Tag Archives: 6b) Mises.org

According to the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), money is something decided by the state. The MMT regards money as a token. For instance, when an individual places a coat in the cloakroom of a theater, he receives a tin disc or a paper receipt. This receipt or a disc is a proof that the individual is entitled to demand the return of his coat.According to the MMT, the material used to manufacture the tokens is irrelevant—it can be gold, silver, or any other metal or it...

An issue which not long ago had only the support of Ron Paul has now become a priority for the Trump Administration: the auditing of Fort Knox. At CPAC last week, Donald Trump took time out of speech to boast that he and Elon Musk were soon to be traveling to America’s largest gold depository “to see if the gold is there. Because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tons of gold.”The topic of Fort Knox is interesting itself for a number of other reasons. Its gold reserve...

[Editor’s Note: In 2011, Congressman Ron Paul sponsored legislation to audit the gold reserves of the United States and publish the results of that audit for public scrutiny. Thanks to opposition from the usual opponents of transparency and decent monetary policy in both parties, the bill was never passed. Below is the text of Congressman Paul’s opening statement on the legislation at the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology. Paul was...

High inflation spurred Donald Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris last November. The economy was the top issue for most voters, and inflation was the top economic issue. As Biden’s partner in economic crime, Harris could not escape the blame for the torpedoing of the dollar’s value in recent years.Inflation occurs when the government prints excessive currency, resulting in more money chasing the same amount of goods and services. Nobel Laureate economist Friedrich...

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....

On the night of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, American insurrectionists donned disguises and destroyed a shipment of tea imported by the East India Company. The protestors boarded privately owned ships in the harbor and threw the tea overboard. Later that night, the activists discovered another tea shipment that had been unloaded at a warehouse. Not content with having destroyed most of the company’s import, they broke into the warehouse and destroyed that tea, too....

Éric Lombard, France’s Minister of Economy and Finance, makes a negative impression almost every day with his statements on the economy and the role of the state in society. These positions are a perfect reflection of the gulf between the French political class, defenders of socialist statism, and a world that is following a completely opposite path: one of freedom, economic liberalization, eager to reduce the weight of the state in the life of individuals... In...

On February 10, President Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports. Legally, Trump is within his rights to do so, as Congress gave the President the power to set tariffs. However, the Constitution of the United States places the power to impose tariffs in the hands of the Legislative Branch. The President’s capricious application of tariffs demonstrates why Congress needs to guard this authority more jealously.Yet, tariffs are not cure...

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....

Austrian economics is a scholarly tradition that consists of a body of theory that explains how an economy works. Austrian economists develop theory a priori, meaning explanations are derived logically from sound starting points (i.e., the “action axiom” to Mises). This means the theory is true and can therefore be used to uncover the actual causalities behind observable phenomena. Economics is, therefore, to “Austrians” a framework for understanding what we...