Zack Sorenson | The Libertarian Institute

With These Solutions, Can We Save the Idea of a Market Economy?

by Zack Sorenson | Jun 5, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Libertarianism

When I first learned the basics of libertarianism and Austrian economic theory, I knew that these provided a more practical, moral, and satisfactory answer to major political and economic questions than any other ideology. For example, the premise of profitability in the Austro-libertarian point of view is that profits are the result of bringing unrealized value to the market. Those who receive profits have contributed more value than they have taken, and so they have a strong moral claim to whatever economic inequality might result from profits. Austro-libertarian answers are great, but...

An Asset Backed Currency Could Be Our Monetary Fix

by Zack Sorenson | Mar 30, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

According to the St. Louis Fed, there are three functions of money. First, as a store of value. Second, as a unit of account. Finally, as a medium of exchange. The enumeration of these functions represents an attempt to present money and the banking system as organized and the product of deliberate design. Money was never designed, and banking emerged from custom and expediency. Today’s central banking systems might ultimately represent a purposeful design, but it isn’t clear that their purpose is to create money that does what it is meant to do in the best possible way. Instead, the...

Discovering Cooperation Through the Blockchain

by Zack Sorenson | Feb 27, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, political hurdles and economic roadblocks have prevented the rise of a properly free and healthy society. Competitive pressures have allowed new inventions to be created and competitive barriers have helped innovative institutions realize value from them. However, these barriers have prevented the full measure of that value from integrating with society. There has been a need for market-based economic cooperation, but this has been displaced by government intervention to create a scale consumerist society which has slowly been grinding down...

Searching for Economic Solutions in Game Theory

by Zack Sorenson | Feb 9, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

The left and right-wings of economic thought spend much of their energy trying to refute each other, but an integration of both perspectives might be worth considering. The right-wing of economic thought has conclusively demonstrated that the value creating ability of capitalist economics cannot be matched by any left-wing economic model. However, the left-wing has highlighted consistent, major flaws in the capitalist system which include the inevitability of collusion between industry and government, and the need to create regulations which try to impose a uniform pattern of life....

A Defense of Mutual Aid Societies

by Zack Sorenson | Jan 19, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Libertarianism

The libertarian community is unique on account of its ability to ignore standard political and social conventions. Libertarians value freedom and understand why it needs free markets. However, libertarians do not possess a conservative loyalty to the system as it is today. When the left critiques the system, libertarians are always skeptical about calls to reduce freedom. However, libertarians also listen, and agree that we have many problems. Centralized economic power can hurt the little guy. The hope would be for the little guy to do better by offering him more freedom, rather than taking...

No More ‘Better Mousetraps’: How Financialization Discourages Technological Improvement

by Zack Sorenson | Jan 11, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

Capitalism is a social technology that directs resources toward valuable uses, increasing the total wealth in society. As a social technology, it organizes people and resources into systems and processes. When capitalism directs resources toward processes that discover valuable knowledge, it becomes revolutionary. There are many sub-technologies associated with capitalism. Double-entry bookkeeping, joint stock corporations, fractional reserve banking, compound interest, legal contracts, and so forth are all technological sub-systems integrated into modern capitalism. The modern model...

Capitalism is a Machine of Subjective Value

by Zack Sorenson | Dec 21, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles

What is economics and why do we care about it? The economy is what we do and why we do it. Reality introduces scarcity to that equation, and competition results. Our desires and values translate into actions, and competition translates those actions into strategies and compromises. Economics is a question of how we do what we choose to do, and how our way of doing things evolves. We all want what we want, but what’s our praxeology? More importantly, how do we improve it? That’s what economics seeks to answer. I have previously asked whether capitalism, thought of as an engine, might yet...

Imagining a Revived, Twenty-First Century Capitalism

by Zack Sorenson | Dec 6, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles

The death of capitalism has been a common topic of conversation lately. Millennials seem resigned to it, the younger generations can’t wait for it. Bastions of global capitalism—alleged capitalism—such as the World Economic Forum in Davos are quite eagerly promoting the concept of post-capitalism, and Wall Street for whatever its reasons follows in lockstep. Whether it’s socialism, localism, techno-feudalism, red anarchism, or state capitalism, whatever is advanced as the replacement for capitalism includes a firm rejection of markets and their role in social organization. Across the...

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