Blog

With a Carrot and a Stick: The Effects of the European Central Bank’s Negative Interest Rate Policy on the Banking System

The ECB is weakening bank profitability while strengthening it in a way that allows it to implement policy goals with the help of commercial banks. Read the new study.

The State and Freedom—Are Classical Liberals Anarchists?

Individual freedom by itself is not a political good. Classical liberalism understood the state not only as a threat, but always as a guarantor of freedom. To this end, it can also restrict freedoms, as in the case of fighting a pandemic. Everything is a question of proportionality—and about this some people have justified doubts.

The Green (Self-)Deception: Neither Progressive nor Socially Minded

The Greens in Germany are masters at absolving themselves of responsibility for stagnation and failure to modernize. Yet it is primarily they who are responsible for this. They are neither socially minded nor progressive.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—The Best Social Program in the World

Economists and researchers in the U.S. agree: the Earned Income Tax Credit helps millions of households stand on their own two feet. Work is rewarded, and with the help of this program, one million children have escaped child poverty.

What Does the Coronavirus Crisis Teach Us about the Labor Market?

The Covid-19 crisis threw many out of work, many suffered accordingly, and labor markets were also damaged. Depending on the situation, some governments fared better than others. In any case, policymakers can learn a few things from the pandemic.

The Austrian Academy 2021: Liberation from Academic Lockdown

Capitalism and the market economy are the foundations of our prosperity, which, thanks to globalization, is also spreading to places in which poverty still prevailed decades ago. At the Austrian Academy 2021 experts explain to twenty-two young people why this is so.

Freedom to Choose: A Cure for Illiberal Education

Attempting neutrality in public education ends up creating a systemic preference for a particular ethical standpoint. This creates a tension between public schools and the principle of liberal neutrality. This tension can be resolved without abandoning government-financed education through policies that are both popular and effective.

Paper Money Tricksters: From John Law to Today’s Central Banks

Today’s money experiments follow to the letter the procedure of one of the greatest money tricks in history: the paper money experiment of John Law in France 1716-1720.

Green Climate Policy: Moralism, Ideology and Dirigisme

The Greens are painting a picture of environmental and climate apocalypse. In this way, they try to moralize the debate and present themselves as the advocates of the good. On closer inspection, their program turns out to be ideological wishful thinking that eschews capitalism and the market economy.

Private Currencies Terrify the Central Banks

Private currencies are currently making central banks sweat. The flood of paper money is making alternative private currencies increasingly attractive. They are based on a technology that is almost unassailable, and the central banks are reacting as you would expect.

Navigating Crises without a Compass: Politics in the Quicksand of Interventionism

Under the guise of the COVID-19 crisis, attempts are being made to use the crisis for a political agenda that would not have found majority support before. The role of the state is expanding. A new policy approach is necessary to secure prosperity.

The Universal Destination of Goods and Private Property: Is the right to private property only a “second-tier” natural right?

Did the rich get rich by robbing the poor? Theology and Catholic social teaching have long known that wealth generation is not a zero-sum game, but a process from which everyone benefits.