Audio Mises Daily

The real threat to humanity comes from governments growing ever more powerful in the name of fighting climate change. Whether you are a "denier" or whether you think carbon dioxide emissions need to be sharply reduced very quickly, you should be extremely skeptical of the process now unfolding in Washington. This isn't about saving the planet; it's about money and power, writes Robert P. Murphy.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

Sometimes I wish our overlords would get their stories straight. First, Alan Greenspan told us it was impossible to tell if a bubble existed at any given time. Now we have Barack Obama insisting that not only can we detect bubbles, but we can also deflate them with sufficient dispatch to prevent them from causing any serious economic disturbances, writes Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by the author.

If the current level of output and employment is made to depend on inflation, a slowing down in the pace of inflation will produce recessionary symptoms. Moreover, as the economy becomes adjusted to a particular rate of inflation, the rate must itself be continuously increased if symptoms of a depression are to be avoided: to inflate is to have "a tiger by the tail", writes Sudha R. Shenoy (1943-2008).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Liley.

John Maynard Keynes often employed flowery language like "animal spirits" and "liquidity trap" to describe things he did not understand. He was, after all, more of a bureaucrat than an economist. In fact, he would best be described as an anti-economist because he eschewed things like supply and demand and held the opinion that government could run the economy, writes Mark Thornton.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by the author.

Today is Earth day, and a week ago we "celebrated" tax day. It is fitting, in a sense, that Earth Day and Tax Day are only one week apart. Those who blame global warming on human activity see taxation as an effective and desirable means of preventing environmental global catastrophe. In a recent publication, former Bush advisor Greg Mankiw has extended an "open invitation to join the Pigou club" by embracing the idea of regulating greenhouse gases with corrective taxes, writes D.W. MacKenzie.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

It is perhaps the finest introduction to the thought of a major thinker ever published in the discipline of economics. What makes it unique is the fact that it comprises selections and short excerpts from a broad range of Hayek's works written over a span of forty years. Despite its broad coverage, the book is amazingly compact and coherent, seamlessly integrating the main themes from Hayek's writings on money, capital, business cycles, and international monetary systems, writes Joseph T. Salerno on A Tiger by the Tail.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

The German hyperinflation was the result of a policy that considered the financing of government debt by an accelerating increase in the money stock as the politically least unfavorable method. It seems that the state of opinion hasn't actually changed much. Today, there is great public support when it comes to expanding the base-money stock for financing ailing banks, insurance companies and, most important, rising government debt, writes Thorsten Polleit.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

Study of the past, it is assumed, discloses the shape of things to come. Any attempt to reverse or even to stop a trend is doomed to failure. Man must submit to the irresistible power of historical destiny. This doctrine is devoid of any logical or experimental verification. Historical trends do not necessarily go on forever, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

The works of Leonard E. Read, who founded the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in 1946, are now online at the Mises Institute. It is probably not the complete collected works, but it is all that he collected in book form. These are books that shaped several generations of activists, donors, writers, and intellectuals. They are the books that kick-started the libertarian movement after World War II, writes Jeffrey A. Tucker.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.

Through your commentary, you provide intellectual cover for a system and structure of power that does not deserve your support. Would you consider that the truth may be vastly different from what you have come to accept as fact? Government's role in regulating this system of human interactions has grown to enormous proportions. Because of this, we have had a system operating in America for some time now that cannot even remotely be described as free-market capitalism, writes Matthew J. Novak.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Floy Lilley.