While (re-)reading one of the chapters of Mises’s Theory of Money and Credit , I noted my underlining of the very clearly formulated definitions on page 240. Mises defines inflation as: an increase in the quantity of money (in the broader sense of the term, so as to include fiduciary media as well), that is not offset by a corresponding increase
Americans look out! Your empire may not be the only one in the world much longer. The European Union, often thought of by Europeans (and especially European power-hungry politicians) as a way of engineering a super power of their own to equal that of the United States, is consistently taking leaps toward creating a centralized continental super
Washington Post has an article today on “Five economic lessons from Sweden, the rock star of the recovery.” While it is certainly true that the economy of Sweden quite quickly bounced back after the short crisis, WaPo’s analysis is more of wishful thinking than statements of facts. Granted, the facts stated are true – but the offered
No, you didn’t hear them actually say it. In fact, Bernanke says quite clearly “no” – gold is not money. But their actions speak much louder than words. The Financial Times reports that central bank gold buying is at a 40-year high. In other words, whereas central banks have primarily been net sellers of gold since the crash of the Bretton Woods
Two columns were published today with very different libertarian analyses of government laws and privileges. In one of them, Steve Horwitz argues that “equality under the law” is an important libertarian (classical liberal) principle, and therefore that it is a “no-brainer” for libertarians to support such measures as increasing the marriage
Whereas Sweden has long been known for its wonderful socialism , it is also known for being a “pirate nest” in terms of lack of respect for “intellectual property.” The torrent based file sharing site The Pirate Bay was founded and is hosted in Sweden, as are the servers for whistle-blower web site Wikileaks ; the country has a Pirate Party
Tino Sanandaji analyzes data on the Swedish school system on his blog, where increasing “privatization” (a Friedmanite voucher system) and quickly dropping test scores seem to correlate. After first debunking the left’s view that the problem of Swedish education is because of private schools and profits, he debunks the right’s view that the
I have written much before on the state of Sweden, the mythical land of “working” socialism. Here is another example of how it seems to not work at all as the global myth has it. The huge discount store of Gekås in the small, 9,000-population town of Ullared in southern Sweden attracts 28,000 customers daily. Obviously, most of the customers are
Two columns were published today with very different libertarian analyses of government laws and privileges. In one of them, Steve Horwitz argues that “equality under the law” is an important libertarian (classical liberal) principle, and therefore that it is a “no-brainer” for libertarians to support such measures as increasing the marriage
The super state of the European Union is reacting to information potentially undermining their political agenda in the expected way: prohibition, repression, and censorship. The latest move to “save” the economy is not to get the finances under order, as any individual or market organization would have (been forced) to. No, to government the
What is the Mises Institute?
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.