Mises Media

Gold markets have been volatile, to put it mildly, and the drama isn’t over. Unfortunately, governments are so involved in the gold markets that true market prices are hard to find.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/precious-paper-problem-divergence-western-bullion-markets

In the late 1800s, American finally went in search of empire abroad, taking land by force and subjugating people who simply wanted their captors to leave.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-america-chose-empire

When the recent NFL draft was held in Pittsburgh, city officials declared bus fares would be free so fans would pack the auditorium where the draft was held. Who would have thought that making scarce goods free would bring about chaos with the bus riders?

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/nfl-draft-and-public-buses

It's not enough for an ideology to merely have a "good argument." Historical conditions must also combine to delegitimize the regime and its institutions. 

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/battle-ideas-paves-way-radicals-and-revolutionaries

As the US is involved in yet another pointless war, we would do well to remember the real costs of war, how it strips us of our liberties, and destroys our futures.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/remembering-costs-war

Bob responds to a new working paper from the Geo-chartalism project, which claims to offer a complete theory of the price level by combining insights from Menger, Cantillon, and Warren Mosler. Bob argues that the paper overlooks a crucial prior contribution: Mises' regression theorem, developed in The Theory of Money and Credit, which already solved the circularity problem in monetary theory that the paper claims required Mosler to resolve. Along the way, Bob also explains chartalism, Georgism, and Mises's explanation of the absolute price level.

Related:

• Bob's Paper Critiquing Kevin Carson's Studies in Mutualist Political Economy: Mises.org/HAP548a
• George Charles, “The Mosler-Cantillon-Menger Synthesis”: Mises.org/HAP548b
• MMT vs. Austrian School Debate: Mises.org/HAP548c

The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

The bulk of the US gold reserves held in Fort Knox are made up of impure “non-standard” bars that don’t qualify for use in international settlements.

Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/ft-knox-full-impure-gold-unfit-international-transactions

On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton opens with a detailed analysis of the gold correction. Is the three-month decline a sign that inflation is over, or a temporary reallocation driven by war? The answer is in the data: the CRB commodity index continues to climb, the money supply is at an all-time high, and there is no evidence of deflation anywhere in the price structure. The inflation regime remains firmly in place, and the gold correction is a normal feature of bull markets whose real-world zigzags get smoothed away on long-term charts.

The second half features a panel interview from VRC Media with Rick Rule, hosted by Darrell Thomas. Rule lays out the case for a decade-long commodity super cycle driven by 30 years of underinvestment in productive capacity. He delivers a sobering calculation: $39 trillion in on-balance-sheet federal debt plus $120 trillion in off-balance-sheet unfunded entitlement promises (a combined $160 trillion against $170 trillion in total private American net worth). The only realistic resolution, Rule argues, is a "dishonest default," inflating away the purchasing power of the dollar, just as happened in the 1970s when the dollar lost 75% of its value. Mark concurs, noting that the money supply is growing at record pace even as Washington insists it's being "restrictive."

Mark's "Gold vs CRB Index" graph is available here: https://mises.org/MI175_Graph

The original VRIC interview is online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kMiiC08TNo

20% off listener offer on the new insulated Minor Issues tumbler and three of Mark's books, signed if ordered by the end of April: https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumbler. Use coupon code Thornton.

Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

The UK does not have an energy problem, it has a freedom problem.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/freedom-upsets-patterns-deregulation-argument-westminster-will-not-have

Luck egalitarians fallaciously declare property and wealth to be illegitimate or at least suspect due to a mysterious, unquantifiable force called luck. Their arguments fail even if what they claim about luck is true.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/luck-fallacy-and-luck-egalitarianism