On Tuesday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders stood up on the stage of a Democratic Party presidential debate and proudly proclaimed himself a “democratic socialist” to an adoring crowd. Spurred on by myths about the success of socialism in countries like Sweden and Norway, the horrors of a centrally planned economy have never been more popular in American politics. As Mises President Jeff Deist highlighted in Thursday’s Mises Daily:
These ideas, and the people who hold them, are not outliers in America. There are millions … who believe exactly as Bernie believes. They may prefer to vote for Hillary Clinton purely as a tactical matter because they are unsure the country is “ready” for full socialism … but average progressives and Democrats agree with Bernie Sanders across the board …
Ninety-five years after Ludwig von Mises published his indispensable essay Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, it is as critical to stand up to the tyranny of statism — on any scale — now as ever before.
The devastating consequences of government intervention into healthcare markets is the topic of this week’s episode of Mises Weekends. Charles Hugh Smith joins Jeff to discuss how Washington’s desire to eliminate markets from medicine has led to the industry being captured both by incompetent government regulators and insurance lobbyists.
In case you missed any of them, here are this week’s featured Mises Daily articles and some of our most popular articles at Mises Wire:
- Charles Murray’s Tepid Radicalism by David Gordon
- What “Progressive” Corporate Welfare Looks Like by Andrew Syrios
- The Dirty Business of Government Trash Collection by Allen Mendenhall
- Sanders and His Followers Are Not Outliers by Jeff Deist
- How Modern Sweden Profits from the Success of Its Free-Market History by Yonathan Amselem
- George Akerlof, Meet Oliver Williamson by Peter Klein
- Angus Deaton and Modern Economics by Peter Klein
- The Mistake of Only Comparing US Murder Rates to “Developed” Countries by Ryan McMaken
- The Fed’s Quadral Mandate and Impossible Balancing Act by Jonathan Newman
- Rothbard on Economic Ignorance by Matt McCaffrey
- True Money Supply: August Money Supply Growth Remains Way Down from 2012 Levels by Ryan McMaken
- Donald’s Remarks on the Bubble and the Fed Are on the Money by Joseph Salerno
- No way, Norway! by Carmen Elena Dorobăț
