Peter's Blog

Deflation Isn’t the Danger – The Fear of It Is

Over a century of central banking has instilled an irrational fear of falling prices in the American public. But the reality is that falling prices are what make our economic lives better, and inflation, the regime’s preferred monetary policy, is far worse than deflation. The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The […]

AI Can Calculate Data – Not an Economy

A century ago, Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises tangled with socialists in the so-called Socialist Calculation Debate, in which Mises proved that socialism is not feasible. Today, with the power of modern computing and AI, socialists are again championing centralized control of the economy, but they misunderstand Mises’ core point: economic calculation and raw computation […]

Why Governments Don’t Determine Money’s Value

With inflation still running hot and disastrous jobs data coming in, it’s tempting for policymakers to spread myths about the economy, particularly around the origin and nature of money. As the Austrian school demonstrates, fiat money– and all money for that matter– does not derive its value from dictates of the government. The following article […]

Rothbard on War and Peace

The United States is embroiled once more in a Middle Eastern war, and warhawks are out in full force to defend the conflict from scrutiny. As with all wars, the latest clash with Iran is liable to distort and destroy American economic relations, culture, and civic life. The following article was originally published by the […]

The Real Cause of Stagflation

With another hot PPI report in the news and a shaky AI trade on Wall Street, the potential for a recession and continued inflation calls to mind the stagflation of the 1970s. As Milton Friedman demonstrated, this dreaded combination is the result of central bankers attempting to pull the wool over Americans’ eyes. The following […]

Fiat Money, Empire, and the Illusion of Stability

With the dollar slipping and trade policy whiplash dominating the news cycle, it seems the American empire is under economic threat. It’s no wonder then that the Trump administration is so preoccupied with lowering interest rates; central banking, after all, is the key enabler of economic and military intervention, both at home and abroad. The […]

Underfunded or Mismanaged? Rethinking Public Services

Whenever public services prove to be inferior or counterproductive, their advocates always advance the same argument: “public services are underfunded!” This comes as no surprise to those acquainted with the logic of state action. When the signals of profit and loss cease to function, public agencies inevitably seek to expand their budget. The following article […]

The Panic of 1857 Through an Austrian Lens

Pre-Fed recessions, like the Panic of 1857, are often invoked to counter the Austrian School’s theory of the business cycle, which stipulates that monetary expansion causes recessions. On the surface, the Panic of 1857 seems like a strong counterexample, but the full details of its origins– and resolution– vindicate the Austrians yet again. The following […]

New Evidence Expands the History of Hyperinflation

Hyperinflation is perhaps the best way to destroy a nation, short of bombing it. While it’s uncommon, new scholarship shows that hyperinflation has ravaged economies at least 71 times throughout history, which is more than monetary interventionists care to admit. The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not […]

Menger vs. Chartalism: What Evidence Should Money Theories Require

How does money come about? Did someone invent it, or did it spontaneously emerge as a medium of exchange? The Austrian School of economics gets this question right, and the evidence is on its side. The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Peter […]