While we are told today that an anarchist society is unachievable, the ancients believed such a society to be achievable but undesirable. The world would have to wait for later theorists like Bastiat and Oppenheimer, who explained the true costs of the state.
Knowing that money or gold cannot be used to provide a fixed measure of value, David Ricardo turned to the value of labor instead. But his labor theory of value has led to many errors including Marxism, land taxes, and much more.
Sure, economists can use randomized controlled trials to learn more about why some people prefer red to blue, or why we eat junk food instead of vegetables. But this tells us little about the big problems of economics.
The state now claims to be a party to every crime and claims the right to mete out punishments that have nothing to do with obtaining restitution for the victims. Instead, criminals are "rehabilitated" at taxpayer expense.
The November issue departs from our usual format and takes a look back at 2014 with a special focus on the Mises Institute’s scholars and alumni.
Watch the Judge's talk in at the recent Mises Circle in San Costa Mesa.
During the past forty years, nothing has been more popular in the American university than “interdisciplinary work.” Too often, however, the appropriate prefix for “disciplinary” has been “non” rather than “inter.” Doing something “interdisciplinary” offers an expert in field X the opportunity to lavish ignorance on fields Y and Z. Nowhere has this been more evident than in literary people’s flirtations with economics and law, two of the disciplines most frequently paired with their own.
The Keynesian multiplier is a concept embedded in macroeconomic thought, policy, textbooks, and widely taught in classrooms.
David Gordon discusses some important thinkers and books. Recorded at the Mises Circle in Costa Mesa, California, 8 November 2014.
