Progressive governments in the name of equity are calling for taxation of capital gains. They really are demanding destruction of capital through capital consumption.
Original Article: "Taxing Capital Leads to Capital Consumption"
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The Misesian tradition provides essential insights into the nature of capital. From Frédéric Bastiat to Murray N. Rothbard, Austrian capital theory excels.
Bastiat illustrated gains from capital by giving us the anecdote of the neighbor who wanted to borrow a timber planer. Rothbard gave us the examples of royalties in the extractive industry to illustrate capital consumption. The list goes on. Often, capital’s exceptional output is because it behaves as both nonlinear and time specific.
Historically, societies have been reluctant to tax gains from capital. For example, capital gains tax was only introduced in Australia in the mid-1980s. Many of the gains from capital assets continue to receive favorable tax treatment.
The Laffer curve attempts to model government
Robert Mugabe, once president for life of Zimbabwe, became infamous for hyperinflation and political repression. Today, he is becoming the patron saint of central banking.
Original Article: "Central Banks Are Creating the Return of Mugabenomics"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
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Because his actions were so outrageous, perhaps it is impossible to satirize the former president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, but perhaps I can describe him.
As a shout-out to all my neighbors in the Asia Pacific, let us not forget the Sun Tzu tradition to “know the enemy.”
For an analysis of the Zimbabwe hyperinflation, see Jayson Coomer and Thomas Gstraunthaler’s article in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.
Below, I draw similarities between Mugabe’s policies and Western central banks and discuss the effects of both on an economy’s productive capacity.
Perhaps for the staunchest communist, Mugabe was the final stage, the dictatorship of the proletariat, before the onset of utopia. Nonsense! Either utopia takes more than twenty years to dawn or the
President Biden’s recent call to "buy American" is doomed to failure, just like all other protectionist schemes.
Original Article: "Biden versus Bastiat"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
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Whether well-intentioned or otherwise, a “Made in China” ban for construction materials on federally funded infrastructure projects will benefit a chosen political class to the detriment of all else.
“This rival, which is none other than the sun, is waging war on us so mercilessly . . . We ask you to be so good as to pass a law requiring the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights.”
Frédéric Bastiat’s scathing satire of the absurdity of protectionist policies, written over 170 years ago, hammers the point home: sunlight is free so no wonder the candlemakers need regulation to compete with the sun.
It would appear President Joe Biden’s economic advisers have not only ignored Bastiat but also the centuries-old fundamental economic insights of specialization and
