It is tempting, as Naomi Wolf has done recently, to ascribe the breakdown of Western civilization to the debasing of “Judeo-Christian” ethics and the reemergence 0f malignant supernatural forces. Witnessing the many assaults on the infrastructure and social order of the United States of late, I wouldn’t rule out metaphysical causality either. But to blame the pagan gods, or, in specifically Christian terms, to blame Satan, is to take comfort in an obscured...
Read More »The Nationalization of Credit?
Arthur Travers-Borgstroem, a Finnish writer, published a book entitled Mutualism that deals with ideas of social reform, and culminates in a plea for the nationalization of credit. A German edition appeared in 1923. In 1917, the author had established a foundation under his name in Berne, Switzerland, whose primary objective was the conferring of prizes for writings on the nationalization of credit. The panel of judges consisted of Professors Diehl, Weyermann,...
Read More »Forget the Liquidity Trap—Loose Monetary Policies Cause Recessions
At the heart of Keynesian business cycle theory is the so-called liquidity trap. Contra Keynes, however, economies don't falter because a sudden increase in the demand for money. Original Article: "Forget the Liquidity Trap—Loose Monetary Policies Cause Recessions" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content]...
Read More »Ivy League Law Schools and the Slow Death of the Meritocracy
We currently find ourselves in a bizarre wasteland of mainstream political discourse. These days no US institution, and indeed no corner of American life, is safe from politicization or even from becoming a mouthpiece for extreme activism. Since last November, Yale, Harvard, and other top US law schools have opted out of participation in the annual rankings by US News & World Report, a long-established go-to reference for how the nation’s laws schools stack up...
Read More »Saint Augustine, Proto-Austrian
One of the fundamental tenets of Austrian economics is the ordinal value scale. Augustine articulated the idea more than a thousand years before Carl Menger wrote his pathbreaking Principles of Economics. Original Article: "Saint Augustine, Proto-Austrian" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content]...
Read More »Secession Is Inevitable. It’s about When, Not If
Never is a very, very long time in politics. Yet whenever the topic of secession or so-called national divorce comes up, how often do we hear that “secession will never happen.” It’s difficult to tell if people using the term “never” actually mean it. If they mean “not in the next ten or twenty years,” that’s plausible. But if they truly mean “not in the next 100 (or more) years,” it’s clear they’re working on the level of absolutely pure, unfounded speculation. Such...
Read More »Readying the War State: Biden Recommits to Protectionism in the SOTU
As it always does, the State of the Union (SOTU) address dominated the media cycle for several days before and after. Now that the period has (gratefully) passed, and the issues raised have faded from the headlines into the background, it is worth taking a look at some of the policies that featured heavily in Biden’s speech, and which have reemerged to become so vogue among both Democrats and Republicans. Specifically, protectionism. Indeed, with practically the only...
Read More »Remember the Alamo! Moses Rose’s Last Stand
In the name of "economic development," San Antonio's government is seeking to seize a thriving business near the Alamo. Original Article: "Remember the Alamo! Moses Rose's Last Stand" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The New Racism of the Elect
A new movement is emerging on the left. This movement sells guilt and self-flagellation and calls it antiracism. Its leaders present themselves as the absolute authority on race relations and claim that being a good white person means following their instructions. But when it comes to racism, “the elect” (to borrow Columbia University linguistics professor John McWhorter’s term for members of this movement) misdiagnose the problem and posit solutions that will make...
Read More »Today’s Reactionary Reality
Recorded in Tampa, Florida on February 25, 2023. [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
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