The Austrian Institute Blog offers current analyses and opinions on capitalism, the market economy, social policy, and questions of justice.
The Coronavirus pandemic is a golden age for critics of civilization, moralizers, miracle healers and intellectual crisis profiteers. At last, however, the economy and the market are being talked about in a positive light again—high time, because more than a few politicians are enjoying a permanent state of emergency.
From the OECD to the EU: Although people like to profess their support for diversity, they nevertheless insist on uniformity. The G-20 wants an international tax cartel. The pressure to be economical with taxes will diminish. The losers will be the citizens.
Japan’s low interest rate policy began 30 years ago, about 15 years earlier than in the EU. But three decades of low interest rate policy meant three lost decades for Japan. In an interview with Stefan Beig, economist Gunther Schnabl explains why the low interest rate policy is so damaging to prosperity.
Compared to the USA, Europe is lagging behind in terms of information and communications infrastructure. A reexamination reveals: For too long, billions of taxpayers’ money have been invested in technologies of the past.
Unbelievable national debts and deficits, direct access of politicians to the printing press and unconditional payments to citizens in the USA. The EU, for its part, is embarking on the path of massive new national debt. Can this possibly end well?
A hundred years before Darwin, the economist and philosopher Adam Smith discovered that, thanks to the division of labor, the most skilled workers and enterprises prevail, not simply the ones with more brute strength. Darwin was significantly influenced by this idea.
Critics of growth call for zero growth or even “degrowth”. Their fears are based on economic misconceptions and a failure to recognize the capitalist dynamic of decoupling growth from resource consumption. Moreover, they fail to recognize the needs of poor countries.
The “primacy of politics” over the logic of the economy is repeatedly and categorically demanded. Insofar as such efforts undermine the private property-based power of disposition over the means of production, it is the first step in the direction of the “other socialism.”
Economics is not a zero-sum game. In exchange, both sides always benefit. Exchange is the soul of the market and creates added value, and does so in a way that benefits everyone involved. A plea for economic enlightenment.
