

Audio Mises Wire
Mises Institute
Audio recordings of Mises Wire articles, offering contemporary news and opinion through the lens of Austrian economics and libertarian political economy.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 9, 2025 • 0sec
The "Acid Rain" Scare and the Science-Industrial Complex
“Science” is now indistinguishable from politics. As the “acid rain” hysteria showed back in the 1970s and 1980s, “follow the science” is just a political slogan, unrelated to actual science.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/acid-rain-scare-and-science-industrial-complex

Oct 9, 2025 • 0sec
Going for Broke
Once upon a time, American firms built with the long term in view, and the government did not try to hinder them. Today, thanks to reckless federal government spending, we are living hand-to-mouth, accumulating massive debts, and soon enough will be broke.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/going-broke

Oct 7, 2025 • 0sec
Letters to Frank Meyer Reveal Rothbard's Views on Lincoln, Slavery, and Popular Sovereignty
“The Civil War was really the watershed,” he wrote Meyer. “Lincoln was America’s first dictator, and almost all the Republican Acts were monstrous.”Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/letters-frank-meyer-reveal-rothbards-views-lincoln-slavery-and-popular-sovereignty

Oct 7, 2025 • 0sec
Mises on Separating Morality and State
The recent assassination of Charlie Kirk has focused attention on political violence. Ludwig von Mises, not surprisingly, understood that tying morality to politicized state helps create the climate where political violence is prevalent.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/mises-separating-morality-and-state

Oct 6, 2025 • 0sec
Why Taxes Were So Hated in the Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages, taxation was considered to be appropriate only as an extreme measure in times of emergency, and as a last resort. Kings were expected to subsist on revenues from their own private property.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-taxes-were-so-hated-middle-ages

Oct 6, 2025 • 0sec
Individualism and the Violence of the Identitarian Left
Leftists seek to create a new society that supposedly is peaceable. However, they also celebrate violence done against political opponents, something that Murray Rothbard understood as undermining every supposed peaceful goal they claim to be pursuing.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/individualism-and-violence-identitarian-left

Oct 3, 2025 • 0sec
Inflation and Economic Growth
According to mainstream economists, inflation aids economic growth while deflation impairs growth. Austrian economists, however, point out that in much of US history, economic growth was accompanied by deflation.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/inflation-and-economic-growth

Oct 3, 2025 • 0sec
Jefferson's War on the Barbary Pirates Is an Unjustified Password for Military Intervention
Advocates for US military intervention have invoked the war against the Barbary pirates as justification. Yet, an examination of that conflict shows that President Jefferson’s actions were limited and followed the direction of Congress.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/jeffersons-war-barbary-pirates-unjustified-password-military-intervention

Oct 2, 2025 • 0sec
The Complicated Legacy of Andrew Jackson’s Bank War
Was Jackson’s victory over the Second Bank of the United States a triumph for liberty, or did it merely expand federal authority under the guise of constraining it? His legacy is complicated, but there is much we can learn from it.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/complicated-legacy-andrew-jacksons-bank-war

Oct 2, 2025 • 0sec
Absolutism and the “Reason of State”: Rothbard on the Growth of Statism
The Renaissance period is seen as mostly positive by historians, but the sinister development of absolutism and the imperial state complicates the legacy of that time.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/absolutism-and-reason-state-rothbard-growth-statism