What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

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Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) posits that booms and busts can be explained by private versus public sectoral balances and the inherent instability of private financial markets. Stephanie Kelton frequently points to this graph of public and private surpluses and deficits:The red bars show the government’s budget as a percent of GDP. When the government spends more than it collects in taxes, it runs a deficit and sells debt. The government’s debt is sold domestically and to foreign buyers. These groups become net lenders to the government to the extent they purchase government debt, and this is shown with the black and gray bars.When the government (rarely) runs a surplus, it means that the government is collecting more in taxes than it is spending, and so the

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

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On October 17, 2024, Jonathan Newman appeared on Wake-Up Call with Bill Lundun to discuss Austrian economics, Donald Trump, and mainstream economists.The original episode is available at News Radio 1120 KPNW.Bill Lundun (BL): News Radio 1120 KPNW, thanks for being with us this morning. We have like two different things that we keep hearing when it comes to this particular election period. And it is that Americans overall trust Trump more on the economy. And that’s we’re talking about voters, whereas the so-called experts don’t. Who to believe to discuss it this morning? It is Dr. Jonathan Newman. He is a fellow at the Mises Institute, which is a nonprofit that promotes the teaching and research in the Austrian School of Economics. And it’s in the tradition of

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

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In the final stretch of any presidential campaign, the goal is to attract any remaining undecided voters. This usually means that candidates moderate and soften their messaging, especially in comparison to the proposals and rhetoric used to attain the nomination of their respective parties earlier in the campaign. This was on full display in last night’s vice-presidential debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz.I also want to discuss a few important things that weren’t said on the debate stage last night, like whether the government should be involved at all in the areas discussed, the true cause of price inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the momentous political realignment signified by Dick Cheney and other neocons endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket.Bipartisanship

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

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You would think that the growing popularity of homeschooling in the United States would be in more news headlines. Estimates from the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) reveal a staggering increase in the number of homeschool students since the 1970s—by a factor of 238. Of course, there was a surge in homeschooling during the Covid lockdowns, when many public schools either went completely virtual or implemented harsh measures that severely limited both learning and student satisfaction. But the NHERI data shows that there was already a long, pre-Covid trend of growth in homeschooling, from 13,000 students in 1973 to 2.5 million in 2019. The homeschool population exploded above the trend to 3.7 million in 2021, but in 2022 it fell to 3.1 million,

In 301 AD, Roman emperor Diocletian implemented price ceilings on over 1,200 goods. The silver coinage had been debased over the past 250 years, and the citizens were understandably unhappy about high prices. In 50 AD, each denarius had about 3.9 grams of silver, but then the empire debased the coins, sometimes in dramatic steps and sometimes more slowly. By 125 AD, the coins had less than 3 grams of silver. By 200 AD, it was less than 2 grams. There was another precipitous drop in silver content between 250 and 275 AD, and in short order there was only a “neglible coating of silver” on each coin.Image source: Visual Capitalist.The English translation of Diocletian’s edict is fun to read. It shows that not much has changed in politics over the millennia.

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

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Mandate for Leadership 2025 is an unofficial blueprint for a potential conservative administration, published by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Donald Trump has distanced himself from the project, even though many people associated with his first term as president contributed to the document.It’s billed as “The comprehensive policy guide for a new conservative president, offering specific reforms and proposals for Cabinet departments and federal agencies, pulled from the expertise of the entire conservative movement.” Paul Dans, the Project 2025 Director, says that the project aims “to deconstruct the Administrative State.”Chapter 24 of the 922-page document is on the Federal Reserve. It was authored by Paul Winfree, Distinguished Fellow in Economic

One of the silver linings of the covid regime is the fact that the state overplayed its hand and turned many people into skeptics of the State and its pawns in the media and academia. This wave of healthy skepticism has led to a surge of interest in the work of Murray Rothbard, the State’s greatest enemy.Dr. Robert Malone, whose Wikipedia entry tells you everything you need to know about what the establishment thinks of him, followed this path. He recently wrote on his discovery of Rothbard through What Has Government Done To Our Money? and Anatomy of the State. Here are a couple snippets — you can read it in full here.—–…I read and attempt to comprehend comments and essays from important economists, but it all sounds like insider babble to me—Keynesian

Robert Reich is on his fifth myth, but so far, he has just been recycling the same progressive talking points in each one. The overall message is that big corporations and the super wealthy wield too much political power and that they shape the law in their own favor, contributing to terrible economic inequality. For Reich, the U.S. economy is a zero-sum game and the people at the top have rigged it so they win and everybody else loses.His solution is strong labor unions, high taxes on the rich, a high minimum wage, more trust-busting, and government wealth redistribution. He sees the economy through the lens of political power, and so the only solutions he can think of are ones that exploit the power of government to channel more of the fixed pie of wealth to a

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

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Robert Reich’s second myth is “Government Obstructs the Free Market.” (See my response to his first myth here.) He says that what we call the “free market” can only exist with a government enforcing rules about property, monopoly, contracts, and bankruptcy. Reich makes the case that big corporations and the super-wealthy have steered the government’s rules and their enforcement for their own benefit.He’s right, except for the bit about government as a necessary condition for markets.The problem with Reich’s subsequent analysis is its superficiality. He focuses on political action committee (PAC) donations, lobbyist spending, and the way political parties have turned into “giant, Washington-based fundraising machines.” The big question Reich never addresses is Why?

Tucker Carlson is apparently warming up to Austrian economics and the work of the Mises Institute. In 2019, when he was still on Fox News, he made a quick dig at Austrian economics, and he was critical of “libertarian economics” as recently as December of last year.But Austrian economics and the Mises Institute have come up in his interviews with three different guests over the past few months, and instead of being critical or dismissive, Carlson was open to the ideas.He posts some of his interviews on Twitter, where the view counts are in the millions. Austrian economics came up in these episodes:March 19 – Ron Paul – 3.9 million views (15-minute clip – full interview behind paywall)May 16 – Dave Smith – 4.8 million viewsMay 21 – Erik Prince – 4.2 million

“Why do we borrow our own currency in the first place?”Stephanie Kelton posed this question in her new documentary, Finding the Money, and a clip of Jared Berstein’s fumbled response to the question has gone viral on social media. Bernstein is the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers to Biden, and so we would expect that he would have an articulate answer to Kelton’s question, but he did not.Instead of trying to parse his response or explain why he fumbled, I want to provide an answer: the State borrows to expropriate real resources from the private, productive part of society. When I made this claim on Twitter, one MMTer responded (somewhat) approvingly: “We all agree on this part. The question is how they do it and what the effect is. MMT gets that part

When Nvidia reported high fourth quarter earnings for 2023 in February 2024, it sparked a general rally in stock markets. Stock markets in the United States, Japan, and Europe jumped to all-time highs after a few days of slight declines.It seems strange for one company’s earnings call to have such a widespread effect, but many are saying that this is all a part of a technological revolution, in which real productivity will increase dramatically due to artificial intelligence powered by chips and hardware developed and produced by companies like Nvidia.This is certainly possible, but it’s worth remembering that the entire global economy is still in the throes of covid interventions and their lagged effects, active geopolitical turmoil, and financial instability due

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released January figures for Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) today, including the price index based on that data.News headlines report the year-over-year percent change in the PCE price index: 2.4%. This gives the impression that price inflation is heading towards the Federal Reserve’s supposed target of 2%.But the data is released monthly, and this way of calculating inflation is slightly misleading. As Joseph Salerno warned,This way of calculating the annual inflation rate is backward looking, because the most recent monthly rate is heavily outweighed by the previous eleven months’ rates.In contrast, calculating the annual inflation rate by compounding and annualizing the most recent monthly or quarterly

Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank fell like dominos in March–April 2023. The United States Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) intervened in an unprecedented way to stall the domino effect. They waived the FDIC’s $250,000 cap on insured deposits at the failed banks, and the Fed instituted the Bank Term Funding Program to bail out any and all banks that run into trouble meeting depositors’ redemption demands.
The interventions saved the banking system, for a while. However, the inherent problem is rearing its ugly head once again.
When Signature Bank was liquidated and put into FDIC receivership, New York Community Bank bought $38.4 billion worth of Signature’s assets. Less than a

Price inflation statistics were a hot topic in 2023. Official measures, like the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to levels not seen in over four decades.
These measures were under commentators’ microscopes as recently as last week. The FRED Blog (run by the St. Louis Fed) briefly discussed how these two measures are constructed and how they differ. Paul Krugman compared the change in the “core” versions of the PCE and CPI (which remove components like food and energy) over six- and twelve-month time intervals, respectively. The consensus view is that these measures have unique applications. According to Krugman, “which one you should choose depends on what question you’re trying to answer.”
But if you

With US government debt skyrocketing past $33 trillion and possible recession looming, the Treasury faces the prospect of running out of suckers. Finding buyers for US debt will become much more difficult.
Original Article: As the US Treasury Runs Out of Creditors, Its Options Dwindle

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Paul Krugman can’t figure out why everybody is so bummed about the economy. From his perspective, we should all be jumping for joy, praising Joe Biden, and publicly signing fifty-year commitments to vote Democrat. Official statistics show that “unemployment is still near a 50-year low, yet inflation has been falling fast.” But the ignorant masses simply won’t get with the picture. Krugman admits “surveys of consumer sentiment and political polls continue to show that Americans have a very negative view of the Biden economy.”
He concludes that it is partisanship and media bias driving a wedge between consumer sentiment and economic reality. He found a study that shows that 30 percent of the disparity can be explained by Republicans who are doing fine economically

As war rages in the Middle East, we are reminded of what Mises wrote in 1949 on warfare and its awful effects.
Original Article: Mises on the History of Warfare

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Recorded at the Mises Circle in Fort Myers, Florida, 4 November 2023. Includes audience question and answer period. 
Special thanks to Murray and Florence M. Sabrin for making this event possible.

The Radical Uncertainty of a Polymorphic Fed | Jonathan Newman

Video of The Radical Uncertainty of a Polymorphic Fed | Jonathan Newman

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“The market economy involves peaceful cooperation. It bursts asunder when the citizens turn into warriors and, instead of exchanging commodities and services, fight one another.”
So Ludwig von Mises begins a short chapter in Human Action called “The Economics of War.”
While brief, the eleven pages (pages 817–28 in the scholar’s edition) are densely packed with Mises’s take on the history of warfare, what leads to total war, how wars are won, the costs of war, and the ideological conditions for war and peace. As is his modus operandi, Mises frequently contrasts war with the peaceful cooperation of the international division of labor.
The History of Warfare
In his short history of warfare, Mises describes the wars of primitive times as total wars, in which both

When Silicon Valley Bank and other banks failed earlier this year, the debate over the sustainability of fractional reserve banking resurfaced. Under fractional reserve banking, banks keep only a fraction of customers’ deposits in reserve. The difference is bank credit, such as government debt, mortgages, business loans, and many other kinds of loans. This practice leaves the bank open to a run, in which panicky depositors attempt to withdraw their funds from the bank en masse but the bank doesn’t have the cash on hand. The following FRED graph gives an idea of the extent of the mismatch between deposits and reserves.
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But we shouldn’t worry about bank runs because the government is here to help. In the US, the Federal Deposit Insurance

Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 23, 2023.

Limitless Money and the Limitless Fed | Jonathan Newman

Video of Limitless Money and the Limitless Fed | Jonathan Newman

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Many people believe that the board game Monopoly, developed during the Great Depression, mimics a real-world capitalist economy. Monopoly is a game, not real life.
Original Article: "Is the Monopoly Board Game Like Real Markets?"

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U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took aim at the Federal Reserve recently:
The reality is, if the dollar is volatile, it’s as bad as if the number of minutes in an hour fluctuated. None of us would be here at the same time. […] When the number of dollars [in relation] to a unit of gold or an agricultural commodity is wildly fluctuating, money doesn’t go to the right projects. It’s just wild—it doesn’t make any sense. That’s been an impediment to economic growth…
So, what we need to do as the next-step—of course I’d like to end it [the Fed]—is at least get rid of the dual mandate. We’re done managing inflation and unemployment. It’s like trying to hit two targets with one arrow, dramatically missing on both. And restore a single mandate: stabilize the US