Peter's Blog

Socialism’s historical record includes well over 100 million civilians killed by socialist regimes over the past century, yet the ideology has seen a resurgence in popularity, particularly among recent college graduates. Its persistence and appeal lies in exploiting contempt, envy, and a fear of personal responsibility rather than in any coherent economic case against private […]

Rather than being a radical antidote to the perceived errors of market capitalism, socialism is actually very similar to capitalism, but with some extra steps of inefficiency. Capitalism often consolidates the means of production through increasing returns to scale, and sorts people through the pice system into the roles where they would add the most […]

The unique dangers of artificial intelligence are often used to argue that development should be taken out of the hands of profit-driven private actors. The government is presented as a force for good that can develop AI responsibly for the common good. While this line of reasoning can soothe the minds of well-meaning citizens, it […]

Modern institutions have embraced the belief that more data, more regulation, and more centralized coordination will always produce better outcomes, but that assumption is increasingly running into its own limits. As bureaucracies drown in information they cannot meaningfully interpret, the very mechanisms built to improve performance begin producing the opposite result, a phenomenon that undermines […]

Austrian economics does not reduce people to mechanisms like most other forms of economics do. While the Austrian perspective is still to approach economics as a positive rather than a normative science, it avoids numerous pitfalls by simply not making simplifying assumptions about people internally and the way they make choices. Rather than boxing people […]

As Trump’s crony capitalism and socialist inroads in the Democratic Party crowd out defenders of free markets, many assume the only choice is between capitalism and socialism. But a third danger lurks — the possibility that rejecting both leads not to liberty, but to feudalism or primitivism, systems where rights collapse and poverty reigns just […]

Most Americans understand the visible harm that excessive regulation causes – higher costs and fewer choices in the marketplace. Those less familiar with Austrian economic theory may not appreciate that government regulations also actively create monopolies by shielding politically connected industries from the competitive pressures that drive innovation and spread knowledge. The following article was […]

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 […]

In the literature on the Great Depression, interventionists claim that it was President Herbert Hoover’s “free market” policies that contributed to and even caused the economic crash that characterized the 1930s. But, under even the least scrutiny, this pernicious myth falls apart completely. The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions […]

Recent statistical revisions have reignited debates over the nature of the state’s economic statistics. No matter who’s in power and all intentional data manipulation withstanding, the simple fact is that these metrics contain pro-intervention assumptions and are by nature political. The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not […]