The former St Louis Fed president, William Poole, now consultant for California-based Merk Investments, made an interesting statement on the Fed policy tradition. In an interview with Germany’s n° 1 daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Poole stated: In historical perspective inflation is a means to diminish the stress felt by debtors. The
[Also available in HTML format .] This monograph addresses a critically important issue: the prevailing view that deflation (falling prices and/or falling money stock) is a catastrophe that must be stopped. Jorg Guido Hulsmann shows that deflation is nothing to fear. The government should permit it to happen as a path to economic recovery and even
He talked to her after dinner, and they went to a dance club. Apparently Mises was a poor dancer -- at least by Margit’s standards -- and so they spent most of the night talking. Actually she did most of the talking and he listened attentively. Margit was an attractive woman of five-foot-four, with brown hair and grey-blue eyes. Now, as they
Richard von Strigl and the Great Depression Strigl, The Man Strigl’s Place in the Austrian School Fundamental Economic Concepts Strigl’s Theory of the Macroeconomy Some Observations on Strigl’s Analysis Conclusion Notes I . Richard von Strigl and the Great Depression The 1920s and 1930s were a glorious era in the history of the Austrian School
This article is excerpted from chapters 12 and 14 of Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism . In 1925, Ludwig von Mises, entering his mid-forties, finally met the woman who would become his wife. Margit Serény had been one of six guests at a dinner party held by Fritz Kaufmann, a young lawyer and member of Mises’s private seminar. It is almost a
Introduction The Conventional Theory of Moral Hazard Moral Hazard on the Free Market Moral Hazard and the Definition of Property Rights Interventionism and Moral Hazard The Case of Fiat Money This article originally appeared as “The Political Economy of Moral Hazard” in the Czech journal Politická ekonomie (February 2006): 35–47. A central
The current financial crisis is the result of longstanding political interventionism. In what follows we argue that our monetary system creates incentives for irresponsible behavior (moral hazard) and is therefore an important cause of recurrent crises. Then we discuss two recent articles purporting to downplay the significance of this fact. Moral
It is my great pleasure to see this little essay in print. Written and presented more than five years ago, it was welcomed at the time by scholars with a background in Austrian economics. However, it was not understood and was rejected by those who did not have this background. In order to reach a broader audience, a short essay would simply not
Es un gran placer para mí ver este pequeño ensayo impreso. Escrito y presentado hace más de cinco años, fue acogido en su momento por estudiosos de la economía austriaca. Sin embargo, no fue comprendido y fue rechazado por aquellos que no tenían estos antecedentes. Para llegar a un público más amplio, un ensayo corto simplemente no serviría. Por
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.