Copyright © 1990 by The Ludwig von Mises Institute

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 90-062-46

ISBN: 0-945466-08-0

Digital edition by the Ludwig von Mises Institute 2013

eISBN: 978-1-61016-606-5

Dedication

To O. P. ALFORD, III,
entrepreneur and activist
for liberty

Today, the whole world knows about the socialist fiasco. But in 1920, when Ludwig von Mises’s journal article on “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth” was published, he was a lone voice of truth.

“Socialism,” he wrote in the book that followed two years later, “is the watchword and the catchword of our day.” It “dominates the modern spirit” and “has set its seal upon our time. When history comes to tell our story it will write above the chapter ‘The Epoch of Socialism.’”

Outlawing Jobs: The Minimum Wage, Once More

Murray N. Rothbard

There is no clearer demonstration of the essential identity of the two political parties than their position on the minimum wage. The Democrats proposed to raise the legal minimum wage from $3.35 an hour, to which it had been raised by the Reagan administration during its allegedly free-market salad days in 1981.

Bring Back the Bank Run!

James Grant

The banking dilemma seems eternal, like the monetary dilemma, the tax dilemma, and the marital dilemma. The essence of the banking dilemma, however, is that the depositors’ money is not in the vault awaiting the depositors’ decision to withdraw it. Instead it is out on loan or invested in the money market or in mortgage-backed securities.

Why Bureaucracy Must Fail

Llewellyn H. Rockwell

Washington loves a scandal. Politicians can attack the other party, pretend they’re cleaning up the mess, and get lots of publicity.

All is great fun so long as the scandal can be contained, for no crime can be allowed to reflect on government itself. Any infamy, no matter how institutionalized, must be portrayed as an aberration.

Back to First Principles

Joseph Sobran

When Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency in 1980, many conservatives (myself among them) were euphoric. They expected a wholesale reform in American government; there was even talk of a “Reagan Revolution.” It seemed likely that there would be an early campaign to repeal the Great Society programs Reagan had always opposed, and, once that was accomplished, a repeal of the New Deal itself.

End the War on Drugs

Joseph Sobran

Though the prestige of literal war has plummeted, we find ourselves embroiled in various metaphorical wars: on poverty, on terrorism, and, most urgently, on drugs. Describing a grandiose political drive as a “war” (especially when it’s too nebulous to be plausibly called a “plan”) seems to be an appealing way for politicians to express inspiring resolve and to imply that total victory is feasible: problem X, we are encouraged to infer, will soon be banished forever.

Mises Vindicated

Llewellyn H. Rockwell

If Ludwig von Mises were alive today, he could say: “I told you so.” For in 1920, he wrote a long article on socialism, followed by a book two years later, that crafted socialism’s tombstone.

A Foreign Policy for a Free-Market America: Two Views

A New Nationalism

Patrick J. Buchanan

Ben Franklin told the lady in Philadelphia, “Arepublic if you can keep it.” Surely, preservation of the Republic, defense of its Constitution, living up to its ideals—that is our national purpose.

“America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” John Quincy Adams said. “She is the well-wisher of the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”