Mises Wire

When Vladimir Putin took power in Russia, the nation had a potentially bright future. Today, bogged down in war and its economy approaching Third World status, the future doesn’t look very good.

In attempts to rectify what are seen as historical wrongs against certain groups of people, western governments have embarked on programs to engage in wrongs against other groups of people. The universal principles of liberalism are supplanted by policies sure to make matters worse.

The democratization of urban planning, the politicization of the environmental movement, and the no-growth movement came together to erect enormous barriers to housing construction in California.

The up and down experience with free markets in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain shows that free markets, while undermining the state, do not operate apart from state interference.

What were Abraham Lincoln’s views on racial matters of the day? In today’s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon takes a critical look at Harry Jaffa’s interpretations of Lincoln’s statements and finds them wanting.

The anti-slavery disunionists and the abolitionists were some of the most critical of slavery and the most serious about ending it. For them, decentralization and secession were potential solutions not problems in ending slavery.

Norway sits on large oil deposits, yet has managed to avoid the “resource curse” that has bedeviled so many nations that have abundant natural resources, but severely mismanage their economies.

The Mises Academy offers online self-directed courses on real history and real economics, taught by our outstanding scholars and all grounded in the tradition of Mises and Rothbard. Help us expand this radical platform.

While the democratic socialists are claiming to just want a society like they have in Denmark, their real aims are the seizure of all or most private property and especially private capital.

Crony capitalism—where politics help decide success and failure in the markets—is a huge problem in our society. The solution is laissez-faire capitalism in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard.