Minor Issues

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

Mark Thornton argues for bottom-up reform, using Hayek's insights to critique elite-driven drug policies. He highlights how grassroots movements have propelled cannabis legalization, contrasting local initiatives with state impositions. The discussion covers the failures of prohibition and the importance of property rights enforcement. Thornton emphasizes the role of collaboration in innovation and how non-enforcement can spark change. Ultimately, he advocates for markets and civil society as forces for integration and positive progress.

Mark Thornton reviews David Howden’s data-driven guide to long-horizon investing in commodities, useful even for Austrians wary of statistics. Mark explains how the book’s method ranks assets by relative valuation, generates 10-year return forecasts, and frames risk premiums, using gold and silver as case studies. Mark highlights how a formal model can still complement Austrian fundamentals and capital-allocation thinking, and he previews an upcoming episode on silver that will build on these results.Purchase The Almanac of Commodities by David Howden at http://mises.org/almanacBe sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Mark Thornton shares a timely conversation from the Liberty & Finance podcast with Elijah K. Johnson. Mark explains why $50 silver is a psychological barrier, and how decades of tech shifts, by-product mining, and central-bank gold buying shaped today’s divergence between gold and silver. The thread tying it all together: easy money seeds malinvestment and fragility; metals hedge the fallout.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Mark Thornton lays the groundwork for understanding gold and silver before politics gets involved. Mark explains why monetary metals emerge from market “evolution,” how their non-consumptive use creates massive above-ground stocks, and why the same metal serves multiple markets (money vs. consumption) with one price. He explains how demand shifts trigger conservation and recycling, why new mining lags price spikes, how “near-monies” substitute when people economize on cash balances, and why any apparent stability (even par relationships) reflects underlying market conditions, not decree. Today’s price volatility is largely the artifact of intervention, not the metals themselves.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton uses vitamin K2 (MK-7) as a case study in how technocracy goes wrong, elevating cutting-edge findings and bureaucracy over experience, incentives, and real-world diets. Mark explains why K2 is linked in emerging research to bone health, arterial calcification, and even neurodegenerative conditions, and highlights a paradox: many food sources rich in K2 (beef, eggs, butter, chicken liver, European cheeses, salami) are officially discouraged, while “approved” sources (natto, kefir, sauerkraut) are niche. The takeaway isn’t medical advice, it’s a critique of a compliance-driven health regime that sidelines decentralized knowledge and choice.Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

On the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton critiques “green” mandates through the seen–unseen lens, contrasting them with conservation grounded in property rights and price signals. He spotlights silver—vital for electronics, medicine, and water filtration, hard to recycle, and mostly a mining byproduct—now in multi-year supply deficits. Subsidies for solar and EVs accelerate silver consumption and divert it from higher-value uses into short-lived installations. Real conservation comes from ownership, profit and loss, and interest rates, not bureaucratic targets.Donate $5 today to support the Mises Institute's Fall Campaign and receive a physical copy of Hayek for the 21st Century: https://mises.org/mi25A special bonus offer for Minor Issues listeners: donate to the Mises Institute's Fall Campaign and receive a signed copy of Free Trade in the 21st Century: https://mises.org/mi25Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues