Mises Media
Podcasts, interviews, lectures, narrated articles and essays, and more. This is the Mises Institute's primary online media catalog.
We Are Living in the Fourth American Republic
The old republic is gone. The constitutional order of the Jeffersonian years—i.e., the so-called "American experiment"—was swept away long ago.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/we-are-living-fourth-american-republic
The Tragedy of Socialized Fertility
The dearth of child-bearing in western countries like the US is seen as a political crisis. Yet, if there is any place in our lives where government should stay out, it is in the area of childbirth.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/tragedy-socialized-fertility
USAID Funded Aid Programs Abroad, But Mainly Was a Jobs Program for Progressives
The Trump administration’s downsizing USAID has brought the usual claims: that without US aid, millions of poor people around the world will die of starvation and disease. Not surprisingly, the claims are exaggerated.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/usaid-funded-aid-programs-abroad-mainly-was-jobs-program-progressives
The Free Market for Security
In his concluding argument, Molinari envisions a society where security is provided by competing private firms chosen voluntarily by consumers. He contends that such a system would deliver better protection at lower cost while preserving individual freedom.
The Regime of Terror
Molinari describes the inevitable consequences of monopolized security: rising costs, declining quality, and the use of force against the very citizens the government claims to protect. He illustrates how monopoly governments tend toward oppression and fiscal exploitation.
The Divine Right of Kings and Majorities
This section critiques the justifications used to legitimize government monopoly, from the divine right of monarchs to the sovereignty of democratic majorities. Molinari argues that majority rule is no more legitimate than royal absolutism when it violates individual rights.
Government and Society
Molinari distinguishes between society, which arises naturally from voluntary human cooperation, and government, which imposes itself through force. He argues that conflating the two leads people to accept unjust authority as a necessary feature of civilized life.
The Monopolization and Collectivization of the Security Industry
This section traces how governments historically established and maintained their monopoly over the production of security. Molinari describes how coercive control over defense led to the familiar abuses of taxation, war, and the suppression of individual liberty.
Monopoly and Communism
Molinari draws a parallel between monopoly and communism, arguing that both represent departures from the principle of free competition. He shows that a government monopoly on security shares the same economic defects as collectivized production in any other industry.
The Alternatives
This section outlines the two fundamental ways a community can organize the production of security: through monopoly or through free competition. Molinari frames this choice as the central political question that determines whether a society will be free or oppressed.
Security an Exception?
Molinari confronts the common objection that security is somehow different from other goods and must be exempted from market provision. He systematically challenges the reasoning behind treating defense as a unique case requiring government monopoly.
Competition in Security
Molinari applies the general principle of free competition directly to the provision of security services. He contends that, just as with bread or iron, the quality of security improves and its cost decreases when multiple producers compete for consumers.
The Natural Order of Society
This section lays out the economic principle that all goods and services are best provided through free exchange governed by competition. Molinari argues that the division of labor and voluntary cooperation form the natural basis of social organization.
The Production of Security
Molinari opens by establishing that humans have a fundamental need for security of their persons and property. He frames security as a commodity like any other, one that must be produced and supplied to satisfy this universal demand.
Preface by Murray N. Rothbard
Rothbard introduces Molinari's essay as a pioneering work that took free-market principles to their logical conclusion by questioning the state's monopoly on defense. He situates Molinari within the French liberal tradition and highlights the essay's enduring relevance to libertarian thought.
Gold Could Rise by Thousands of Dollars
In this interview with Trey Reich, Mark Thornton explains why gold’s long-run trend is driven less by headlines and more by monetary debasement, and why Middle East conflict can perversely pressure gold in the short run by pushing oil higher and taking Fed rate cuts “off the board.” Mark walks through Austrian business cycle theory, the scale of malinvestment in private equity/credit and the AI boom, and why the Fed’s real priorities are debt-rollover finance and backstopping the banking system. He also discusses why CPI is a flawed policy guide, why the global monetary regime is shifting...
The Fuel Protests in Ireland: Their Lights and Shadows
There are fuel protests in Ireland, which are not surprising given the havoc Trump’s Iran war has caused in oil markets. They also should be protesting against the government policies that make the situation worse.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/fuel-protests-ireland-their-lights-and-shadows
The Dollar Collapse Has Begun
On World Affairs in Context with Lena Petrova, Ryan McMaken breaks down what the economic data is actually saying beneath the headlines. The money supply has grown by a trillion dollars in seven months, while the Fed insists policy is tight. Q4 GDP was quietly revised down to 0.5%. Consumer confidence is at multi-decade lows. And the stock market keeps hitting new highs.
Ryan explains why these aren't contradictions. They're symptoms of the same underlying problem: a bubble economy sustained by continuous liquidity injections since 2009 that the Fed has never unwound and never will. He draws a striking...
The Case Against the “Free Bankers”
Despite support from some economists in the free market camp, fractional reserve free banking is doomed for failure, as Murray Rothbard pointed out.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/case-against-free-bankers
The Revolution Was
"There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom."
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/revolution-was
The Right of Self-Determination
The right of self-determination is the right of the inhabitants of every territory to decide on the state to which they wish to belong.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/right-self-determination
Economic Causes of War
Under a system of private ownership, in which the government's only function is to protect property rights, it is immaterial where the frontiers of people's country are drawn.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/economic-causes-war
If Science Is a Public Good, Let China Pay for It
While there is a public uproar about China having access to the work of American scientists, there is a bigger issue at stake: Is science “owned” by “the public”? If not, why are we so worried about the Chinese?
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/if-science-public-good-let-china-pay-it
Those Big, Beautiful Bonds
Whether rates go up or down, neither outcome will be pleasant, leaving a bondholder caught between the Unthinkable and the Unimaginable.
Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/those-big-beautiful-bonds
The Problem with Eternal Vigilance
We are told that it takes “eternal vigilance” to protect our freedom. But what if the entity taking away our freedom has the weapons and the “law” on its side?
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/problem-eternal-vigilance
Robert Aro on the Fed's Reverse Repo Trick
Bob sits down with researcher Robert Aro to review his recent Mises.org article on why the widely anticipated post-QT crash never materialized. They trace the answer back to the Fed's reverse repo facility, which quietly injected trillions back into the financial system even as the official balance sheet was shrinking, and what the depletion of that buffer might mean for what comes next.
Related:
Robert's Power & Market Post, "Why the Crash Was Delayed": Mises.org/HAP547aBob’s Article, “The Inverted Yield Curve and Recession”: Mises.org/HAP547bThe Mises Institute is giving away 1...
When a Chicken Isn’t Just a Chicken
We are reminded time and again that prices emerge from subjective valuation, not objective criteria.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-chicken-isnt-just-chicken
Chemistry 101
On this episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton shows what most economic commentary misses: the market’s intricate structure of production. Starting with a single oil-and-gas byproduct—sulfur—Mark traces how it becomes sulfuric acid, a foundational input for fertilizers, batteries, and especially metal mining. The lesson is practical: war and intervention can disrupt these unseen links, shrinking real incomes and quietly raising the cost of everything from food production to data centers, and even your next plumbing bill.
In the second part of the episode, Mark features his recent interview on The Julia La Roche Show.
2...
Leninism, Democracy, and Immigration
Ryan McMaken looks in detail at an important essay by historian Ralph Raico in which Raico critiques Ludwig von Mises's views on democracy, fascism, and immigration. Raico suggests that Mises's views of democracy and immigration fail to address some real-world problems.
Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbard
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The Next Food Pyramid: Lab-Grown Meat and the New Moral Orthodoxy
The anti-meat movement has influenced government policy well beyond anything close to the truth about meat. From the discredited food pyramid to government funding of “lab-grown meat,” government aids the activists who are making our lives worse.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/next-food-pyramid-lab-grown-meat-and-new-moral-orthodoxy
God Bless Captain Vere: When Constitutional Duty Yields to Institutional Power
With President Trump demanding people in the armed forces as well as in other government offices do his bidding no matter what the law might be, it is time for people to learn the lesson of Captain Vere.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/god-bless-captain-vere-when-constitutional-duty-yields-institutional-power
How War and Fiat Currencies Drive the Price of Gold and Oil
In this interview with Kaneki Kojo, Mark Thornton explains why gold acts like a “canary in the coal mine” for runaway debt, war, and inflation, and why today’s war-driven oil spike can perversely push gold down by delaying central-bank rate cuts.
The original interview is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXm-5wBJm3c
A Look Behind the Fed’s Curtains
Our own Jonathan Newman had the opportunity to sit down with a Federal Reserve governor. The central banker's answers to Newman's questions were evasive and riddled with contradictions. It seems there is not much behind the Fed's technocratic veneer.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/look-behind-feds-curtains
Why Trump's Populism Failed
The conservatives finally got their populist victory for middle-American working-class voters. The result is more federal spending, more federal power, and Israel-first foreign policy.Â
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-trumps-populism-failed
Libertarians Must Never Warm to the Warfare State
Just as, for them, liberty must be the highest political end, peace must be the highest end of foreign policy.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/libertarians-must-never-warm-warfare-state
Rothbard Was Right: Libertarians Must Never Warm to the Warfare State
A foreign policy that seeks to maintain a global empire is entirely incompatible with the laissez-faire, free-market system at home that many hawkish self-described libertarians claim to support.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/rothbard-was-right-libertarians-must-never-warm-warfare-state
Trump’s Foreign Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean Needs a Strategic Reset
President Trump is not only angering Iranians and most of Europe. He also is making new enemies in both North and South America. Perhaps it is time for policy reset.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-foreign-policy-latin-america-and-caribbean-needs-strategic-reset
Who Pays the Hormuz Toll?
According to Rothbard’s first law of incidence, “no tax can be shifted forward.” That is, the person or company paying the tax cannot make the buyer pay the tax.Â
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/who-pays-hormuz-toll
Raico, Ekirch, and the Tragedy of American Militarism
In dealing with the question of why the United States, a country founded on liberty, turned into a militaristic behemoth, Ralph Raico looked to the work of historian Arthur Ekirch for answers.
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/raico-ekirch-and-tragedy-american-militarism
Luke Gromen on the Strait of Hormuz and Supply Chain Collapse
Bob sits down with macro researcher Luke Gromen of Forest for the Trees to discuss the cascading supply chain consequences of a closed Strait of Hormuz. They also touch on why gold is already supplanting the dollar as the world's premier reserve asset, and what the surge in U.S. gold exports over the past five months tells us about where the global monetary order is heading.
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