Progressives believe that restricting individual liberty permits better social outcomes. In truth, it is individual liberty that allows societies to function best.
Audio Mises Wire
Audio recordings of Mises Wire articles, offering contemporary news and opinion through the lens of Austrian economics and libertarian political economy.
As officials feign outrage over the death of Alexei Navalny and the jailing of Evan Gershkovich, the US government tries to imprison a journalist for breaking truly incriminating stories.
While Thomas Paine might be one of the most obscure "Founding Fathers" of this country, he was a powerful intellect who helped move people to choose liberty and independence.
Socialists never give up trying to prove that socialism can maintain a functioning economy. Some have dragged out a nearly forty year old study as their exhibit A.
When governments go to war, the nation’s monetary system usually descends into the pit of inflation. The War of 1812 was no exception, and its monetary excesses led to the Panic of 1819.
In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Fed chairman Jerome Powell gave assurances that the US banking system is sound. Ben Bernanke also claimed almost twenty years ago that real estate markets were not overextended. The hubris must be in the water at the Eccles Building.
While term limits is a near-article of faith by many on the right, the concept is flawed at its inception and the results are worse than anticipated.
As the European Union becomes increasingly dominated by progressive elites, it becomes more authoritarian and contemptuous of the rights of those the Union purports to serve.
In 2022, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used political favors and government grants to maneuver thousands of workers into jobs producing electric trucks. But consumers aren’t interested.
Some economists believe that the balance of payments is what determines currency exchange rates. In fact, exchange rates are always about the purchasing power of some currencies relative to others.
While South Africa’s political authorities pursue genocide accusations against other countries, those same leaders are destroying the nation’s economy and basic infrastructure. This is a failed state.
Javier Milei is trying to undo the damage created by nearly a century of socialism in Argentina. Mises, Rothbard, and Hayek were good teachers.
The “One-China” policy assumes Taiwan to be a runaway province. The people of Taiwan, however, see their country as sovereign, and their reasons have merit.
Another Pentagon audit, another massive failure. But the Pentagon's problems are not just simple accounting. They reflect the reality of an unaccountable rogue empire that tries to prop up the US empire.
School choice would seem to have benefits, but as Thomas Sowell says: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” Enthusiastic “school choice” proponents forget that with government money comes government control.
There will be life after Trump one way or another, but in the long run, it seems as though the ruling party always wins.
While US taxpayers pay billions for military missions around the world in the name of “keeping us safe,” the federal government fails to keep residents of the nation’s capital safe from violent crime.
Social Security is headed for reduced benefits, and no amount of political rhetoric or even tax increases will solve that problem. The numbers do not lie.
When Adam Smith and the English classicals promoted division of labor as the most important ingredient in economic development, it took Carl Menger and his Austrian successors to point out that error and promote the proper economic theory of production.
Block’s call for total war and the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza is the complete and uninhibited rejection and renunciation of the nonaggression principle that constitutes one of the very cornerstones of the Rothbardian system.
