If Hobbes is right about human nature, then he is wrong about the state as a solution. Ironically, his key arguments for the state are actually key reasons against it.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/hobbess-accidental-case-against-state

Hobbes’s Accidental Case Against the State

Is silver “manipulated,” or are fundamentals doing the work? Mark Thornton sifts the evidence and finds a simpler story. Big players have gamed markets before, but the long arc of silver prices reflects structural forces: the 1960s demonetization that pushed vast coin hoards into private stockpiles, decades of shifting industrial demand, and the rise of by-product mining. Add environmental compliance and hard-to-recycle “green” uses that sequester silver, and the result is stubbornly low real prices.

Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Silver: Manipulation or Fundamentals?

In this lecture from the 2025 Mises Institute Supporters summit, Ryan looks at how the modern state is built on the rapid rise of taxation in recent centuries.  

Taxes and the Rise of the Modern State

The dystopian futuristic movie Elysium portrays a terrible future in which only the rich have medical care while the poor suffer on an overpopulated, polluted planet. The film’s theme—that only huge wealth transfers can bring medical care to low-income people—is fundamentally flawed.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/dystopia-misdiagnosed-how-rich-drive-health-innovation

Dystopia Misdiagnosed: How the Rich Drive Health Innovation

November 11 was once known as Armistice Day, the day set aside to celebrate the end of WWI. In this essay Rothbard discusses the war as the triumph of several Progressive intellectual strains from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

World War I as the Triumph of Progressive Intellectuals

We libertarians may be anti-state, but that we are emphatically not anti-society or opposed to the real world, however contaminated it might be. 

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/resisting-evil

On Resisting Evil

President Trump has proposed a 50-year mortgage for new homebuyers, ostensibly to make housing more affordable. Actually, this financial instrument will make housing more costly and do nothing to address the root of this entire problem: the artificial housing shortage.

Read the article here: https://mises.org/mises-wire/50-year-mortgages-wont-make-housing-more-affordable

Be sure to follow the Guns and Butter podcast at https://Mises.org/GB

50-Year Mortgages Won’t Make Housing More Affordable

The government “shutdown” and the so-called threat to the food stamp program may be abated for now, but we need to understand why this program has metastasized in recent years. James Bovard tells us why.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/food-stamps-and-federal-war-self-reliance

Food Stamps and the Federal War on Self-Reliance

The revolutionaries include the pamphleteer writing in his study, the journalist, the agitator, the organizer, the campus activist, the theoretician, the philanthropist. 

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/meaning-revolution

The Meaning of Revolution

On this marathon episode of Minor Issues, Mark stitches together four recent interviews for a fast-moving tour of today’s economy: why gold spiked while precious metals whipsawed, how ballooning US debt and rising servicing costs tilt policy toward monetization, and what that means for inflation, markets, and families. Along the way Mark explains the Austrian lens behind his calls and why using it beats siloed, headline-driven takes.

Highlights include: the recent precious metals pullback and what to watch next; the mechanics of debt monetization; distributional effects that favor asset holders over wage earners; and why hyperinflation risk is slow… until it’s fast.

Additional Resources

“Dollar Demise and the New Era for Gold & Silver” (The Freedom Report), November 7, 2025: https://Mises.org/MI_146_A

“GOLD: You Will NOT Get A Second Warning!” (Soar Financially), October 28, 2025: https://Mises.org/MI_146_B

“Gold Ringing Alarm Bells, Silver Setting Up to Skyrocket” (Investing News), October 28, 2025: https://Mises.org/MI_146_C

“The Fed and Runaway Government Debt Undermine the Very Basis of Civilisation” (maneco64), November 1, 2025: https://Mises.org/MI_146_D

Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

Minor Issues, Major Conversations: Mark Thornton’s Four-Interview Roundup

The Mises Institute, founded in 1982, is an educational institution devoted to advancing Austrian economics, freedom, and peace in the classical-liberal tradition. Our website offers many thousands of free books and thousands of hours of audio and video, along with the full run of rare journals, biographies, and bibliographies of great economists.

Minor Issues, Major Conversations: Mark Thornton’s Four-Interview Roundup

Mises Institute

Related tracks