Shortly after arriving in the United States, having fled a war-torn Europe, Ludwig von Mises sat down to complete his trilogy on economic systems. The result was this remarkably concise treatise, which tragically was not published until 1998. What Mises had foreseen was a world trapped between fully planned economies, which were clearly failing, and fully free markets, which were a casualty of depression and war. He warned that mixed systems give rise of political instability and economic stagnation, and proved that this was the case through a general model of interventionism and a specific analysis of price control, credit expansion, subsidies, welfare, corporatism, and the war economy. Particularly interesting is his discussion of the draft, which he sees as a species of socialism itself. A crucial book to understand in the post-socialist age. Note: This book is not to be confused with his earlier book on price control entitled A Critique of Interventionism.

The contents of this volume include:

• Introduction
  • 1. The Problem
  • 2. Capitalism or Market Economy
  • 3. The Socialist Economy
  • 4. The Capitalist State and the Socialist State
  • 5. the Interventionist State
  • 6. The Plea for Moral Reform

• I. Interference by Restriction
  • 1. The Nature of Restrictive Measures
  • 2. Costs and Benefits of Restrictive Measures
  • 3. The Restrictive Measure as a Privilege
  • 4. Restrictive Measures as Expenditures

• II. Interference by Price Control
  • 1. The Alternative: Statutory Law Versus Economic Law
  • 2. The Reaction of the Market
  • 3. Minimum Wages and Unemployment
  • 4. The Political Consequences of Unemployment

• III. Inflation and Credit Expansion
  • 1. Inflation
  • 2. Credit Expansion
  • 3. Foreign Exchange Control
  • 4. The Flight of Capital and the Problem of "Hot Money"

• IV. Confiscation and Subsidies
  • 1. Confiscation
  • 2. The Procurement of Funds for Public Expenditure
  • 3. Unprofitable Public Works and Subsidies
  • 4. "Altruistic" Entrpreneurship

• V. Corporativism and Syndicalism
  • 1. Corporativism
  • 2. Syndicalism

• VI. War Economy
  • 1. War and the Market Economy
  • 2. Total War and War Socialism
  • 3. Market Economy and National Defense

• VII. The Economic, Social, and Political Consequences of Interventionism
  • 1. The Economic Consequences
  • 2. Parliamentary Government and Interventionism
  • 3. Freedom and the Economic System
  • 4. The Great Delusion
  • 5. The Source of Hitler's Success

Publication Information

Written in 1940 as part of the German predecessor to Human Action. First printed in 1998 by the Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. Copyright © 1998 by Bettina Bien Greaves. Online edition is copyright 2004 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.