Lawrence W. Reed discusses the latest edition of his primer, “Great Myths of the Great Depression.” Recorded at the annual Austrian Scholars Conference, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 12 March 2009. Introduction by Dr. Mark
Larry Reed has been an organizational leader for liberty for decades, first at the Mackinac Center and then at FEE. He talks with Bob Murphy about Solzhenitsyn’s ability to withstand the Soviet gulag, and more generally makes the case for optimism in the face of oppression. For more information, see BobMurphyShow.com . The Bob Murphy Show is also
Director Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning epic, Gladiator , is partly fictional, but the part that isn’t should serve as a reminder of some important lessons from one of history’s greatest civilizations. In real life, there was no Roman general Maximus (played by Russell Crowe), whom the emperor Marcus Aurelius favored over his own son as his
In August 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed a secret deal to invade and divide Poland between them. Proving there’s no honor among thieves, Nazi tanks bulldozed their way into the Soviet Union in June 1941. In no time at all, the rest of the world forgot about the alliance that started the war and “Uncle Joe” Stalin had become one of those Reds
Alan Greenspan has again lowered the price of short-term credit (the interest rate that he controls) in an effort to keep the economy from falling into recession. Rather than speculate on whether this will work, I’d like to raise a different set of questions. What is it about our monetary system that permits Greenspan and a handful of others to
In casting for the almost three-hour epic, “Pearl Harbor,” Hollywood forgot seventeen-year-old Lawrence McCutcheon, a U.S. Navy seaman from Gridley, California. No character in the movie portrays McCutcheon, the first of 2,476 Americans killed on that fateful day, December 7, 1941. The young patriot was serving his country high up in the
President Bush is right to recognize the fruitful role of America’s private, faith-based “armies of compassion.” For many reasons, such groups are far more effective in solving social problems—poverty, homelessness, and illiteracy, to name a few—than are government programs and bureaucracies. They treat the whole person, which means they get to
The ideas of the economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong,” wrote John Maynard Keynes, “are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.” Keynes was wise to include the phrase, “both when they are right and when they are wrong.” It’s all too true that good
For a society that has fed, clothed, housed, cared for, informed, entertained, and otherwise enriched more people at higher levels than any in the history of the planet, there sure is a lot of groundless guilt in America. Manifestations of that guilt abound. The example that peeves me the most is the one we often hear from well-meaning
The Free Market 5, no. 3 (March 1987) I’ve lectured about “The Origin, Nature, and History of Money from an Austrian Perspective” in the United States a couple dozen times. But until it actually happened last November, I never expected to do it in socialist Poland. I spent a week there, living with and interviewing activists in the Polish
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.