[This article is part of the Understanding Money Mechanics series, by Robert P. Murphy. The series will be published as a book in 2021.] Although it conjures up scary imagery, shadow banking is simply a term for banking operations that occur through financial intermediaries that are not traditional

Austrian economists have a well-developed theory that explains the boom, bubble, bust, and recovery. A good introduction to the Austrian theory of the business cycle can be found in Larry Sechrest's article "Explaining Malinvestment and Overinvestment." Larry wrote the article to provide a pedagogical device for

In a surprising turn of events, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of Catholic Social Services (CSS) and against the City of Philadelphia. Upon learning that the Catholic agency would not place children with same-sex couples as a part of its foster care

"The groupthink that exists among scholars of healthcare, among policy makers, among politicians — even among the public — is alarming." A new world of medical entrepreneurship is growing. Concierge and cash-only practices, walk-in cash clinics, medical tourism, and cost-sharing plans are just a few of

When we last saw Bernie Sanders at the Joe Biden inaugural bundled and wearing a mask, some of us hoped that Bernie would still be masked—and silent. Unfortunately, as it becomes increasingly clear that the Biden administration is wanting to transform the USA into a

A new world of medical entrepreneurship is growing. Concierge and cash-only practices, walk-in cash clinics, medical tourism, and cost-sharing plans are just a few of the ways free-market approaches are changing the landscape. Our expert speakers will discuss several of these developments, and more. Recorded in

Last week a student in my MBA-level intermediate-macro seminar raised a provocative question. We were discussing the various kinds of (price) deflation and which kinds, according to Austrians, are benign and accommodate consumer preferences, and which are malignant and conflict with consumer preferences. In view of

Professor Roberta Modugno joins the show to finish our look at Rothbard's seminal treatise on normative libertarianism, The Ethics of Liberty. Dr. Modugno elaborates on Rothbard's disagreements with Mises regarding ethical justifications for a free society, and defends his uncompromising views on the nature of

In the wake of the Covid Recession and the drive to pour ever larger amounts of “stimulus” into the US economy, the Federal Government in 2020 spent more than double—as a percentage of all government spending—of what all state and local governments spent in 2020,

It’s often claimed that support for the free market rests on the ideology of social Darwinism. According to this nefarious doctrine, Charles Darwin showed that evolution is a process of struggle. In it, the strong, meaning those best able to reproduce, supplant the weak. Social