Economic Inequality

Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 26, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Daniella Bassi tells the remarkable story of the Arctic fur trade as a real-world case study in stateless order. In early 20th-century northern Canada, Inuit and European traders conducted peaceful, prosperous exchange, without government law or enforcement, guided instead by mutual respect, property rights, and natural law.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 26, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Is economic inequality really the crisis it's made out to be, or is it a misunderstood feature of a healthy, free market society? Mark Thornton dismantles the modern obsession with equality, exposing the statist assumptions behind popular narratives and showing how capital accumulation, entrepreneurship, and individual differences drive prosperity. This is the Austrian answer to egalitarian myths.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 25, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Timothy Terrell challenges the mainstream view that markets fail to protect the environment, arguing instead that government intervention often distorts land use, fuels cronyism, and undermines conservation. Drawing on Austrian insights, historical examples, and striking contrasts in land management outcomes, Terrell makes the case for property rights and market-based stewardship as the true path to sustainability.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 25, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Lucas Engelhardt explores the economics of interventionism, tracing Ludwig von Mises’s core argument that state interference in markets is both self-defeating and inherently unstable. Building on insights from Rothbard, Ikeda, and Higgs, Engelhardt examines why interventionism persists despite its failures, and whether we are, in fact, on the road to socialism or stuck in a stable middle ground.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 25, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Tim Terrell offers a critical examination of higher education’s economic structure, exploring how federal subsidies, credential inflation, and misaligned incentives have driven rising costs and declining academic rigor. Drawing on Austrian insights, he questions whether universities still serve their educational mission, or have become consumption-driven institutions shaped by bureaucratic interests and distorted signals.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Tate Fegley analyzes the deep state through the lens of Austrian economics, showing how bureaucratic insulation, lack of economic calculation, and political incentives lead to cronyism and inefficiency. Focusing on defense procurement and media influence, he argues that systemic dysfunction—not bad actors—is the primary driver of deep state behavior.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Bob Murphy examines Henry Hazlitt’s treatment of inflation in Economics in One Lesson, highlighting key insights on monetary expansion, Cantillon effects, and the distinction between nominal and real variables. The lecture offers a clear, Austrian perspective on why inflation distorts rather than enriches, and why its consequences are uneven and often misunderstood.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Through a detailed, real-time narrative, Tom Woods examines the inconsistencies, unintended consequences, and bureaucratic incentives behind lockdowns, mask mandates, and public health messaging. Supplemented by empirical data and firsthand accounts, the lecture highlights the human and institutional costs of the crisis response, while underscoring the Mises Institute’s principled opposition to prevailing narratives.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Bob Murphy and Jonathan Newman take on the rising popularity of Modern Monetary Theory and explain why it stands in direct opposition to Austrian economics. Using clips from the documentary Finding the Money, they critique MMT's core assumptions, from government spending and deficit myths to the origins of money itself. They offer historical evidence, economic logic, and biting rebuttals to MMT’s claims, exposing its flaws and clarifying what’s really at stake in today’s monetary debates.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 2025.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.