Abstract: The rise of socialism has been one of the more dramatic movements in US politics in the modern era, with recent Gallup polling indicating that 39 percent of Americans (and 65 percent of Democrats) hold a favorable view of the political economic ideology. Upward trends in the popularity of political economic ideologies such as socialism
Austerity: When It Works and When It Doesn’t by Alberto Alesina, Carlo Favero, and Francesco Giavazzi Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019, xvi + 245 pp. Mark Thornton (mthornton@mises.org) is Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and Book Review Editor at the QJAE. Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 22, no. 1 (Spring 2019), for full
The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs John F. Cogan Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017, 513 pp. Dr. Mark Thornton (mthornton@mises.org) is Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and Book Review Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 21, no. 4
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
Volume 2, No. 1 (Spring 1999) The Synergy Trap: How Companies Lose the Acquisition Game. By Mark L. Sirower. New York: The Free Press, 1997 Two of the great economic phenomena of the end of the twentieth century are the bull market in stocks and the great national and international consolidation that has taken place in a wide variety of
Volume. 3, No. 2 (Summer 2000) During the late 1840s more than one million Irish died and many more emigrated, with the Irish population not returning to its former level for over a century. Author Cormac Ó Gráda would appear to bewell suited to write about this tragedy. He is professor of economics at the University College in
Volume 3, No. 4 (Winter 2000) The great value of Charles Adam’s book, When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession , is that it shows in careful historical detail that slavery did not cause this great tragedy. In short, the Southern states formed a new republic to avoid paying tariffs that benefited
Volume 4, No. 3 (Fall 2001) This book is a long-awaited project among Austrian economists; some of the central contributions found in the book date back nearly a quarter of a century. The consensus of opinion is that it has been worth the wait and that the book is an important contribution to Austrian economics as well as to the
Volume 5, No. 3 (Fall 2002) I have re-examined Bastiat’s contributions to economic theory and have found the charges against him to be unsubstantiated. In terms of economic theory, Bastiat is widely knowledgeable, keenly discerning, highly competent,and very creative. Furthermore, I have concluded that the central criticisms of his
Volume 6, No. 4 (Winter 2003) It seems odd that economists would find the idea of falling prices to be a bad thing. Likewise, it is peculiar that policymakers would fear deflation and be willing to take drastic measures to insure the so-called “defeat” of deflation. Policymakers and politicians, after all, would supposedly want the general
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.