Bob originally invited Brian Albrecht (Chief Economist of the International Center for Law & Economics) to discuss the work of Armen Alchian, but on the day of recording, Robert Lucas happened to die. Bob and Brian discuss rational expectations, real business cycle theory, and how Alchian cracked the military's top secrets. Brian on Alchian's famous "Costs and Outputs" paper: Mises.org/HAP396a [embedded content] [embedded content]...
Read More »How to Teach Austrian Economics to the Neighbor Kids
Austrian economics is not dry theory. It helps us make sense of our world and shows that exchange and production have a place in our moral universe. Original Article: "How to Teach Austrian Economics to the Neighbor Kids" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The Failure of Public Works and Public Funding
State projects are funded by your money, either through taxation or by inflation, most times both. Money is either taken directly from you or you lose purchasing power. The result is the same, as you will lose the ability to buy or produce as much as you wanted because of these projects. However, this is the alleged cost of living in a “civilized society.” Without these projects, we would be driving on dirt roads, living in shacks, and working for pennies a day....
Read More »Historical Effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
While the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade have been well documented, people other than slave traders and slaveholders benefitted from it, with some surprising results. Original Article: "Historical Effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The Putrid Underbelly of Woke Capitalism
Corporate intrigue reached a fevered pitch on May 6, 2023, in Omaha, Nebraska, when a shareholder was arrested during the annual shareholder meeting of Berkshire Hathaway. The shareholder challenged the affiliation of Warren Buffett with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Bill Gates’s association with Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted in Florida for procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute, and who reportedly committed suicide in a New...
Read More »Biden to Go to G7 Summit with Debt Ceiling Unresolved
Overview: The US debt ceiling talks resume at the White House today but a deal is unlikely to be announced. President Biden will attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima with the debt ceiling still looming. The dollar is mostly softer as last week's gains are pared. The Swiss franc and Japanese are the strongest in the G10. The Thai baht and South African rand, among the market's favorites yesterday are seeing those gains retraced. The JP Morgan Emerging Market Currency...
Read More »Charles Schwab and Other Big Banks May Be Secretly Insolvent
While the Fed and the Biden administration try to assure Americans that their banks are safe and secure, the numbers tell a different story. Original Article: "Charles Schwab and Other Big Banks May Be Secretly Insolvent" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Biden’s New Intersectionality: Where Equity Policies Meet Bad Economics
In the summer of 2020, the Smithsonian Institution created a chart meant to condemn what it calls “whiteness,” and it listed a number of characteristics it claimed were essential to “white culture.” Among the so-called characteristics it described in pejorative terms was delaying gratification, or saving for the future, what Austrian economists would call low time preference. The chart, which was withdrawn after widespread protest, sought to identify the...
Read More »Due Process or Transgender Protection on Campus?
President Biden's executive order to promote transgenderism on college campuses eviscerates long-held due process protections for accused students. This will not end well. Original Article: "Due Process or Transgender Protection on Campus?" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Did the US Steal Cherokee Land?
In a recent lecture on her new book, Redressing Historical Injustice: Self-Ownership, Property Rights and Economic Equality, Wanjiru Njoya challenged current calls among some indigenous groups for “land justice” to redress the alleged historical injustices of European colonization. Drawing from Murray N. Rothbard’s book The Ethics of Liberty, Njoya outlined a set of guideposts for determining the actual justice of such claims with reference to South Africa. As...
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