Economy

Delusions of Omnipotence and Shifting Backdrops: USA and EU Launch Giant Industrial Policy Programs

The USA and the EU have recently been in a subsidy race—industrial policy by bureaucrats. The innovative forces of the market are being undermined and the inefficiency of these measures is predictable.

Socially Unjust Inflation: Why Recessions Are Inevitable and Salutary

Inflation is profoundly socially unjust. Its causes lie above all in an expansionary monetary policy, and this must be stopped. If policymakers want to prevent the inevitable recession that will follow, they will only make the problems worse.

EU Taxonomy: The Road to a Green Planned Economy

With its so-called taxonomy, the European Union is planning an economic structure that will be characterized by bureaucracy and malinvestment. The drastic consequences for productivity and prosperity will only gradually become apparent.

Leviathan Wobbles and Wavers—But the Citizens are Ultimately Responsible for It

In Germany, there is a growing gap between the inflation of the state apparatus and its ability to fulfill its tasks. Politics suffers from political fantasies of omnipotence and constitutional ignorance. Who is to blame?

Global Governance and Regulation

AUSTRIAN ACADEMY 2022: Experienced economist Philip Booth, formerly research director of the London Institute of Economic Affairs and now a professor at Catholic Twickenham University in London, introduces the complex issue of global-level regulation from a consistently liberal perspective.

The Inflation Problem: Short-, Medium- and Long-Term Solutions

In principle, it is the task of central banks to anticipate and combat inflationary risks. But since central banks failed to recognize inflationary pressures for a long time and then downplayed them as temporary, they can no longer contain inflation in a hurry. What solutions are feasible?

The ECB Faces a Predicament, the Euro an Impasse

With the now obvious failure of the ECB’s inflationary low interest rate policy, things are now also bad for the euro. The “whatever it takes” approach to saving the euro has reached a point where a reconsideration is necessary.

“Doux Commerce,” or the Peacemaking Power of Trade: Just a Dangerous Illusion?

Does trade among nations promote peace? The liberal-minded Enlightenment affirmed this under the phrase “doux commerce.” At present, however, we are witnessing how economically closely linked nations are at war with each other.

The Left’s Blindness to History: The Benevolent View of Russia Has Proved Fatal

It is perfectly legitimate to point out the dangers of an uncontrolled escalation of the Ukraine war. Left-wing intellectuals who do so, however, have largely adopted Putin’s propagandist view. Behind it, however, lies a dangerous ideology.

Do We Need a ‘Great Reset’, or More Capitalism?

For many, capitalism needs to be reinvented. And yet it proved to be robust, innovative and enormously successful, especially during the pandemic. Thus, the idea of a “Great Reset” merely serves familiar anti-capitalist prejudices.

Inflation Is Always and Everywhere a Monetary Phenomenon, Even in Pandemic and War

Damaged supply chains and war are boosting prices, but they are not the only real cause of rising inflation. The problem is the central banks’ expansionary monetary policy.

The mRNA Vaccine Makers Got Rich—But Not at the Taxpayers’ Expense

According to one criticism, Moderna and Biontech, the two manufacturers of the mRNA vaccines against Covid-19, have enriched themselves from government subsidies. This is wrong. Without the perseverance of individual researchers and billions in private money, the vaccines would not exist.