Migration is part of the wider concept of economic freedom. This makes it desirable if prosperity is the goal of policy. But more applicable to the current attitudes and values of Western leaders than mundane economic arguments, migration presents an opportunity to increase the pool from which they extract real income. This is required in the face of poor demographics and growing socialistic ambitions. The extraction is achieved by taxation and inflation, which...
Read More »Rothbard, Milei and the New Right in Argentina
Instead of the usual statist candidates, Argentine voters have to opportunity to elect a Rothbardian who is calling for radical free-market changes in the nation's economy. Original Article: Rothbard, Milei and the New Right in Argentina [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The Interest Rate Shock Will Blow Up the Government’s Ponzi Game
In the international fixed-income markets, interest rates are rising, and the decades-long trend of declining bond yields has undoubtedly been broken. On August 2, 2022, the ten-year United States Treasury yield was 0.5 percent; on October 9, 2023, it had risen to 4.8 percent. Long-term interest rates in Europe, Asia, and Latin America have also risen sharply. The key reason for the rise in capital market interest rates is the central banks’ interest rate hikes—a...
Read More »Destroying Liberty Through State Protection: The First Amendment
Leave it to government judges and politicians to turn constitutional protections of free speech into new ways to centralize and grow state power. Original Article: Destroying Liberty Through State Protection: The First Amendment [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Monetary Chaos
On this week's episode, Mark addresses how we the people can prevent the government and the Federal Reserve from grabbing more power and implementing their own preferred "solutions" to economic issues. This is the third round of monetary chaos the Fed has subjected us to in recent history—a history from which valuable lessons can be learned. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. [embedded content]...
Read More »Thinking outside the State
Modern minds are so oriented toward state power that people often fail to understand there is a better way. Instead of “thinking outside the box,” we should think outside the state. Original Article: Thinking outside the State [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Hostage Extraction Needs to be Privatized
Amidst hostage scenarios, like the Hamas situation, it is important to remember why governments should not pay to have their nationals released. Paying for hostages to be released creates a perverse incentive in which more people are taken hostage to receive more payments. This is undoubtedly a subpar outcome. Furthermore, any effort by governments to reclaim hostages makes their country’s nationals more prone to being taken hostage. Payments and alternative methods...
Read More »Contra CATO: COVID-19 Vaccinations Are Not a Free Market Victory
In light of Nobel Prizes being given to two researchers of mRNA covid-19 vaccinations, beltway establishments like that of the Cato Institute have lauded praises onto the decision. To Cato, as evidenced by a blog post by Ian Vásquez, the production of these vaccines was a “victory of globalization!” Whilst it certainly required a vast scale of global resources and networking, it was hardly what one could consider a free market victory. The development of these...
Read More »October’s Sobering Jobs Report Adds to Mounting Bad Economic News
The Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) released new jobs data on Friday. According to the report, seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs rose 150,000 jobs in October, month over month. The unemployment rate rose slightly from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent over the same period. The headline payroll increase of 150,000, however, was possibly among the best news to be found in today's new jobs data, however. Once we delve more deeply into the numbers, we find substantial...
Read More »Affective Polarization Is Making Us Dumber
Last month, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University announced that it was laying off almost all of its staff, in spite of having received almost $55 million in funds in the last three years. Critics have jumped on Kendi’s fall to renew arguments that he’s a grifter or a “midwit,” but there’s another underappreciated aspect to Kendi’s fall. Kendi always struck me as someone who had the raw intellectual horsepower to succeed but whose...
Read More »