pursuing “hate crimes” and criminalizing what it calls “hate symbols.” However, these governments reserve to themselves just how one defines “hate,” which is nothing more than an attack upon free speech.Original article: “Hate Symbols” and the Meaning of Liberty
Thanks to increasingly broad car-seat laws, a third child often requires the purchase of a larger, more expensive vehicle. At the margins, this has an effect on fertility.Original article: Yes, Car Seat Laws Reduce the Birth Rate
When people speak of “old school economics,” they generally mean the application of economic thinking that involves what we might call “common sense.” That would include permitting a price system to work, protecting private property, and so on. But there is more.Original article: What is Old School Economics?
While F.A. Hayek contributed much to the Austrian School of Economics, he also supported the establishment of the welfare state, believing that it was compatible with the rule of law. Ludwig von Mises, however, knew that the welfare state is the ubiquitous slippery slope.Original article: Hayek on the Welfare State
The common belief regarding state power is that it is always justified and there can be no questioning the state's existence. But is that true? Does state power conform to natural law or is it imposed upon subjected people?Original article: Can the State be Justified?
Modern egalitarians play down the idea of free will, claiming that free will is relevant only if individuals have no interference with their choices. Murray Rothbard, on the other hand, recognized that self-ownership and one's ability to engage in reason is enough to recognize free will.Original article: Rothbard on Liberty and Free Will
It may not have been created in the lab of a mad scientist, but the euro is still a manufactured, cobbled-together currency made from a number of national monetary units. Indeed, it is the perfect Frankenstein currency.Original article: The Euro Is a Frankenstein-Currency