There has been a noticeable decline in the percentage of Americans identifying as religious. Some perceive this seismic shift as evidence of a secularizing culture. In some quarters, the secularization of America is viewed favorably as an agent of modernization. But researchers are theorizing that the erosion of religious beliefs portends negative consequences for society because religion cultivates meaningful social relationships by nurturing a sense of community....
Read More »Covid-19: Will the Political and Health Scandals Erupt into the Public Light?
Three years after the covid virus hit the world, we are just starting to take a hard look at the damage caused by the covid restrictions. The "experts" not only were wrong; they were scandalously wrong. Original Article: "Covid-19: Will the Political and Health Scandals Erupt into the Public Light?" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content]...
Read More »Is Democracy under Attack in Canada? No, but It Should Be
When the legacy media tells you that democracy is under attack in Canada, don’t believe it. Democracy is alive and well, working exactly as it was designed to work, which is to benefit the political class and their friends at the expense of average citizens who still believe that their vote actually means something. This is consistent with how democracy works in most democratic countries. Professors Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page tell us: The central point that...
Read More »Decorum Propels DC Deceit
The president's SOTU speech has become an annual presentation of a new set of White House lies. But official Washington believes it is worse to publicly boo false statements than to make them. Original Article: "Decorum Propels DC Deceit" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content]...
Read More »Jeremy Bentham: From Laissez-Faire to Statism
[An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (1995)] Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) began as a devoted Smithian but more consistently attached to laissez-faire. During his relatively brief span of interest in economics, he became more and more statist. His intensified statism was merely one aspect of his major — and highly unfortunate — contribution to economics: his consistent philosophical utilitarianism. This contribution, which opens a broad...
Read More »Why the 1787 Constitution Did Not Bring Republican Government to America
It's a myth that the "Founding Fathers" made America a republic in 1787. It was the state governments and their constitutions that did this. But the top-down myth glorifying the central government endures. Original Article: "Why the 1787 Constitution Did Not Bring Republican Government to America" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content]...
Read More »Just Say No to the New Forever War
American and European political elites seem to be wanting the Russia-Ukraine war to be fought to the last Ukranian and have done nothing to bring peace. It's time for a change. Original Article: "Just Say No to the New Forever War" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content] Tags:...
Read More »Business Cycle Intel Report
Mark uses Intel Corporation, the computer chip manufacturer, as a barometer of the business cycle. He looks at the stock price in recent years, its production capacity expansion, and the company's very recent cost- and dividend-cutting moves. Check out Mark Thornton's free book, The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century: Mises.org/Curse Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues....
Read More »Making Nonsense from Sense: Debunking Neo-Calvinist Economic Thought
A few years ago I wrote about some of the errors made by economists who try to apply what they believe are Christian principles to both Austrian and neoclassical economic analysis. These economists believe that the standard economic way of thinking is not only fatally flawed but actually immoral, and that an entire new paradigm must be brought to economics. In the mid-1990s, I taught economics as an adjunct at a Christian college near Chattanooga, being essentially...
Read More »The Politicization of Procreation: The Ultimate in “the Personal Is Political”
Gloria Steinem declared, "The personal is political." Today, politics has reached into family life and even procreation itself, an unhappy trend for unhappy people. Original Article: "The Politicization of Procreation: The Ultimate in "the Personal Is Political"" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content]...
Read More »