What a century-old school of economics predicted about the pandemic state — and why its vocabulary still fits the record better than anything in mainstream discourse
This is an incredible essay — that could only have been written by a person with very deep knowledge of Austrian School achievements. A frustration I have had for a lifetime is understanding and then seeing that nobody else will ever understand. It is a great pleasure to see that this knowledge continues to live. It is very rare, almost painful to observe how rare, but nevertheless beautiful. Thank you for such an outstanding piece.
The key won't unlock the door. The squatters have changed the locks. The landlord can't enter the property without spending months and thousands of dollars in legal costs in court trying to evict the illegal tenants.
Herded like sheep by a shepherd (government-run medical establishment) with his dog (mandatory enforcement) through the gates (vaccines)of the herding trial. And the money for all this keeps flowing endlessly for the benefit of laboratories everywhere and at the expense of the public who are, in essence, “lab rats.” Somehow, I don’t believe Hippocrates had this in mind…..?
“It is the hampered market the Austrians described, in which the state and a circle of privileged firms each extend the other’s reach.” Klaus and his boot-licking toadies at the WEF would call this a “public private partnership.” This article is a great application of Austrian economics to a real world problem. And delivered at a layman’s level. Great job!
On credit expansion a distinction between govt and corporate is useful. When corps issue debt or borrow, currency is expanded temporarily. If they are profitable, they pay off the debt thus converting debt-to-equity and this is deflationary as to generate profit they must add to society's standard of living as judged by consumers. Most consumers look to benefit from making spending decisions above the cost of earning income. This makes consumer spend deflationary. For corps that fail to meet consumer needs, default and bankruptcy. The currency generated by their debt is cancelled.
No such currency reduction by govt spending which cannot default but grows bigger every year without producing value for society. Govt spending is always inflationary and detrimental to the value consumers receive.
My issues with the Austrian School is that they fail to understand the need for fiat currency that must grow with any economy nor do they understand the differences between corp debt issuance for productive use vs govt issuance and the actual source of inflation. Most experts insist that M2 growth is inflationary and miss the value- creation from production activity. Milton Friedman got it, but they all truncated his commentary to claim "...inflation is always a monetary problem..." and missed his coupling of too much monetary expansion without associated value creation.
"Central planners" can only remain in control if their authority dominates. The Constitution was for a bottom up society and not a top down. We have morphed into a top down and the Central planners need to maintain control. The money game is a counting tool that confirms their dominance. The Covid con was their defining exercise that demonstrates their dominance.
Considering the major investment in new RNA injections which exceeds 200 such projects indicates that the status quo will remain for decades to come. At some point there will be a total disintegration of societal norms that will crush the top down approach of governance. We will have an American Bastille day and more. My view.
I am planning to release my book “Seven Innocents” this fall. In 1979, the FBI became aware of the fact that food and drug products were being poisoned with cyanide. In turn, they opened a file to document and analyze the events and called it cyanide murders. In 1980, they realized that the focus of the poisonings were being targeted at Tylenol capsules and they opened a second line of investigation call Tylenol murders. J & J in turn realized that they needed to stop the tampering and began creating a method of stopping the poisonings with tamper resistant packaging. Unfortunately, the implementation of the new packaging was not in place when Seven Innocent humans were murdered in Chicagoland. A crisis that greatly stressed J & J management that ultimately changed how all consumable products are packaged for safety. Their tamper resistant packaging became the gold standard and their approach to managing the crisis became a textbook example of how to be upfront and take action when a product crisis occurs. Since the implementation of tamper resistant packaging many lives have been saved over the last forty years thanks to the J & J efforts.
There are many legs to this historical look at the medical murder mystery that began in 1979 and did not end until eight years later. My Hunt for the Tylenol killer took me into many dark places where light was never shined. Without the cooperation of J & J and Kenvue this story could not be told. It is a story that must be told. The goal of the book is to have the FBI re-examine the events and double their effort to find the killers. They pursued one man for a lifetime and his DNA and fingers prints did not match the specimens in the possession of the FBI. Closure for all the families involved may still be within reach.
Thomas - I think you would appreciate the book, "No More Tears" - The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson, by Gardiner Harris. The book was released in April 2025 & I read it a month later, in May 2025.
I did find the explanation of how governments operate to control their populations, to subscribe to bigger government useful. Punishment of a sort. We remember. I was so interested when they shut down churches but let the big stores Walmart to stay open. What should we have done besides refuse the Covid shots? What about now other than witness another effort to terrorize that another plandemic is coming? Measles is my big one for me. We all had measles and we are being told it is a deadly disease! $ and control. I am thinking about the nature of people, those of us who like and learn from each other, and those who appear to be psychopaths. And the psychopaths seem to gain control of certain countries which is really bad/sad. Can anyone explain why the human race has this composition? Control personalities are what percentage? Probably small, but how do we fight this? Elect Spencer Pratt!
What was scary: Most churches willingly complied. Either their leaders were cowards --or, WORSE - hypocrites who did not believe in the value of church.
For nearly 40 years, I believed church attendance was not necessary for a Bible-believing Christian since "God is everywhere." I was wrong.
During COVID, I learned most ministers believed church attendance was less important than being able to go to Walmart or, in Nevada, to gamble. Very few even attempted to protest anti-church regulations that made it more difficult to attend church than to buy a blouse from a big box store.
I read the books during my law studies… but I am pretty sure that it’s no longer part of the usual books you must or should read in school or academic education nowadays… Thank you so much for this! Lot’s of love from Austria, Bettina
If you get this and you read "The Law" by Frederick Bastiaat, then you pretty much see the big picture. It is to government and economics what the Bible is to humanity and good and evil.
As I scan the content of this essay, I see the benefit and the ability to forecast the future because there are certain tendencies that are consistent with humans. Sci-fi can be predicated with these tendencies as well. Some deeper thinkers look at history from many perspectives and then make deductions that are pretty accurate. Think Ayn Rand for example as well as Orwell and Huxley.
Very well done! Extremely depressing! The post crisis conduct of too many of our elected officials, bureaucracies and indeed a substantial number of those in residence in our nation has been/is unacceptably destructive in terms of our nation's long term success.
Your use of the Austrian economists analyses works. To me the most pressing concern is coercion. That the next crisis will be occasioned by a greater level of coercion (not to downplay the evils of robberies of wealth from the lower classes), demands review and remediation. That, thus far, seems to lack attention or even a wift of interest.
IMO, the increased evil amongst us, could well occasion another pandemic before November. That would be a unquestionable opportunity to respond with increased coertion and perverse initiatives to assure the crises dont go waste.
On another level, this morning on Substack:
Mellowcat's SS warns to
Before June 5th tell EPA
NO. Mosquitos infected with wolbachia.
re a major planned release.
For one, I'm sick and tired on the Gates, DOD insect, tick, airborne contaminants being dumped on us!
How do we organize to back down these evils?
Your essay here is a start, but there are possible immediate threats to be ready for. Is anyone listening, seeing and getting numbers at the ready?
These approaches/stategies are useful tools for analyses. That said, it would be helpful if everymen could effectively grasp them. The Joes the repair guy and Jens the clerks might not elect to wade through an intellectual offering, but could still benefit from the concepts. Is it possible to offer a bare bones version too?
Jean---- you are 100% correct but......there are a bunch of lazy people who do not want to read anything unless it has pictures or includes something sexy. I have those people in my family and when and if I try to explain something in a little too much detail, they do not get the point immediately so their eyes glaze over and they want to move on to a you tube video of a squirrel jumping in a tree to get a treat. Economics is not entertaining to most people so........they do not want to read about it. Logic is not meant for a lot of people. It was this reason that the climate scam took 20 years for the average Joe or start to believe that it was a scam. It took a long time for the deep state to finally get around to making really dumb decisions that cost the average car buyer or house builder or business owner to have to spend serious dollars to comply with their idiocy. Only then would those people start to give a few minutes to the nay sayers who were telling us the emperor has no clothes. 30-40% of the population still believes the climate hoax and of course the more people you can get on the gravy train, the more people will be out there saying it is real. IMO the reason the Euros were so slow to question the so called experts is that quite a large percentage of them are somehow firmly attached to the gov't tit and could not let go until the payments to the climate hoax were way above what they are getting from the gov't.
This is so messed up in the UK that they will gladly buy oil and gas from Norway who drills for oil in the N. Sea but......the UK will gladly entertain new legislation that will forever forbid the UK gov't or private oil companies from drilling in the ocean surrounding the UK.
I can remember when the climate hoax first got started and was willing to tell people that it was all BS but the typical response was-----what do you know. You are not an expert and do not have a degree in climate science. I would typically respond that -----no I do not have a degree in climate science but I do have a working brain and......maybe you should use yours. My wife says I should be nicer but......it is hard when you are dealing with someone who knows nothing and is happy to stay that way.
I appreciate your points. Never bought into humans having a meaningful impact on climate.
Prior to 2020 had several areas I ignored and almost that related to numbers. In 2020 - 212I had the good fortune to identify and follow the Malones. These Doctors are exceptional in the breadth of their knowledge and their generally clear sharing with we, their subscribers. In recognizing the opportunities, I've stepped up to do my best to absorb what's offered with an open and committed focus. Perhaps that's one of the ways - to focus on not missing worthy opportunities?
Formalization vs Anti-Formalization (Austrian economics). Top Down vs Bottom Up. Big Government vs Small Government.
In looking up a commenter's book recommendation, The Law, by Frederic Bastiat, I found this translation essay. Bastiat begins with Life is a gift from God. He wrote it when France was succumbing to Socialism, mid 19th century.
In reading Doc Malone's wonderful essay today, I am amazed at our country's Founders. They set up a government that was not intended to be BIG, it was instead: Of The People, By The People, For The People. They did this almost 100 years before Austrian economics was being discussed! http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html
Wouldn't it be a clearer statement to call it what it really was? The Plandemic instead of the pandemic. With all the deception flowing so freely though the Media lines of communication it seems only fitting to call it out.
The problem with wording like that it that it results in a large section of the audience immediately moving on. If we want to reach outside of our tribe with these ideas, we have to be strategic
Wow Dr. Malone I am impressed with your erudition on this topic. I had the unusual good fortune to study Austrian School economics in college, and I remember a bunch of us cramming into two old cars and driving 6 hours to hear Ludwig von Mises speak. He was very old; this was maybe 1970. The speaking event was not what you would wish for an august intellect in his final years: a ragtag bunch of college kids in a very pedestrian setting. He signed my copy of Human Action; still have it. As I went through my career in various business settings, my grounding in Austrian School economics was very very useful.. For those interested who don’t want to get too far into the weeds, Henry Hazlett’s short book Economics in One Lesson is definitely worth reading.
Recently I’ve heard the Promethean Action ladies condemning the Austrian School as part of British empire nefariousness. Can someone explain their POV for me? Is it an issue of free trade vs. national interest?
Excellent synthesis of Austrian school orthodoxy. The pre-conditions for what happened in 2020 are also worth mentioning, which is a populace that has been indoctrinated and enculturated over many decades to believe that government is the be-all and end-all of civic life, that its institutions and authorities are trustworthy above all reproach, and that limited government is an alien idea promoted by the ignorant and unenlightened. Without this necessary precondition, the Covid plandemic and ongoing tyranny could never have happened.
This is an incredible essay — that could only have been written by a person with very deep knowledge of Austrian School achievements. A frustration I have had for a lifetime is understanding and then seeing that nobody else will ever understand. It is a great pleasure to see that this knowledge continues to live. It is very rare, almost painful to observe how rare, but nevertheless beautiful. Thank you for such an outstanding piece.
Please tell me that you have read "the Law" by Bastiaat. Understanding legal plunder is the key that unlocks the door.
The key won't unlock the door. The squatters have changed the locks. The landlord can't enter the property without spending months and thousands of dollars in legal costs in court trying to evict the illegal tenants.
Herded like sheep by a shepherd (government-run medical establishment) with his dog (mandatory enforcement) through the gates (vaccines)of the herding trial. And the money for all this keeps flowing endlessly for the benefit of laboratories everywhere and at the expense of the public who are, in essence, “lab rats.” Somehow, I don’t believe Hippocrates had this in mind…..?
“It is the hampered market the Austrians described, in which the state and a circle of privileged firms each extend the other’s reach.” Klaus and his boot-licking toadies at the WEF would call this a “public private partnership.” This article is a great application of Austrian economics to a real world problem. And delivered at a layman’s level. Great job!
On credit expansion a distinction between govt and corporate is useful. When corps issue debt or borrow, currency is expanded temporarily. If they are profitable, they pay off the debt thus converting debt-to-equity and this is deflationary as to generate profit they must add to society's standard of living as judged by consumers. Most consumers look to benefit from making spending decisions above the cost of earning income. This makes consumer spend deflationary. For corps that fail to meet consumer needs, default and bankruptcy. The currency generated by their debt is cancelled.
No such currency reduction by govt spending which cannot default but grows bigger every year without producing value for society. Govt spending is always inflationary and detrimental to the value consumers receive.
My issues with the Austrian School is that they fail to understand the need for fiat currency that must grow with any economy nor do they understand the differences between corp debt issuance for productive use vs govt issuance and the actual source of inflation. Most experts insist that M2 growth is inflationary and miss the value- creation from production activity. Milton Friedman got it, but they all truncated his commentary to claim "...inflation is always a monetary problem..." and missed his coupling of too much monetary expansion without associated value creation.
"Central planners" can only remain in control if their authority dominates. The Constitution was for a bottom up society and not a top down. We have morphed into a top down and the Central planners need to maintain control. The money game is a counting tool that confirms their dominance. The Covid con was their defining exercise that demonstrates their dominance.
Considering the major investment in new RNA injections which exceeds 200 such projects indicates that the status quo will remain for decades to come. At some point there will be a total disintegration of societal norms that will crush the top down approach of governance. We will have an American Bastille day and more. My view.
I think you will enjoy the book I am currently working on...
I am planning to release my book “Seven Innocents” this fall. In 1979, the FBI became aware of the fact that food and drug products were being poisoned with cyanide. In turn, they opened a file to document and analyze the events and called it cyanide murders. In 1980, they realized that the focus of the poisonings were being targeted at Tylenol capsules and they opened a second line of investigation call Tylenol murders. J & J in turn realized that they needed to stop the tampering and began creating a method of stopping the poisonings with tamper resistant packaging. Unfortunately, the implementation of the new packaging was not in place when Seven Innocent humans were murdered in Chicagoland. A crisis that greatly stressed J & J management that ultimately changed how all consumable products are packaged for safety. Their tamper resistant packaging became the gold standard and their approach to managing the crisis became a textbook example of how to be upfront and take action when a product crisis occurs. Since the implementation of tamper resistant packaging many lives have been saved over the last forty years thanks to the J & J efforts.
There are many legs to this historical look at the medical murder mystery that began in 1979 and did not end until eight years later. My Hunt for the Tylenol killer took me into many dark places where light was never shined. Without the cooperation of J & J and Kenvue this story could not be told. It is a story that must be told. The goal of the book is to have the FBI re-examine the events and double their effort to find the killers. They pursued one man for a lifetime and his DNA and fingers prints did not match the specimens in the possession of the FBI. Closure for all the families involved may still be within reach.
Thomas - I think you would appreciate the book, "No More Tears" - The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson, by Gardiner Harris. The book was released in April 2025 & I read it a month later, in May 2025.
I have. Talked to author. He doesn't mince words! My book provides a more detailed examination of what transpired with the Tylenol saga and much more.
I'll have to read it. Let us know when it will be available.
A bit of a tease!
Correct! :)
I did find the explanation of how governments operate to control their populations, to subscribe to bigger government useful. Punishment of a sort. We remember. I was so interested when they shut down churches but let the big stores Walmart to stay open. What should we have done besides refuse the Covid shots? What about now other than witness another effort to terrorize that another plandemic is coming? Measles is my big one for me. We all had measles and we are being told it is a deadly disease! $ and control. I am thinking about the nature of people, those of us who like and learn from each other, and those who appear to be psychopaths. And the psychopaths seem to gain control of certain countries which is really bad/sad. Can anyone explain why the human race has this composition? Control personalities are what percentage? Probably small, but how do we fight this? Elect Spencer Pratt!
What was scary: Most churches willingly complied. Either their leaders were cowards --or, WORSE - hypocrites who did not believe in the value of church.
For nearly 40 years, I believed church attendance was not necessary for a Bible-believing Christian since "God is everywhere." I was wrong.
During COVID, I learned most ministers believed church attendance was less important than being able to go to Walmart or, in Nevada, to gamble. Very few even attempted to protest anti-church regulations that made it more difficult to attend church than to buy a blouse from a big box store.
I read the books during my law studies… but I am pretty sure that it’s no longer part of the usual books you must or should read in school or academic education nowadays… Thank you so much for this! Lot’s of love from Austria, Bettina
If you get this and you read "The Law" by Frederick Bastiaat, then you pretty much see the big picture. It is to government and economics what the Bible is to humanity and good and evil.
As I scan the content of this essay, I see the benefit and the ability to forecast the future because there are certain tendencies that are consistent with humans. Sci-fi can be predicated with these tendencies as well. Some deeper thinkers look at history from many perspectives and then make deductions that are pretty accurate. Think Ayn Rand for example as well as Orwell and Huxley.
Very well done! Extremely depressing! The post crisis conduct of too many of our elected officials, bureaucracies and indeed a substantial number of those in residence in our nation has been/is unacceptably destructive in terms of our nation's long term success.
Your use of the Austrian economists analyses works. To me the most pressing concern is coercion. That the next crisis will be occasioned by a greater level of coercion (not to downplay the evils of robberies of wealth from the lower classes), demands review and remediation. That, thus far, seems to lack attention or even a wift of interest.
IMO, the increased evil amongst us, could well occasion another pandemic before November. That would be a unquestionable opportunity to respond with increased coertion and perverse initiatives to assure the crises dont go waste.
On another level, this morning on Substack:
Mellowcat's SS warns to
Before June 5th tell EPA
NO. Mosquitos infected with wolbachia.
re a major planned release.
For one, I'm sick and tired on the Gates, DOD insect, tick, airborne contaminants being dumped on us!
How do we organize to back down these evils?
Your essay here is a start, but there are possible immediate threats to be ready for. Is anyone listening, seeing and getting numbers at the ready?
OFF TOPIC:
Thumbs up for Paxton today!
As an aside
These approaches/stategies are useful tools for analyses. That said, it would be helpful if everymen could effectively grasp them. The Joes the repair guy and Jens the clerks might not elect to wade through an intellectual offering, but could still benefit from the concepts. Is it possible to offer a bare bones version too?
Jean---- you are 100% correct but......there are a bunch of lazy people who do not want to read anything unless it has pictures or includes something sexy. I have those people in my family and when and if I try to explain something in a little too much detail, they do not get the point immediately so their eyes glaze over and they want to move on to a you tube video of a squirrel jumping in a tree to get a treat. Economics is not entertaining to most people so........they do not want to read about it. Logic is not meant for a lot of people. It was this reason that the climate scam took 20 years for the average Joe or start to believe that it was a scam. It took a long time for the deep state to finally get around to making really dumb decisions that cost the average car buyer or house builder or business owner to have to spend serious dollars to comply with their idiocy. Only then would those people start to give a few minutes to the nay sayers who were telling us the emperor has no clothes. 30-40% of the population still believes the climate hoax and of course the more people you can get on the gravy train, the more people will be out there saying it is real. IMO the reason the Euros were so slow to question the so called experts is that quite a large percentage of them are somehow firmly attached to the gov't tit and could not let go until the payments to the climate hoax were way above what they are getting from the gov't.
This is so messed up in the UK that they will gladly buy oil and gas from Norway who drills for oil in the N. Sea but......the UK will gladly entertain new legislation that will forever forbid the UK gov't or private oil companies from drilling in the ocean surrounding the UK.
I can remember when the climate hoax first got started and was willing to tell people that it was all BS but the typical response was-----what do you know. You are not an expert and do not have a degree in climate science. I would typically respond that -----no I do not have a degree in climate science but I do have a working brain and......maybe you should use yours. My wife says I should be nicer but......it is hard when you are dealing with someone who knows nothing and is happy to stay that way.
I appreciate your points. Never bought into humans having a meaningful impact on climate.
Prior to 2020 had several areas I ignored and almost that related to numbers. In 2020 - 212I had the good fortune to identify and follow the Malones. These Doctors are exceptional in the breadth of their knowledge and their generally clear sharing with we, their subscribers. In recognizing the opportunities, I've stepped up to do my best to absorb what's offered with an open and committed focus. Perhaps that's one of the ways - to focus on not missing worthy opportunities?
Formalization vs Anti-Formalization (Austrian economics). Top Down vs Bottom Up. Big Government vs Small Government.
In looking up a commenter's book recommendation, The Law, by Frederic Bastiat, I found this translation essay. Bastiat begins with Life is a gift from God. He wrote it when France was succumbing to Socialism, mid 19th century.
In reading Doc Malone's wonderful essay today, I am amazed at our country's Founders. They set up a government that was not intended to be BIG, it was instead: Of The People, By The People, For The People. They did this almost 100 years before Austrian economics was being discussed! http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html
Well explicated and useful.
new word for me / explicated
Hi Doctor,
Wouldn't it be a clearer statement to call it what it really was? The Plandemic instead of the pandemic. With all the deception flowing so freely though the Media lines of communication it seems only fitting to call it out.
The problem with wording like that it that it results in a large section of the audience immediately moving on. If we want to reach outside of our tribe with these ideas, we have to be strategic
Wow Dr. Malone I am impressed with your erudition on this topic. I had the unusual good fortune to study Austrian School economics in college, and I remember a bunch of us cramming into two old cars and driving 6 hours to hear Ludwig von Mises speak. He was very old; this was maybe 1970. The speaking event was not what you would wish for an august intellect in his final years: a ragtag bunch of college kids in a very pedestrian setting. He signed my copy of Human Action; still have it. As I went through my career in various business settings, my grounding in Austrian School economics was very very useful.. For those interested who don’t want to get too far into the weeds, Henry Hazlett’s short book Economics in One Lesson is definitely worth reading.
Recently I’ve heard the Promethean Action ladies condemning the Austrian School as part of British empire nefariousness. Can someone explain their POV for me? Is it an issue of free trade vs. national interest?
Excellent synthesis of Austrian school orthodoxy. The pre-conditions for what happened in 2020 are also worth mentioning, which is a populace that has been indoctrinated and enculturated over many decades to believe that government is the be-all and end-all of civic life, that its institutions and authorities are trustworthy above all reproach, and that limited government is an alien idea promoted by the ignorant and unenlightened. Without this necessary precondition, the Covid plandemic and ongoing tyranny could never have happened.
I hadn't ever considered the plandemic in this light before. Now that you've said it, it makes perfect sense.
Looked at in this light, it was all so predictable... And so predictably wrong!
Thank you Doc for such an enlightening analysis.