Mises Wire

What Makes Mises.org Different

Mises Wire Ryan McMaken

Last year during a bout of the flu, I was at the doctor's office. The doctor asked me what I did for a living and I told her I edited an economics web site. She replied with something along the lines of "that sounds like a truly terrible job." She meant that she imagined economics was simply too difficult and laborious an activity to possibly be enjoyable. 

By then, I was already used to that reaction. Even in my days as an economics undergraduate, the mention of my degree program would elicit a response suggesting that economics is essentially an activity for masochists.

It's unfortunate the science and discipline of economics has made itself so repulsive to so many people. But, it need not be that way. 

In fact, we know it doesn't have to be that way simply by looking at the continued growth and public interest in mises.org. 

In a typical month, mises.org receives more than a million page views, which is pretty remarkable for a site where writers regularly talk about things like the "subjective theory of value" and "fractional reserve banking." Many come directly to our main page every day looking for the latest analysis. Many are brought to us through our social media outlets where more than 250,000 people subscribe to our social media feeds. Many more are brought to our site by web searches on an immense number of topics.

With over 1,050 new articles by 70 different columnists over the past year alone, our front page has become a gathering place for some of the best free-market writers worldwide.

With writers from Argentina, Canada, Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, Spain, China, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Poland, we offer a truly international view of markets and laissez-faire liberalism not found anywhere else. 

Nevertheless, in the age of Gawker and Jezebel, there's always that temptation to chase the clicks. We could, for example, run articles about the top ten hottest young economists, or we could write up a few articles on how to get rich by reading Rothbard books. We could give articles titles like this: "16 Shocking Things Henry Hazlitt Said. Number 4 Is Pretty Unnerving." 

But, we also know that people don't come to mises.org looking for things like that. In fact, to this day, most our traffic continues to be people looking for real, genuine economics. They want to gain a better understand of prices, government intervention in the market, and especially business cycles. Not surprisingly, whenever there is economic crisis in the news — that is, when people get interested in booms and busts — we get more traffic. When people look for answers beyond the mainstream, they usually find us. 

And, of course, there are a few things that can only be found at mises.org. Among these are a radical and intellectually rigorous defense of unadulterated laissez faire. We really do think freedom works. We are unique in supporting decentralization in all its forms, including those methods hated by the intellectual establishment, such as secession. We share Ludwig von Mises's disdain for war and nationalism. And we — more so than any other organization — never let up in our attacks against central banks. 

This consistency, we like to think, is what has made us one of the most-visited economics sites on the web. 

Year in and year out, Austrian economics continues to be relevant to those seeking a true understanding of our economic status quo. Every new generation of columnists and economists at mises.org offers new insights and new ways of applying and adapting the economic theory pioneered by Mises, Hazlitt, Hayek, Rothbard, and others. Mises.org has provided the intellectual headquarters for the libertarian movement spawned by Ron Paul, and it is the academic support center for a new generation of Austrian economists who now teach students of their own across the globe. 

Moreover, we always seek to make everything on the site available to the public for free. We hope you'll consider making a small donation to help keep mises.org going strong into the future. 

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Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.
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