State, Government and Politics

Thomas Piketty’s Narrative of Increasing Inequality Is Debunked

Contrary to what inequality researcher Thomas Piketty and his colleagues claim, the gap between rich and poor in the USA has barely widened over the years. The tax data has been misinterpreted. Once again, ideology is pitted against facts.

Why Conservatives Are Not Liberals

What conservatives and liberals often have in common is their opposition to certain forms of dirigiste and tendentially collectivist political measures. However, this is driven by very different motives, as elucidated by Friedrich A. von Hayek. The difference is still of high relevance today.

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Global Demography, Fiscal Collapse, Government Spending and Debt

AUSTRIAN ACADEMY 2023: Demographic changes and increasing public sector over-indebtedness are making the welfare state increasingly unfinanceable. Can such fiscal overstretch be sustainable? A stocktaking from a British perspective.

The Political Morality of Freedom: The Liberal Legacy of the French Revolution in the “Atlantic” Perspective

The French Revolution was a complex historical event, and its intellectual foundations were likewise complex. It is a mistake to reduce it to the Jacobin terror. It was a liberal revolution whose ideals sprang from the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition.

There Is No Normalization of Target Balances, Despite the Normalization of Monetary Policy

The ECB’s new monetary policy leaves one important question unanswered: Will a normalization of Target balances also follow, that is, will the problem of debt within the eurozone be solved as well? If not, a normalization of monetary policy will be impossible.

American Economist, Peter Boettke: Socialism or Liberalism? Economics Has the Answer

In his lecture in Vienna, U.S. economics professor Peter J. Boettke emphasized that the world is at a crossroads. Only capitalism is a viable path for humankind to flourish.

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Peter J. Boettke: Capitalism, Socialism and Our Future

The video of the event on May 8 at the “Haus der Industrie” (Vienna) with Peter J. Boettke, who spoke on the topic “Capitalism, Socialism and our Future”. It was followed by a conversation with Prof. Dr. Hansjörg Klausinger from the WU-Vienna.

A Society Living on Credit Creates Inflation and Financial Crises

A new financial crisis is on the horizon. The culprit is not a lack of regulation, but our monetary system that is based on credit, and a society that lives at the expense of the future.

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?

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