Mises Media

Mark Thornton reviews David Howden’s data-driven guide to long-horizon investing in commodities, useful even for Austrians wary of statistics. Mark explains how the book’s method ranks assets by relative valuation, generates 10-year return forecasts, and frames risk premiums, using gold and silver as case studies. Mark highlights how a formal model can still complement Austrian fundamentals and capital-allocation thinking, and he previews an upcoming episode on silver that will build on these results.

Purchase The Almanac of Commodities by David Howden at http://mises.org/almanac

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As a true market entrepreneur, as opposed to a political entrepreneur, James J. Hill successfully built a transcontinental railroad, outcompeting his government-subsidized competitors.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/myth-robber-barons-james-hill-versus-crony-competitors

Dr. Alex Pollock explains how monopoly money empowers the state to finance deficits and wars, and why legal tender laws should give way to free choice in money. He explores why genuine competitors—likely led by gold—would discipline issuers, noting central banks’ renewed appetite for bullion as an emergent currency competition.

Sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed.

Recorded at the Mises Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, on October 17, 2025.

On this special episode of Power and Market, Joshua Mawhorter joins Tho Bishop and Connor O'Keeffe to talk about the recent Supporters Summit, the legacy of Mises.org, and a few books they are reading.

Once again, the Trump administration’s “dealmaking” on international trade has blown up, this time pulling the rug from under US soybean farmers. This isn’t the first trade policy fiasco, nor will it be the last.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/america-hurts-farmers-and-discounts-chinas-soy-imports-while-providing-crutch-argentina

Dr. Joe Salerno shows how market‑led falling prices spread growth gains even when nominal wages don’t change. The takeaway: don’t fear natural deflation—fear policies that target permanent inflation.

Sponsored by Murray and Florence Sabrin.

Recorded at the Mises Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, on October 17, 2025.

The governmental response to the covid pandemic was to cripple the economy. To compensate for the damage, the Federal Reserve unleashed massive inflation in an attempt to do what the Fed always does in a crisis: bail out the economic actors.

Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/we-have-not-properly-reckoned-economic-insanity-2020

Be sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at https://Mises.org/GB

The concept of “planned obsolescence” makes no economic sense and is often an excuse for governments to harass and shake down innovative entrepreneurs. Much of so-called planned obsolescence is really entrepreneurship at work improving products for users and consumers.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/myth-planned-obsolescence

“I see that you are preparing the groundwork for supporting Nixon,” Rothbard wrote Meyer. “Again, for shame! Is this what conservative principles are coming down to...?"

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/new-rothbard-letters-show-his-early-opposition-both-nixon-and-reagan

There have been four gold busts under the fiat dollar money regimes since the “freeing” of the gold price in March 1968. Will the current gold boom end in a similar bust?

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/what-will-next-gold-bust-look

In this episode of the Human Action Podcast, Bob unpacks Lerner’s Symmetry Theorem—the classic result that, under tight conditions, an import tariff is equivalent to an export tax. He applies the framework to recent 100% China‑tariff headlines, explaining why the dollar might strengthen in theory yet sometimes weakens in practice once retaliation and policy signaling are factored in.

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

The US Constitution as originally written and understood no longer exists. The first wave of “progressives” reinterpreted it to their liking before later generations of progressives finished the job.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-progressives-broke-constitution-and-praised-themselves-it

Popular views of capitalism and free markets are not shaped by the facts, but rather by anti-capitalist intellectuals and the media.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/popular-media-romanticism-and-statist-insinuation

Mark Thornton shares a timely conversation from the Liberty & Finance podcast with Elijah K. Johnson. Mark explains why $50 silver is a psychological barrier, and how decades of tech shifts, by-product mining, and central-bank gold buying shaped today’s divergence between gold and silver. The thread tying it all together: easy money seeds malinvestment and fragility; metals hedge the fallout.

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

This week, Bob tackles growing concerns about artificial intelligence, automation, and mass unemployment. Using the principles of marginal productivity and comparative advantage, he shows how the standard economic arguments still apply—even in the age of ChatGPT and robotics. Responding directly to viral tweets from Matt Walsh, Bob dismantles the popular belief that AI will inevitably destroy human labor markets. He explains why highly skilled labor has always coexisted with less-skilled workers and why new technologies, despite their disruptive effects, tend to improve standards of living for everyone over time.

The Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of...

Mark Thornton lays the groundwork for understanding gold and silver before politics gets involved. Mark explains why monetary metals emerge from market “evolution,” how their non-consumptive use creates massive above-ground stocks, and why the same metal serves multiple markets (money vs. consumption) with one price. He explains how demand shifts trigger conservation and recycling, why new mining lags price spikes, how “near-monies” substitute when people economize on cash balances, and why any apparent stability (even par relationships) reflects underlying market conditions, not decree. Today’s price volatility is largely the artifact of intervention, not the metals themselves.

Be sure to...

Ryan and political scientist Joseph Solis-Mullen talk about how taxes, war, and the state are all part of a centuries-old formula for impoverishing the productive class while enriching the government class.  

Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbard

Radio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off

The yearning for a state-controlled system is not born of compassion for others but rather of infantile selfishness.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/economics-and-infantilization-culture

On this episode of Power and Market, Ryan, Connor, and Tho look at this week's headlines, including the prospects for the Gaza peace deal, blue state propaganda, the Jay Jones text message scandal, and an inevitable new subsidy for Obamacare.

There's still time to join the 2025 Mises Institute Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida. Learn more here.

“Science” is now indistinguishable from politics. As the “acid rain” hysteria showed back in the 1970s and 1980s, “follow the science” is just a political slogan, unrelated to actual science.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/acid-rain-scare-and-science-industrial-complex

Bari Weiss’s appointment to head CBS News has brought cries of anguish from the usual suspects on the left and approval from some on the right. But will she really bring the kind of change that will challenge the political establishment? Probably not.

Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/bari-weiss-cbs-new-direction-or-misdirection

Be sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at https://Mises.org/GB

Once upon a time, American firms built with the long term in view, and the government did not try to hinder them. Today, thanks to reckless federal government spending, we are living hand-to-mouth, accumulating massive debts, and soon enough will be broke.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/going-broke

“The Civil War was really the watershed,” he wrote Meyer. “Lincoln was America’s first dictator, and almost all the Republican Acts were monstrous.”

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/letters-frank-meyer-reveal-rothbards-views-lincoln-slavery-and-popular-sovereignty

The recent assassination of Charlie Kirk has focused attention on political violence. Ludwig von Mises, not surprisingly, understood that tying morality to politicized state helps create the climate where political violence is prevalent.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/mises-separating-morality-and-state

During the Middle Ages, taxation was considered to be appropriate only as an extreme measure in times of emergency, and as a last resort. Kings were expected to subsist on revenues from their own private property.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-taxes-were-so-hated-middle-ages

Jonathan Newman returns to join Bob in a critique of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s viral theory of investment bubbles. Yudkowsky states that the bad investment during bubbles should be felt before the bubble pops, not after. They argue that his perspective—while clever—fails to consider the Austrian insights on capital structure, time preference, and the business cycle. They use analogies from apple trees to magic mushrooms to show why Austrian economics provides the clearest explanation for booms, busts, and the pain that follows.

Leftists seek to create a new society that supposedly is peaceable. However, they also celebrate violence done against political opponents, something that Murray Rothbard understood as undermining every supposed peaceful goal they claim to be pursuing.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/individualism-and-violence-identitarian-left

On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton uses vitamin K2 (MK-7) as a case study in how technocracy goes wrong, elevating cutting-edge findings and bureaucracy over experience, incentives, and real-world diets. Mark explains why K2 is linked in emerging research to bone health, arterial calcification, and even neurodegenerative conditions, and highlights a paradox: many food sources rich in K2 (beef, eggs, butter, chicken liver, European cheeses, salami) are officially discouraged, while “approved” sources (natto, kefir, sauerkraut) are niche. The takeaway isn’t medical advice, it’s a critique of a compliance-driven health regime that sidelines decentralized knowledge and choi...

A long-enduring myth about money is that we need a flexible or "elastic" currency for the economy to grow. Economist Jonathan Newman joins us to talk about why this has never been true. 

Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbard

Radio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off

According to mainstream economists, inflation aids economic growth while deflation impairs growth. Austrian economists, however, point out that in much of US history, economic growth was accompanied by deflation.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/inflation-and-economic-growth

Advocates for US military intervention have invoked the war against the Barbary pirates as justification. Yet, an examination of that conflict shows that President Jefferson’s actions were limited and followed the direction of Congress.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/jeffersons-war-barbary-pirates-unjustified-password-military-intervention

On this episode of Power and Market, Ryan, Tho, and Connor look at the news this week, including the escalation of threats to turn federal troops onto blue states, criminal charges for former FBI Director James Comey, and yet another government shutdown.

There's still time to join the 2025 Mises Institute Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida. Learn more here.

Was Jackson’s victory over the Second Bank of the United States a triumph for liberty, or did it merely expand federal authority under the guise of constraining it? His legacy is complicated, but there is much we can learn from it.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/complicated-legacy-andrew-jacksons-bank-war

The Renaissance period is seen as mostly positive by historians, but the sinister development of absolutism and the imperial state complicates the legacy of that time.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/absolutism-and-reason-state-rothbard-growth-statism

Although the political establishment claims the Comey indictment represents an unprecedented moment in our history, the truth is much different. Federal prosecutors have a long history of bringing unjustified, politically-motivated prosecutions.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/james-comey-not-innocent-victim-lawfare-he-helped-create

The media is trying to frame last week’s indictment of James Comey as a “norm-shattering” use of executive power for personal gain. In truth, it's just the latest chapter in a much older story: the struggle between elected and unelected officials.

Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trump-comey-and-long-history-unelected-government

Be sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at https://Mises.org/GB

By trying to protect dairy farmers and raise their incomes, the government created a massive cheese surplus, then gave it away, thus harming the farmers they were trying to support.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/wheels-government-cheese

Professor Georgy Ganev joins Bob to explain that, contrary to the claims of David Graeber and the MMTers, the barter origin of money has not been refuted. The anthropological evidence is consistent with the Mengerian story, and Mises' regression theorem remains the only coherent explanation for money's value. 

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

Created to assure that newly-freed slaves would receive equal legal protection, the Fourteenth Amendment has come to dominate federal jurisprudence. This is not a good thing.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-fourteenth-amendment-empowers-judicial-activism

Individual voters have little reason to become informed. Politicians have strong incentives to pander rather than persuade. Partisans are rewarded for tribal loyalty rather than epistemic integrity.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-political-violence-becomes-signal