While Paul Krugman likes to present himself as being a Keynesian, in reality, his intellectual roots run back a few centuries to the mercantilists. If you wish to see the Krugman of 300 years ago, read Bernard Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees , first published in 1705, to see all of the same economic (and logical) fallacies that haunt
Comedian Steve Martin once did a standup act in which he asked the audience in an incredulous tone, “You mean, you don’t remember when we had nuclear war and the earth was wiped out?” The audience would laugh, as expected, since the entire idea was ridiculous. While Steve Martin isn’t writing columns about the current global financial dealings, he
While Franklin Delano Roosevelt narrowly missed being Time Magazine’s “Man of the Century,” there is no doubt that the man who prolonged the Great Depression and helped lay the groundwork for World War II looms large in the consciousness of statist journalists and historians. Although FDR’s role in the Second World War is of utmost importance to
One of the major issues for this year’s electoral season is “smart growth,” which to its advocates is needed to combat current suburban residential patterns. According to the “smart growth” promoters, modern suburbia is a nightmare from hell, with its congested traffic, ugly strip malls, and “cookie cutter” homes. Such willy-nilly development,
A mathematician and an economist were asked, “What is the sum of two plus two?” The mathematician immediately answered, “It is four.” The economist, on the other hand, closed all windows and doors and asked quietly, “What do you want it to be?” Just when we think this story is simply another silly economist joke, reality sets in. The latest
As the political season stumbles to a close, we need to remember that the historical relationship between economic policy, economic performance, and political rhetoric can be wildly unpredictable. For example, all these years later, it is worth reconsidering the presidency of Jimmy Carter, from 1977 to 1981. Many of the reforms that took place
Hal Varian, whose mathematical textbook has been the bane of economics graduate students for many years, has now weighed in on a solution to our oil problems: increase the federal tax on gasoline. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Varian says that a stiff, new tax on gas will discourage motorists from driving, which would mean we would use less
Mention immigration to Austrian economists and other free-market economists and you will hear a cacophony of opinions that range from “completely open the borders” to “completely close the borders.” It is hard to imagine a more divisive subject among those with libertarian philosophical and economic bents, and it plays out in the political arena
White House insiders have said for years that Bill Clinton has been desperately seeking a legacy for his administration – other than having been impeached and having disgraced himself and his office. At long last, he has at least two of them. The first of these is the coming recession, his first gift to the incoming administration of George W.
When we last left the Socialist Republic of California, someone had switched off the lights. According to the latest news, someone has switched them on again as the Democrat-dominated California State Assembly has supposedly “solved” the state’s electricity problems. Like so many other “solutions” that come from government, this one further
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.