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This, of course, is great news for the Austrian School, where anyone in the world can do what Gordon Tullock did and become his own economist by reading Human Action! The University of Michigan students who spontaneously began chanting when Ron Paul showed up there in 2012 to campaign for the Republican nomination were not chanting "Game theory! Game theory!" They were chanting "End the Fed! End the Fed!" because they had read some of the works of Austrian economists.

In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises transforms the law of comparative advantage from a tool used to analyze international trade questions to a tool used at every level of trade. He renames it the "law of association." By applying the law of association to trade at every level (from individuals to general markets to international markets), Mises shows the necessity of free markets for human flourishing. The law of association may be the most difficult economic law to understand because sometimes it leads to counterintuitive conclusions. For example, if a person wants bread, it might be economically better for him to specialize in something else and trade for bread even if he is better at making bread than everyone else.

Human Action is more than a book about economics broadly construed. It is a guide to civilized social life which elucidates the laws of reality that apply if human persons are to engage in peaceful and prosperous social cooperation under the division of labor. For Mises, unlike most economists, economics is not merely an "analytical toolbox" for grading alternative economic policies or economic systems as more or less practical or efficient. Rather, economics is a body of substantive truths about the institutional foundations of human society. Thus, what is at stake in formulating a well-founded and coherent structure of economic theory is not an incremental change in GDP or 'social welfare' but the fate of humanity.

Mark Thornton opens this episode with a strategic assessment of the war's economic fallout: not the headlines, but the second- and third-order effects that are only now becoming visible. Oil production facilities across the Gulf have been destroyed, disrupted, or shut down, and restarting them is not a matter of flipping a switch. Some older wells will need to be redrilled entirely. Meanwhile, the disruption to fertilizer production threatens the next crop season and potentially longer-term food prices worldwide

Mark also provides a skyscraper curse update: the Jeddah Tower, once expected to reach record height in early 2027, has been pushed further out as Saudi finances and Gulf logistics are redirected toward reconstruction. The commodity super cycle thesis, he argues, remains fully intact despite the gold correction.

The second half features a detailed interview from Palisades Gold Radio in which Mark unpacks these themes further, covering the Austrian micro approach versus the Keynesian macro framework, why the stock market can hit all-time highs while the real economy deteriorates, and why the world is slowly but steadily moving back toward commodity money.

2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray's 100th birthday—and we're celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/issuesfree

Register for our upcoming Mises Circle, Why Is the Healthcare System Broken?, June 27 in Windham, New Hampshire: https://mises.org/events/why-healthcare-system-broken-mises-circle-new-hampshire

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Bill Anderson offers a ground-level view of California's decline, arguing that the state's deep entanglement of government with water, energy, housing, and transportation has created a self-reinforcing system where every new crisis produces more regulation, more spending, and fewer productive citizens.

Recorded in San Diego, California, on April 25, 2026.

To complain against the state’s actions, argues Hobbes, is to ultimately complain against yourself because you originally authorized the state through social contract and the state represents you!

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/hobbess-state-why-are-you-hitting-yourself

Connor O'Keeffe argues that California's wildfire crisis is not simply a climate story but a government failure story. The state has monopolized nearly all wilderness land, refused to manage it adequately, and then distorted insurance markets to push more people into high-risk fire zones, making fires both larger and more deadly than they would be under a private property regime with real liability.

Recorded in San Diego, California, on April 25, 2026.

On this episode of Power & Market, Ryan, Tho, and Connor discuss the escalating battle over Congressional districts. As Republicans and Democrats engage in an arms race over gerrymandering, assisted by a new Supreme Court ruling over racial districts, is the facade of "representative democracy" finally slipping?

Entrepreneurship is a voluntary undertaking that causes change by providing value. No force, no threats, and no coercion are involved. It is market action fully in line with our libertarian ideals. And it provides alternatives, and produces variety.

Original article: https://mises.org/misesian/how-change-world-entrepreneurship-versus-politics

2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/AudioFree

Chris Calton links California's housing crisis to three books published in the 1960s that spawned three ideological movements — the democratization of urban planning, the politicization of environmentalism, and the no-growth movement — each of which handed activists and bureaucrats new tools to block development and destroy private property rights one permit hearing at a time.

Recorded in San Diego, California, on April 25, 2026.