Nach 5 Jahren heißt es Abschied nehmen: Der Freydenker wird eingestellt. Danke an alle Leser und Mitstreiter – und: Aus der Asche entsteht etwas Neues! 🗽 Mehr dazu & persönliche Worte schreibt unser Chefredakteur, Max Molden (Max Molden): derfreydenker.de/2025/05/08/5-j…

Wicksell is instructive when it comes to tariffs: "There can be no doubt that the best and indeed the only certain guarantee against such abuses of power lies in the principle of unanimity and voluntary consent in the approval of taxes." Wicksell, A New Principle of Just Taxation

"The importance of prices for coping with the Hayekian knowledge problem ... lies in the ability of disequilibrium prices to offer pure profit opportunities that can attract the notice of alert, profit-seekIng entrepreneurs." Very insightful paper by Kirzner.

Heute diskutiere ich mit Max Molden bei einer virtuellen Runde der Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit: „Regulieren wir uns in den Abgrund?“ Wie viel Regulierung braucht es – und wo bremst Bürokratie den Fortschritt? Ich freue mich auf den Austausch! Anmeldung: shop.freiheit.org/#!/Veranstaltu…

“All political theories assume that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in that they include among the ignorant themselves as well as the wisest.” — Friedrich Hayek

"it is a tragic error to believe that democracy and freedom are compatible with interventionism or even with socialism. What people mean by democratic government, civil liberties, and personal freedom can exist only in the market economy." — Ludwig von Mises, Interventionism

Es wäre großartig, wenn dieses Denken auch auf die Erkenntnisse aus anderen Bereichen, etwa der Public-Choice-Theorie, angewandt wird.

In my head I’ve started referring to political quadrants in terms of properties of their preferred coordination networks. Top two are centralized. Bottom two are distributed. Left two are symmetric (aka egalitarian). Right two are asymmetric.

A very valuable piece of work that sets the record straight regarding Slobodian's rather bizarre claims about Hayek and Mises.

Here’s the latest episode of The Week in Policymaker Ignorance, the third episode in my series on policymaker ignorance and the Vietnam War. This episode covers the crucial events and decisions separating the Kennedy assassination in November 1963 and the arrival of American

As tariffs hamper cooperation across borders, and the current regime means regime uncertainty, things get more costly. To this come incentives for entrepreneurs to enter the political process. This all makes the economy relatively less efficient. So, relatively higher price level

Today's economic policies are a warning to economists. Against this backdrop, my plea is to return to systems thinking—to ask the question: what does it mean that it is generally possible to intervene, or to engage in public policy? Econlib econlib.org/its-time-to-th…

I'll be guest editing a special issue of Cosmos + Taxis on the work of Don Lavoie. Lavoie made vital contributions to comparative economic systems, political economy, cultural economics, and more. Submit your abstract to me by September 1st! cosmosandtaxis.org/submissions/ca…

"This article extends the economic theory of regulation to include the gains available to elected politicians from alleviating costs threatened or actually imposed on private actors ... Their ability to impose costs enables politicians credibly to demand payments not to do so."

1⃣ Herbert Giersch: Ökonomen haben eine Bringschuld gegenüber der Öffentlichkeit, nicht gegenüber Politikern. Schon deshalb, weil deren Anreizsystem anders ausgerichtet ist (Helmut Kohl: „Ich will die Wahlen gewinnen, nicht den Ludwig-Erhard-Preis“). 2⃣ Wenn aber hinreichend

Heute wählt Bolivien. Warum diese Wahl die wichtigste seit 2006 sein könnte🧵 1/ Heute wählt Bolivien. Viele sehen es als historisch entscheidend – nicht nur für das Präsidentenamt, sondern für den Kurs des Landes nach fast 20 Jahren Sozialismus.