Minor Issues

The Minor Issues year-end episode: what 2025 really taught us and what 2026 may bring. Mark Thornton revisits tariffs, inflation, metals, and interest rates; recaps his Bitcoin vs. Gold contest; and explains why a steepening yield curve could arrive even as the Fed cuts short rates. Mark also maps the risks of an un-inversion and why today’s calm in CRE, private credit, and AI capex may mask fragility. Looking ahead, Mark previews the 2026 prediction contest: Stocks vs. Manure.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Mark Thornton joins Scott Horton to discuss the state of the economy, the boom-bust cycle, and why anybody—left, right, and center—who cares about the wellbeing of the working class needs to oppose the existence of the Federal Reserve.Visit the Scott Horton Show at http://scotthortonshow.comBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Mark Thornton explores interest as a vital price in capitalism that influences investments and productivity. He warns of a trend reversal driven by larger state debts and aging populations, which might lead to long-term higher interest rates. The podcast highlights the implications of keeping low-rate mortgages, along with expectations for weak long-bond returns and less robust equity performance. Thornton suggests that commodities, like gold, may perform better as investors respond to these looming changes in the economic landscape.

In this special mid-week episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton joins Julia LaRoche for a wide-angle tour of the macro landscape, and why gold’s surge is a market verdict on deficits, rate manipulation, and fiat fatigue. Mark outlines the Austrian business cycle story behind today’s “everything bubble,” and explains why a more dovish Fed in 2026 won’t cure malinvestment. He also contrasts Bitcoin with commodity money and sketches a practical exit: sound money, hard budget constraints, and decentralization.Check out The Julia LaRoche Show at https://JuliaLaRoche.comBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton takes apart the media’s “K-shaped economy” cliché. He explains the divergence the Austrian way: Cantillon effects from decades of deficit spending and artificially low rates that lift asset holders and big borrowers, while eroding wages and pricing-out families. Mark shows why the usual fixes like tax tweaks and rate cuts backfire. He also lays out a real cure: deep federal spending cuts, program eliminations, market-set interest rates, and sound money that restores honest price signals for everyone.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

In a special midweek episode of the Minor Issues podcast, Mark Thornton appears on Palisades Gold Radio with Stijn Schmitz. Mark argues that gold’s surge isn’t a fad: it’s a market verdict on runaway deficits, central-bank credibility, and fiat money itself. He also explains why manipulated rates breed booms, busts, and inequality, while sound money and decentralization restore real signals.The original episode ("Dr. Mark Thornton: Early Innings for Gold, Silver Manipulation, Black Swans & Failing Markets") is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2FUnca1q3cBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Mark Thornton dissects “contagion” hype and argues it’s not a market pathology. He shows why, in a free market, failures reallocate customers, labor, and capital to better firms rather than spread panic. Contagion appears only when government links balance sheets and distorts prices. Mark traces how credit booms set up busts, and why even the Fed now sits upside-down, while homeowners are “rate-locked” and supply is frozen. The takeaway: politicians and central bankers invoke "contagion" to demand more power and money, while their interventions cause the very fragility they decry.See also "Fight Inflation Now" (Minor Issues, episode 72): Mises.org/MI_72Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Mark Thornton traces seven headline “problems” back to one engine: monetary inflation. Drawing on Austrian insights, Mark explains how new money distorts prices and wages; why cheap credit spawns debt booms, asset bubbles, and zombie firms; how deficit finance and central banking turn war into a budget line; and why rising prices erode family formation, savings, and civic trust. He connects the dots to today’s policy mix and sketches a bottom-up remedy: hard budget constraints, sound money, and decentralization that restores real price signals. Mark makes the case that inflation isn’t just “too many dollars”: it’s the hidden subsidy powering them all.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

On this marathon episode of Minor Issues, Mark stitches together four recent interviews for a fast-moving tour of today’s economy: why gold spiked while precious metals whipsawed, how ballooning US debt and rising servicing costs tilt policy toward monetization, and what that means for inflation, markets, and families. Along the way Mark explains the Austrian lens behind his calls and why using it beats siloed, headline-driven takes.Highlights include: the recent precious metals pullback and what to watch next; the mechanics of debt monetization; distributional effects that favor asset holders over wage earners; and why hyperinflation risk is slow… until it’s fast.Additional Resources"Dollar Demise and the New Era for Gold & Silver" (The Freedom Report), November 7, 2025: https://Mises.org/MI_146_A"GOLD: You Will NOT Get A Second Warning!" (Soar Financially), October 28, 2025: https://Mises.org/MI_146_B"Gold Ringing Alarm Bells, Silver Setting Up to Skyrocket" (Investing News), October 28, 2025: https://Mises.org/MI_146_C"The Fed and Runaway Government Debt Undermine the Very Basis of Civilisation" (maneco64), November 1, 2025: https://Mises.org/MI_146_DBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Is silver “manipulated,” or are fundamentals doing the work? Mark Thornton sifts the evidence and finds a simpler story. Big players have gamed markets before, but the long arc of silver prices reflects structural forces: the 1960s demonetization that pushed vast coin hoards into private stockpiles, decades of shifting industrial demand, and the rise of by-product mining. Add environmental compliance and hard-to-recycle “green” uses that sequester silver, and the result is stubbornly low real prices.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues