Mises Media

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.

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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.

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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

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

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

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

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. 

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-trumps-populism-failed

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

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

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

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. 

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/who-pays-hormuz-toll

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

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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Ludwig von Mises Mises argues in Nation, State, and Economy that nationalism is compatible with economic and political liberty if it is peaceful, based on self-determination as an individual right.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/peaceful-nationalism-foundation-economic-liberalism

Economics has its own four-letter words. Although they are not obscene, socialists and statists would find them so.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/four-letter-economic-words

On this Minor Issues episode, Mark Thornton shares his recent interview with "Pinnacle Digest" host Aaron Hodnett. Mark uses Austrian business cycle theory to explain how “cheap money” distorts investment and leaves a fragile financial system that eventually has to correct. They dig into timing and market signals, what might finally expose the long-running “papered-over” boom, and how the Federal Reserve and policymakers typically respond when the cycle turns.

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Joseph Solis-Mullen joins Ryan McMaken to talk about the real history of the libertarian movement, and its origins. 

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VRIC Media host Darrell Thomas interviews Henry Hazlitt Research Fellow Dr. Jonathan Newman on the US fiscal spiral, war spending, and why deficits keep growing under a Fed-backed debt regime. Jonathan walks through public choice incentives, the Fed’s role as a de facto financier of federal deficits, and why “Fed independence” functions mainly as political cover. He closes with an Austrian case for ending the Federal Reserve.

The original interview is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OiIPVjXILU

Those who invoke Jesus for socialism face a tension: if the power to end suffering creates a moral obligation, then the Jesus who healed many but not all appears, by that standard, either unwilling or unable.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/jesus-and-christian-socialists-problem-evil

As the socialistic Canadian medical system runs aground, the government actively promotes physician-assisted suicide as a way to save the system and promoting “die with dignity” at the same time.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/assisted-suicide-logical-outcome-government-controlled-medical-care

On this episode of Power and Market, Ryan, Tho, and Connor discuss Fed drama, plummeting consumer sentiment, and how the American economy is becoming increasingly like a casino. 

Why The Crash Was Delayed by Robert Aro

The Trump administration continues its bellicose war against Iran, destroying opportunities for prosperity through meaningful commerce along the way.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/war-and-trade-restrictions-fallacious-paths-national-security-and-prosperity

This Tax Day, as the American public reflects on what our government is using our money for, there is growing opposition to the behavior of the Israeli government. Yet we’re all still forced to send it some of our hard-earned tax dollars. Enough.

Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/american-people-should-not-be-forced-fund-israels-atrocities

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

While Tax Freedom Day is mid-April, Rothbard’s measure of the government's fiscal burden reveals that Americans don’t truly start working for themselves until June 5, over seven weeks later.

Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/tax-freedom-day-underestimates-how-long-you-work-government

It took centuries to end the idea that taxes kept the privileged class in comfort and financed their wars. But now we're told taxes = civilization.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/taxation-robbery

There is no shortfall of liquidity in financial markets. In fact, there is so much that inflation has become a way of life for market participants. This is not a good thing.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/artificial-liquidity-brings-inflation-shocks

In this time of war and uncertainty, we should expect to see the prices of precious metals rise and fall and the only certainty will be uncertainty.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/precious-metals-work

All too often, judges allow sentiment to override the Constitution. While they might refer to a “living Constitution,” what they really mean is that they don’t permit the law to get in the way of their worldviews.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/danger-allowing-good-intentions-override-constitution

Mises described the problem, Hayek proposed the direction, Kirzner explains why the market will not stop. And the market, as so many times before, has already found the first step.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/ex-nihilo-no-more

John Williamson, who passed away five years ago, is known for creating what was called the “Washington Consensus,” which was an attempt to bring a liberal economic order to poor countries looking to transition from socialism to capitalism.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/memory-creator-washington-consensus

As the Marxians do not admit that differences of opinion can be settled by discussion and persuasion or decided by majority vote, no solution is open but civil war.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/marxism-vs-majority

Late last year, German lawmakers passed new legislation paving the way for military conscription.

Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/germany-restricts-emigration-prevent-young-men-escaping-military-draft

People readily line up on one side or another of great economic debates. How do they choose which side to take?

Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/why-i-side-ludwig-von-mises

President Trump’s current war with Iran not only is creating economic havoc around the world, but it is also bleeding US taxpayers. There are no good outcomes here.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/state-wars-bleed-nation-death

Mark Thornton unpacks a counterintuitive correlation: as the Persian Gulf conflict escalates, oil spikes while gold and silver slide. He explains how higher oil feeds the CPI, locks central banks out of rate cuts, and pressures precious metals through the dollar and petrodollar system, distinguishing the real monetary inflation gold tracks from the statistical indexes driving Fed decisions. Stick around for a wide-ranging Commodity Culture interview with Jesse Day on the festering world war and the path back to hard money. Plus, an update on the 2026 stocks-vs-MOO prediction contest (fertilizer is running away with it).

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Parental obligations can't be reduced to a contractual or property-based relationship. Jake Desyllas joins Ryan McMaken to talk about why parents are responsible for the well-being of their children. 

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After his recent Zero Hedge debate with MMT co-founder Randall Wray, Bob takes a deep dive into the sectoral balance approach. He explains why the MMT argument is technically a tautology, how it's deeply misleading, and why the private sector doesn't need government deficits to save, invest, and accumulate real wealth.

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In studying history, it is key to avoid definitional anachronism—failing to note how a word has changed over time and assuming the present meaning was the same in the past. This is often the case with the word currency as used in colonial America.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/note-currency-colonial-america

On this episode of Power and Market, Ryan, Connor, and Tho look at the updates on the Iran war front, including whether or not a ceasefire will last and recent reporting on Israel's influence on Trump's war decision. Plus, discussion about a recent Tucker Carlson Show guest and his view that Christianity is inherently socialist.

The New York Times claims that the "administrative state"—that is, governance by unelected bureaucrats—protects our country and enhances democracy.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/turns-out-elites-administrative-state-better-democracy