[Review of On Freedom and Free Enterprise: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises, edited by Mary Sennholz; on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Mises’s doctorate, February 20, 1956).]

Nineteen contributors (from six countries) confirm Dr. Mises’s international reputation as a scholar of the first rank. Among them: F. A. Hayek, Jacques Rueff, Henry Hazlitt, and Bertrand de Jouvenel.

The country once named Gaul has produced some of the greatest writers such as Hugo and Balzac; some of the most-skilled generals such as Napoleon and De Gaulle; and many other remarkable historic figures. Yet regardless of such achievements, the French economy has long been impeded by collectivist policies. Despite being the 10th largest economy, its level of economic freedom is behind former communist countries such Albania and Bulgaria.

For most economists there is the need to keep the so-called economy along the path of stable economic growth and stable price inflation. One of the reasons for the possible deviation of the economy from the stable growth path is a change in the demand for money. If the authorities fail to make sure that an increase in the demand for money is accommodated by a corresponding increase in the supply of money, this could result in monetary instability.

The New York Times reminded us that two things which go together are a currency crisis and prostitution.

Are the Chinese Keynesian?

We can be reasonably certain that Chinese government officials approaching middle age have been heavily westernised through their education. Nowhere is this likely to matter more than in the fields of finance and economics. In these disciplines there is perhaps a division between them and the old guard, exemplified and fronted by President Xi. The grey-beards who guide the National Peoples Congress are aging, and the brightest and best of their successors understand economic analysis differently, having been tutored in Western universities.