Mises Media

Has silver become a Giffen good, the famous textbook anomaly where higher prices supposedly lead to higher demand? In this episode, Mark Thornton argues the story is compelling... but wrong. Mark explains why recent surges in silver demand amid rapidly rising prices don’t overturn the law of demand. They reflect shifting demand curves as market conditions, expectations, and classifications change. The bottom line is that silver is not a paradox: it’s a timely lesson in how markets adjust while economic laws hold.Additional Resources"What Are Giffen Goods? Definition, Examples, and Economic Insights" by Andrew Bloomenthal (Investopedia): https://mises.org/MI_162_A"Did Silver Break a Fundamental Law of Demand?" Money Metals' Weekly Market Wrap Podcast (December 10, 2025): https://mises.org/MI_162_B"Money Costs, Prices, and Alfred Marshall" by Murray Rothbard (Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market): https://mises.org/MI_162_C“Notes on the History of the Giffen Paradox” by George J. Stigler (The Journal of Political Economy, April 1947): https://mises.org/MI_162_D"Giffen Behavior: Theory and Evidence" by Robert T. Jensen and Nolan Miller: https://mises.org/MI_162_E“Gray and Giffen Goods" by Etsusuke Masuda and Peter Newman (The Economic Journal, December 1981): https://mises.org/MI_162_F“Beware of Giffen-ish Vibes in the Money Market” by Tim Hartford (Financial Times, May 2025): https://mises.org/MI_162_G“Sir Robert Giffen and the Great Potato Famine: A Discussion of the Role of a Legend in Neoclassical Economics,” by Terrence McDonough and Joseph Eisenhaur (Journal of Economic Issues, September 1995): https://mises.org/MI_162_HOrder a Minor Issues tumbler today! https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumblerBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Ryan McMaken of the Mises Institute and Christopher Calton of the Independent Institute talk about why politicians want higher home prices. Even Trump now admits he wants higher home prices, and it's because older voters want their asset prices to go up forever. Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off

Modern political economy is based upon a Machiavellian belief in might makes right. Yet, political power cannot accomplish what free markets and private property rights have done in lifting billions of people out of poverty.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/machiavelli-dead-why-politics-without-property-rights-rules-and-moral-limits-cannot-work

From time to time, the American people need to be reminded who is the boss. The boss is the US government. The citizenry are the serfs, the servants, the subordinates.Original article: https://mises.org/power-market/ruthlessness-and-brutality-us-government

On this episode of Power and Market, Ryan, Connor, and Tho discuss the fallout from the release of the Epstein Files and what it means for how the masses view the elite.Don't forget, the Mises Institute's first event is coming up on February 21st in Oklahoma City. Join us for a look at Entrepreneurship Beyond Politics.Are you a grad student interested in Austrian economics? Consider the Mises Institute Summer Fellowship program this summer. Click here for more details.

Restoring the rule of law and Constitutional government on immigration—something wrecked by Trump's rule-by-decree with federal agents—is vastly more important than expelling illegal immigrants.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trump-immigration-and-ice

Bob applies Mises’ taxonomy of money and the regression theorem to Bitcoin, asking whether it should be classified as commodity or fiat money and whether Austrian theory really rules out Bitcoin ever becoming money.Related:Mises's The Theory of Money and Credit: Mises.org/HAP536aBob's Study Guide to The Theory of Money and Credit: Mises.org/HAP536bBob's Primer on Bitcoin: Mises.org/HAP536cPoliticians 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/HAHCThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

The fact  that the Republican and Democratic parties are allowed to circulate into key positions of government is proof enough that they are no threat to the true governing elites.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-americas-two-party-system-will-never-threaten-true-political-elites

If California voters and politicians do not understand the current crisis, we will see the continuous march to perdition as California politicians refuse to acknowledge that they are killing the geese laying the golden eggs.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/idiocracy-california-politics

The latest release of Epstein files again highlighted how disgusted and frustrated people have grown with the current elites. Yet they remain essentially untouchable. Why?Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/everyone-agrees-our-elites-are-terrible-so-why-are-we-stuck-themBe sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at https://Mises.org/GB

In most nations of any size, sectionalism is almost inevitable. How nations handle such divisions, historian Frank L. Owsley, determines if sectionalism is peaceful or becomes violent. It became violent in the US in 1861.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/positive-view-sectional-history

Politicians are touting “affordability” to describe the current regime of rising prices. However, most lawmakers who claim they are trying to make things more affordable demand policies that make things more costly.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-affordability-wrong-term-describe-effects-inflation

A bad end is most likely though even in the best case scenario of AI increasing living standards. The build-up of asset inflation malinvestment and overleveraging will impose huge costs.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/not-so-new-dollar-strategy-monetize-productivity-advance

Thanks to the Federal Reserve, the US government will always have enough printed money to fund its tyrannical schemes.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/have-fiat-money-will-tyrannize

Totalitarian societies do not become that way overnight. There are recognizable signs and stages which show how a society slides into that abyss.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/five-stages-totalitarianism

There is no reason to be surprised by the total lack of commitment to any ideological standards. Nor is there any reason to expect anything better. That's just how American politics works. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/its-no-surprise-conservatives-have-rediscovered-their-love-federal-power

In this special episode, Mark Thornton presents a timely interview with Elijah K. Johnson that underscores how quickly “melt-ups” can flip into sharp corrections. Mark frames the discussion around three themes: why investors should temper expectations after a major run-up; why political and financial elites will move aggressively to protect their interests when markets wobble; and why soaring gold and silver prices (however tempting) ultimately signal deeper economic and social distress rather than a clean “win” for the private sector.Join us for the Mises Institute's first event of 2026, featuring Keith Smith, Caitlin Long, Ryan McMaken, Per Bylund, and Timothy Terrell: "Entrepreneurship Beyond Politics: Mises Circle in Oklahoma City." Register today at https://mises.org/okcOrder a Minor Issues tumbler today! https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumblerBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Will the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) succeed? If the regulatory story of DDT is a prime example of government regulation in action, then the answer is a resounding no.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/political-economy-pesticides-how-subsidize-poison

On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton explains why the modern discussion of the division of labor is distorted by bad theory and political incentives. Mark contrasts Adam Smith's view with the Austrian tradition—especially Mises’s—where the division of labor is driven and continuously reorganized by entrepreneurial judgment under uncertainty, disciplined by profit and loss. Mark also shows why technocrats and social engineers love an entrepreneur-less story of specialization, why Marxists found support in Smith’s labor-theory drift, and why the real gains from specialization depend on individual differences that markets harmonize through exchange.Enter the 2026 Stocks vs. Manure Prediction Contest at https://mises.org/form/stocks-vs-manure-2026See “The Division of Labor Is at the Very Core of Economic Growth” by Per Bylund in The Next Generation of Austrian Economics: Essays in Honor of Joseph T. Salerno: https://mises.org/MI_160_AJoin us for the Mises Institute's first event of 2026, featuring Keith Smith, Caitlin Long, Ryan McMaken, Per Bylund, and Timothy Terrell: "Entrepreneurship Beyond Politics: Mises Circle in Oklahoma City." Register today at https://mises.org/okcOrder a Minor Issues tumbler today! https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumblerBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Dr. Jonathan Newman joins Tho and Connor to discuss Jerome Powell's favorite type of FOMC meeting: a boring one. No cuts, no concerns, no drama in the eyes of the soon-to-be-former Fed Chair. The guys try to bust his bubble on this episode of Power and Market.Don't forget, the Mises Institute's first event is coming up on February 21st in Oklahoma City. Join us for a look at Entrepreneurship Beyond Politics.Are you a grad student interested in Austrian economics? Consider the Mises Institute Summer Fellowship program this summer. Click here for more details.

By hiring a communist as his main housing adviser, New York Mayor Zohram Mamdani is fully committed to driving out private ownership of rental properties and handing over apartments to the city and politically-connected organizations. It will only make housing problems worse.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/surprise-mamdani-governing-socialist

The Bill of Rights transformed the Constitution from one of supreme and total national power to a partially mixed polity where the liberal anti-nationalists at least had a fighting chance.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-federalists-hated-bill-rights

Trump is clearly focused on building a legacy in his second term with his domestic vanity projects and dramatic foreign interventions. But his actual legacy is shaping up to be defined by his lack of progress on affordability.Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/trumps-embrace-economic-leftism-will-destroy-legacy-hes-desperately-trying-buildBe sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at https://Mises.org/GB

While unity sounds like a nice thing to have, when it comes to politics and nation-states, experience repeatedly shows that unity is the tool of those who build state power at the expense of freedom. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/we-can-have-unity-or-we-can-have-freedom-we-cant-have-both

The latest killing of a protester in Minneapolis by federal agents is reminiscent of the shooting of Vickie Weaver by a government sniper in 1992. In both cases, the government has refused to acknowledge wrongdoing and has engaged in legal coverups.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/latest-federal-killing-minnesota-echoes-ruby-ridge

Constitutionalism gives us the expectation of governance according to rules that everyone from those that are governed to the ones that govern are expected to obey. But what happens if those that govern exempt themselves from those rules?Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/failure-constitutionalism-through-ages-norms-emergencies-and-administrative-state

Bob responds to James Rickards’ recent tweet on record U.S. gold exports driving an improved trade balance, walking through the official data on non-monetary gold, Trump-era tariff uncertainty, and the broader question of what chronic trade deficits really mean in a post-gold-standard world. Related:The Charts Used in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP535aBob's Recent Talk on Trade Deficits: Mises.org/HAP535bBob's Econlib Article on Oil Prices: Mises.org/HAP535cPoliticians 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/HAHCThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree

On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton shares an in-depth interview with Jeremy McKeown of In the Company of Mavericks on the long rivalry between Austrian and Keynesian economics, and why Austrian ideas may be gaining new traction today. They trace how Austrian economics moved from a small academic outpost to a wider public audience, touching on the Mises Institute’s role, the influence of figures like Roger Garrison and Ron Paul, and the ways online media and “alternative finance” have helped spread Austrian perspectives.We're entering the final week to enter the 2026 Stocks vs. Manure Prediction Contest at https://mises.org/form/stocks-vs-manure-2026Join us for the Mises Institute's first event of 2026, featuring Keith Smith, Caitlin Long, Ryan McMaken, Per Bylund, and Timothy Terrell: "Entrepreneurship Beyond Politics: Mises Circle in Oklahoma City." Register today at https://mises.org/okcOrder a Minor Issues tumbler today! https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumblerBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Ryan McMaken and historian Larsen Plyler talk about how the Americans of the 1770s envisioned a new community of independent and sovereign states. The first constitution made this clear. But then the new counterrevolutionaries like Hamilton wrote a new constitution designed to create one big national state with vast new powers. Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio 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 look at the headlines coming out of Davos, including Mark Carney's speech calling out the lie of a "rules-based international order," the European reaction to Trump's plans for Greenland, and the political fallout on both sides of the Atlantic.Don't forget, the Mises Institute's first event is coming up on February 21st in Oklahoma City. Join us for a look at Entrepreneurship Beyond Politics.Are you a grad student interested in Austrian economics? Consider the Mises Institute Summer Fellowship program this summer. Click here for more details.

For all of the demands for reparations for blacks, the schemes so far have been unworkable and would not address the real wealth gaps between black and white Americans.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/reparations-are-welfare-scheme-and-would-have-no-effect-racial-wealth-gaps

Murray Rothbard recounts how during the French and Indian War (1754–63), Americans continued the great tradi­tion of trading with the enemy.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/trading-enemy-american-tradition

Even hawkish foreign policy scholars admit that changing the US security setup in Greenland is unnecessary. Its supply of raw materials is also nothing special. There isn’t even a ton of money to be made for crony companies. This is purely about Trump’s ego, and it will cost taxpayers a lot.Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/greenland-trumps-follyBe sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at https://Mises.org/GB