In this issue of The Misesian, two of our scholars, Paul Cwik and Tate Fegley, discuss how our colleges and universities have been failing students, both generally and specifically in economics. The way economics is taught at most government schools tends to be especially problematic. After all, if economics reveals the problems with the state’s countless schemes to rob us, we should not be surprised that the regime is not exactly wild about sound economics instruction.
This is why the Mises Institute focuses so much on providing an alternative to economics as taught in government schools. Few will learn the insights of the Austrian School from the standard education. So we must provide a place for students to learn from our own faculty, and we must continue to publish the books and journals which preserve and expand that knowledge. We must also continue to support budding teachers and scholars by giving them a place to write and learn freely.
We certainly cannot rely on the state-controlled schools to teach sound economics. It isn’t just an oversight. The regime doesn’t want us to understand economics. It’s our job to teach what the regime doesn’t want us to know.
From the Editor—September / October 2026
A keen understanding of economics is at the center of understanding the state, its socialism, and its wars. Great freedom fighters, like Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, pursued economics in part because it provides key insights into how freedom is both destroyed and preserved.
Four Secrets the Public Schools Keep From You
Our society survives only if our children understand the difference between a system based on authoritarianism and one based on contracts and individuality.
Why Public Schools Can’t Afford to Teach Economics
A good understanding of economics would lead us to be very skeptical of the so-called economic justifications for
government schools. Government schools do not engage in profit-and-loss calculation. They are government bureaucracies. Who do we calculate their true value?
Out in Right Field
Mansfield is an elitist who sees Harvard as a meritocracy that has led America to greatness and can do so again if leftist attempts to undermine elitism are defeated.
MU Alumnus Spotlight—Jp Cortez
Jp Cortez is the executive director for the Sound Money Defense League, a national public-policy organization working to promote and defend gold, silver, and sound money policy at the state and federal levels. He is the coauthor of the Sound Money Index.
Gold and Silver: Prospecting for Liberty: Mises Circle in Albuquerque, NM
The cutting of the dollar’s ties to gold and silver has been at the center of the government’s destruction of so many of our freedoms. This has enriched the government and its friends while impoverishing the productive classes.
Why Government Schools Don’t Want You to Understand Economics: Mises Circle in Greenville, SC
Throughout the event, a recurring theme emerged: Economic understanding is the antidote to state power. A healthy skepticism toward government intervention requires a solid grasp of economics, and we obviously cannot trust the state to teach sound economic principles.
The Ethics of Liberty Seminar with Dr. Wanjiru Njoya
In these talks Dr. Njoya connected the major themes of Murray Rothbard's The Ethics of Liberty to current events and to the destructive ideologies that are attempting to place egalitarianism and state power above individual liberty.
