Of all the areas that economics students need to master, counterfactual reasoning is near the top of the list. Counterfactual reasoning is outlining and comparing the differences and similarities between two alternatives. While everyone uses counterfactual reasoning, such as choosing what to have for lunch, economists look at deeper and more remote consequences. A typical example that students are asked to examine is the effects of price controls — what happens when a price ceiling is imposed below the equilibrium price versus what happens in a free market?

With your support, the Mises Institute can send Mises University students home with a stack of Austrian classics such as “Human Action”; “Man, Economy, and State”; and “The Case for Gold” (see full list at the bottom of this email). After a week of destroying every preconceived, state-curriculum notion of how the world works, Mises U grads will have another month before returning to college in the fall.

Within minutes of the July 13 attempted assassination of Donald Trump, observers were asking how the assassin managed to gain a clear shot of Donald Trump at the Butler Farm Show Grounds near Butler, Pennsylvania. Since then, the question remains unanswered, but many allegations about the shooting have emerged. For example, multiple sources plausibly contend that both local police and the Secret Service had spotted the armed shooter—on a nearby roof with a rangefinder and a gun—several minutes before the shooting occurred. Law enforcement officers and agents chose to do nothing. 

This first appeared in The Libertarian Forum, Vol VI, No. 6-7, June-July,1972, following the attempted assassination of Presidential candidate George Wallace.

In a world full of hatred for the free market, the people calling for the nationalization of industry aren’t scarce. Despite their political popularity, nationalizations are terrible for economies and represent a stepping stone on the path to destitution and collapse. In exchange for the temporary gain achieved by expropriating the property of others, countries sacrifice the confidence of doing business in their nation.

The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics publishes articles dealing with a wide range of issues in the broad Austrian tradition that is exemplified in the works of Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and Israel Kirzner. The primary purpose of the journal is to advance the frontiers of Austrian economic theory.

On Saturday evening, former president and 2024 frontrunner Donald Trump survived an attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attack was utterly shocking, not only because a would-be assassin was able to get so close to Trump with a rifle but because of how close he was to success.

Just days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, theories are flying from all directions. Many who ridiculed the “conspiracy theories” of conservatives are now suggesting the whole event was a set-up to boost Trump in the polls ahead of the election. Others suggest it was the “deep state” or even foreign actors who organized it.

Inflation from the government and the banking system is usually aided unconsciously by the people, who generally believe that some moderate periodic rise in prices is normal. If prices could decrease due to economic growth (price deflation as an outcome of increased productivity), people would be able to keep more of their income to plan further ahead and save more without having to worry about decreases in its value. And if the social demand for money increases, any increase in prices could be proportionally less than the increase in the quantity of money.