If the hallmark of conventional economics is unrealistic models, the hallmark of Austrian economics is a profound appreciation of the price system. Prices provide us with critical information about the relative scarcity of goods and services. This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack. Original
The Free Market 17, no. 9 (September 1999) As the bureaucrats pursue their Draconian war on drugs, the Clinton administration is conspiring with the pharmaceutical industry to provide drugs at taxpayer expense. Under the guise of expanding Medicare—already a massive wealth transfer from young to old—prescription drugs will be included among the
Tim Harford offers an interesting analysis of the great XBox shortage of 2005. They are selling for $300, except that they are not selling because there is a massive shortage. He asks the question: why doesn’t Microsoft raise the price to $700 or more in order to clear the market, since that’s the price they are selling for on Ebay? This is an
The Free Market 20, no. 5 (May 2002) We are inundated by the forces of malevolence and deceit: terrorists, lying CEOs, stock hustlers, power-mad politicians, conniving regulators, conspiring pressure groups, and paid-off pundits. They seem to be everywhere. Revelations about Enron and its political connections remind us that even the business
One ironic legacy of the Clinton administration is the rearming of the American citizenry. Each time Clinton and his friends in Congress threaten another round of anti-gun regulations, the American people respond by stocking up on as many guns as possible. This is all to the good: an armed citizenry translates to less crime and more security, and
Oil prices have reached a 29-month high, reflecting a variety of factors including the prospects for war, expectations of lower supply, strikes and other unrest in Venezuela and Nigeria, and inflationary pressures. At the same time, the Producer Price Index recorded a 1.6 percent jump in January, the biggest across-the-board increase since January
[This essay is a selection from “ Why Austrian Economics Matters .”] The concepts of scarcity and choice lie at the heart of Austrian economics. Man is constantly faced with a wide array of choices. Every action implies forgone alternatives or costs. And every action, by definition, is designed to improve the actor’s lot from his point of view.
[Este ensayo es una selección de « Why Austrian Economics Matters »]. Los conceptos de escasez y elección están en el corazón de la economía austriaca. El hombre se enfrenta constantemente a una amplia gama de opciones. Cada acción implica alternativas o costos perdidos. Y cada acción, por definición, está diseñada para mejorar la suerte del actor
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The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.