In his brilliant article on “The Intellectuals and Socialism,” Friedrich Hayek suggests a strong causal connection between copyright laws and socialism. In discussing the development of the intellectual class, whom he characterizes as “secondhanders in ideas” and inherently inclined to promote socialism, Hayek writes: One of the most important
When I think of all the worries Keynesians seem to find And how they’re in a hurry to complicate their minds By chasing after money with nothing else in view Austrians are different, we see the problem through (sung to “Let’s Live for Today,” with apologies to the Grassroots) In a recent series of blog posts on the meaning of saving, Bob Murphy
[From The Daily Bell, July 3, 2011] Daily Bell: You’ve just published a new book. Can you tell us about it? Dr. Joseph Salerno: I would be happy to. The book is entitled Money: Sound and Unsound and was published in 2010 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It is a collection of essays on monetary topics that I have written over the past 25 years.
Since it began operations in 1914 the Federal Reserve System (”the Fed”) has presided over a relentless decline in the value of the US dollar. Prices increased in 83 of the 97 years of the Fed’s existence. Over the last 60 years, beginning in 1950, prices rose in 58 of them. As a result the cumulative loss of the dollar’s buying power during the
I vividly recall the event that set me on a long and winding road to libertarianism and Austrian economics. I was 12 years old and my parents, who were both first-generation Italian-Americans, were hosting some of my mother’s relatives, including a distant male cousin who had traveled from Italy to visit relatives residing in Rhode Island and New
This essay originally appeared as the introduction to History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II . “Rothbard’s approach to monetary history does not focus on measurement but on motives.” In this volume, Murray Rothbard has given us a comprehensive history of money and banking in the United States, from
It is true that in his popular writings during the 1950s, Mises occasionally acquiesced in using a version of the conventional pre-Keynesian definition of inflation as an increase in the quantity of money that was not offset by an increase in the demand for money resulting in a rise in overall prices or decline in the purchasing power of money.
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.