As the economic debacle facing Americans continues to materialize, those responsible are running for cover with ten Republican senators refusing to attend their own national convention. Four years ago we observed that the so-called “Republican philosophy” of small government, sound money, and balanced budgets was illusory in terms of the history
Introduction [ previous article ] The Origins of the “Economics” of Prohibition In Defense of Prohibition Prohibition’s Blue Monday The Economics of Heroin Prohibition The Economics of Addiction [This article is excerpted from The Economics of Prohibition .] Economists and Prohibition “I hold that there is nothing much wrong with standard economic
Congress purported to act to protect the values of the American people when it passed the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.” The result has been a serious blow to a growing industry. Whose values was Congress protecting? It had nothing to do with the American people at large. Congress was protecting the “values” of casino owners and
[This article originally appeared in The Free Market , April 1998; Volume 16, Number 4.] Listen to the MP3 audio version of this commentary . British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for doing “too little” in response to the Irish Potato Famine of the 19th century that killed one million people and brought about the emigration of millions
John Maynard Keynes often employed flowery language like “animal spirits” and “liquidity trap” to describe things he did not understand. He was, after all, more of a bureaucrat than an economist. In fact, he would best be described as an anti-economist because he eschewed things like supply and demand and held the opinion that government could run
This is the most important book on public policy to be published in a long time. Benson takes on the most pervasive government activity, the criminal justice system, and addresses the critical issue of our high crime rate. There are no clear “academic” solutions to this problem, but Benson presents a clear and sensible solution derived from the
It has been often said that our future rests with the next generation. If that is true, then it is a scary prospect. The millennial generation (ages 18-34) increasingly sees itself, politically, as socialist. I personally know a couple of young men who declare themselves Marxists! Although that is frightening enough, remember the context in which
ABSTRACT: Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey G. Williamson, in their book Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700 (Princeton University Press, 2016), explore the reasons for the decline in the share of income captured by top earners in industrialized nations. Embedded in their take on the “Greatest Leveling” is a push for progressive
This article published in the Monthly Review, March 2005 , meaning this year, not a century ago: “The only solution, as difficult as this may be to contemplate at the present time, is socialism; socialism, that is, as the socialist movement always meant it to be: revolutionary, democratic, egalitatarian, environmental, necessitating mass
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.