Philosophy and Methodology

As an exciting year comes to a close, we want to thank all of our incredible members that allow us to do the work we do in advancing Austrian economics, freedom, and peace.

In his new book Political Illiberalism Peter Simpson poses a fundamental challenge to John Rawls’s Political Liberalism. Though Simpson cannot be classified as a libertarian, his bold arguments will be of great use to all of us who oppose the state.

This week, the Federal Reserve raised the target Federal Funds Rate ever so slightly. The Fed perhaps felt it had to raise rates to protect its credibility, as credibility problems seem to be plaguing similar institutions worldwide.

Luckily for us all, Mises survived the war and went on to live a life that fundamentally altered the world. He overcame the Nazis, academic blacklists, and the personal hardships that tends to haunt any man who refuses to sacrifice his principles.

In a capitalist world, socialists would be free to form their own socialist communities. They're largely free to do so now, although few do. This may be due to the fact that even the utopian version of socialism seems unpleasant.

The world waits to see if next week is finally the week that the Fed announces its rate hike. Can the economy survive whatever small bump the Fed deals out? Perhaps, but that won’t change the inherent instability of our current monetary regime.

We've been told that with enough data, we can use sophisticated computing methods to predict the future. That often works with the physical sciences, but predicting human action is something else altogether.

Government failure was being felt everywhere this week, from the massive law-enforcement failure in Sen Bernardino to the crumbling economy in Brazil. Meanwhile, government tells us it only needs a little more money, power, and time to solve all problems.

The idea that the state will one day dry up and blow away is an unrealistic fantasy. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be abolitionists. Our goal should always be to seize every opportunity to shrink the State.