Mises Media

Kitco News anchor Jeremy Szafron sits down with Dr. Mark Thornton to break down why central banks are fleeing Treasuries for physical gold and what the "Skyscraper Curse" signals for a 2026 crash. They discuss the massive 150-ton gold purchase by Poland, a strategic move by a NATO ally that signals a loss of trust in the debt-based system. Mark also exposes a critical, under-reported crisis in the silver market: supply is "inelastic" and "wasted" on war and solar panels, meaning the market cannot physically respond to price spikes. With Japanese bond yields spiking and the Jeddah Tower restarting construction...

Although some scholars have labeled the early Ming Dynasty as a proto-liberal state, they are mistaken. The Ming governance at that time was weak, not limited by law and ideology.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/weak-states-not-limited-states-early-ming-governance-and-illusion-proto-liberalism

The original 13 British colonies that made up the early United States had very different populations with decidedly different political and social outlooks.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/british-north-american-colonies-were-not-homogeneous-political-units

Bob revisits Böhm-Bawerk’s critique of the exploitation theory of interest to answer modern claims that billionaires like Elon Musk must have “stolen” their wealth from workers who supposedly create 100 percent of a firm’s value.

Related:

Politicians don’t build prosperity. Entrepreneurs do. Join Keith Smith, Caitlin Long, Ryan McMaken, Per Bylund, and Timothy Terrell for our first event of 2026: Mises.org/HAHC

The Mises Institu...

Mark Thornton revisits the Skyscraper Curse—the eerie pattern linking record-height towers to major busts—and argues the next signal is flashing for 2026. Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower has restarted and is reportedly adding floors fast, poised to surpass the world record. Mark explains why skyscraper records tend to coincide with late-cycle excess, and how to read the next 12–24 months without superstition.

The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century by Mark Thornton: https://mises.org/curse

Anatomy of the Crash, edited by Tho Bishop: https://mises.org/cras...

When it comes to the great political economist John C. Calhoun, most people love him or hate him. In this episode, economic historian Patrick Newman joins us to take a more balanced look at Calhoun, his origins as a War Hawk and nationalist, and why he was never a true Jeffersonian. 

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

On this episode of Power and Market, Ryan, Connor, and Tho discuss the reported probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Is this actual accountability for malfeasance, or a petty battle of DC egos? At the end of the day, does the difference matter? And should Powell be encouraged that central banks around the world are standing in solidarity with him? The panel dives into these questions and more. 

If NATO members aren't even safe from other NATO members then what value is the alliance? There is one good thing that could come out of a Greenland war: it would probably destroy NATO.

Be sure to follow the Loot and Lobby podcast at Mises.org/LL

Bob talks with Dr. Peter Klein about the recent U.S. operation in Venezuela and the social-media backlash against “international law,” using it as a springboard to clarify what law is, how it can exist without a world government, and why Austrians care about polycentric legal orders.

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

People who lost their homes last year in the LA wildfires are finding government roadblocks to rebuilding, due to systems put in place by progressives. And nothing will change.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/bait-and-switch-victims-la-wildfires-find-local-government-wants-them-gone

Trump says he wants to spend half a trillion more dollars on military spending, even as federal spending persists at Biden-Era levels and interest on the debt climbs ever upward. 

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trump-wants-500-billion-more-pentagon-deficits-mount

Central bankers are not afraid Trump will “politicize” the Fed and turn it into a crony arm of the government that warps the economy to benefit those close to power. They’re afraid his blind inflationism and lack of subtlety will make it impossible to hide the fact that it already is.

Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/central-banking-establishment-genuinely-worried-about-trump-not-reasons-they-say

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

This feud is little more than two factions within the Federal government fighting over how exactly to use the Fed’s many powers to inflate, exploit, and help fund an ever expanding federal government.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-justice-dept-launches-criminal-probe-against-feds-powell

The current Washington tiff between Donald Trump and Jerome Powell is being reframed as Powell heroically defending the Fed’s “independence.” In truth, the Fed has always done the administration’s dirty work and pursued inflation when it might temporarily boost the economy.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/powell-should-be-great-american-villain-dc-will-make-him-hero

"America, above all countries, was born in an explicitly libertarian revolution, a revolution against empire; against taxation, trade monopoly, and regulation; and against militarism and executive power."

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/american-revolution-and-classical-liberalism

The standard explanation for the Constitutional Convention was that the Articles of Confederation were a failure. However, the Articles actually worked the way they were supposed to work. Unfortunately, the advocates of a strong central government ultimately got their way.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/did-articles-confederation-fail-probably-not

On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton revisits the history—and present risk—of hyperinflation. Mark explains the threshold that defines hyperinflation, why measuring prices under chaos is hard (yet still revealing), and how the social damage mirrors war: savings vaporize, capital is destroyed, and civic trust collapses. He closes with practical takeaways: why gold and silver often move first as “fire alarms” and why studying past episodes builds the psychological and analytical readiness to face low-probability, high-impact events.

"The Road to Hyperinflation" (Minor Issues, Episode 136): https://mises.org/MI_136

"The Gold-Silver Ratio" (Minor Is...

Vivek Ramaswamy promotes a fictional version of American history in which a handful of people created America and that culture and religion are canceled out by an ideological "creed." In truth, the American nation and the American state are two different things. 

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

Anti-impact environmentalists want you dead; they will settle, in the short term, for you to feel guilty for existing, producing and consuming, and willing to comply with any degree of central planning and freedom curtailment to “save the planet” from you.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/environmentalism-anti-humanism

On this episode of Power & Market, the panel kicks off 2026 with a conversation about the arrest of Maduro. What's next for Venezuela? What's DC's next target? Does America really need a 1.5 trillion dollar defense budget? We look at these questions and more.

With American intervention in Venezuela, some are claiming that the Trump administration is simply invoking the Monroe Doctrine, or its corollary, the “Donroe” Doctrine. In reality, neither doctrine is an appropriate reason for US military intervention in Latin America.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-monroe-doctrine-cannot-be-reestablished

Whatever advances Great Britain made during the Margaret Thatcher years have long been reversed as the UK finds itself in decline of its economy and social fabric. Big government, once again, is the culprit.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/uk-economic-and-social-freefall

In his inaugural speech, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared an end to “rugged individualism” and the embrace of “the warmth of collectivism.” New Yorkers are about to find out that collectivism will not produce what they need to have better lives.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/warmth-collectivism-beginning-mamdani-era

The Trump administration wants Americans to believe that this latest intervention into Venezuela was a quick and definitive success. But, given enough time, there is essentially no way this can go well.

Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/there-are-no-good-outcomes-trumps-latest-attempt-regime-change-venezuela

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

The Austrian School of economics isn’t a 20th century or even 19th century creation. Instead, Austrian economics is rooted in the logical thought, as developed by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/aristotelian-thomistic-roots-austrian-school

Dr. Per Bylund explains how prosperity really comes from imaginative, risk-taking entrepreneurs rather than redistribution, and how regulations quietly kill off an unseen world of potential innovations and wealth that never gets a chance to exist.

Sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed.

Recorded at the Mises Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, on October 18, 2025.

Donald Trump’s war against Venezuela is truly a racket, as it looks to be little more than an attempt to loot the nation of Venezuela’s natural resources in the name of “liberation.”

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/venezuelan-war-racket

The US seeks another puppet regime in South America, and all this talk about democracy, human rights, and noble causes is just cover for the exercise of raw power. But that doesn't stop Trump supporters from pretending it's all about freedom.

Be sure to follow the Loot and Lobby podcast at Mises.org/LL

Sensing the dangers of tyranny by the majority, John C. Calhoun developed the doctrine of the concurrent majority which served to limit the powers of government.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/calhouns-doctrine-concurrent-majority

Dr. Peter Klein explains why truly “liberating the American university” means cutting all state ownership, funding, and regulation—not just tweaking DEI programs or research grants—and letting genuinely private institutions compete to provide higher education.

Sponsored by Stan Eden.

Recorded at the Mises Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, on October 18, 2025.

The US's bombing of Caracas reiterates three key foundations of American foreign policy: the Constitution is dead, democracy is irrelevant, and the "rule of law" doesn't matter. 

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/three-key-lessons-uss-venezuela-intervention

Zohran Mamdani held his mayoral swearing in ceremony at the now-abandoned City Hall Station that was a feature of the first New York Subway built in 1904. Unfortunately, city officials deliberately drove the subway company into insolvency and then took over.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialist-mamdani-inadvertently-pays-tribute-capitalism

Among the many rationalizations that the Trump administration is using to initiate massive force and violence against the Venezuelan people is that the Venezuelan government nationalized American oil interests many years ago.

Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/us-government-not-daddy-us-oil-companies

The annexation of Texas was a preview of future foreign policy.

Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/questioning-annexation-texas-us-state

President Trump’s latest national security initiative is unlikely to make the US secure from outside danger. For that matter, Trump’s own internal policies are making this country less secure.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-national-insecurity-strategy

From war to tariffs to inflation, it is clear Donald Trump is a devoted disciple of the ideology of statism and interventionism. The fact he's better than the atrocious Kamala Harris doesn't change this. 

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/statism-donald-trump

Depending upon the narrative, American Indians were either noble creatures who were victims of a genocide by rapacious European settlers or were bloodthirsty savages. The truth is more nuanced.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/american-indians-separating-truth-fiction

Mark Thornton kicks off 2026 with the new Minor Issues prediction contest (stocks vs. manure) and a hard look at the monetary-metals squeeze. Mark explains why $50 silver triggered “growing pains”: spot–futures disconnects, margin hikes, empty coin shops, and weird retail premiums. As investor demand collides with industrial stockpiling, price spikes invite political scapegoating (“hoarders!”) and intervention that backfires. Expect more meddling before genuine market adjustments can work.

Enter the 2026 Stocks vs. Manure Prediction Contest at https://mises.org/form/stocks-vs-manure-2026

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

From an Austrian perspective, the Panic of 1893 provides key lessons, but this consequential panic has not received as much direct attention as it deserves.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/panic-1893-austrian-view

Demands for Americans to pay reparations to descendants of chattel slavery in America have been growing. The case for reparations, however, has always been weak and illogical.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/illogic-reparations-historical-standards-selective-memory-and-logic-victory