Government Intervention and Economic Inequality

Mark Thornton revisits his Mises University lecture on government intervention and economic inequality, arguing that intervention does not merely shrink the economic pie: it changes who gets the biggest slices. Drawing on Rothbard’s distinction between specific and general factors of production, Mark also shows how regulations, subsidies, tariffs, licensing, healthcare rules, and monetary policy reward protected firms, specialized capital, and politically favored workers while forcing everyone else into less productive, lower-paying alternatives.

On Side B, Mark joins the David Lynn Show to discuss tariffs, the Fed, the business cycle, the Skyscraper Curse, AI data centers, war risks, diesel and fertilizer shortages, and why today’s boom may be approaching its breaking point.

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