England’s Levellers: The World’s First Libertarian Movement
The Free Market 32, no. 2 (February)
The first-ever libertarians were the Levellers, an English political movement active in the seventeenth century. The Levellers contributed to the elaboration of the methodological and political paradigm of individualism, and they are at the origin of the radical strand of classical liberalism. While the Levellers are often characterized as a quasi-socialist movement, closer examination shows that the Levellers had much more in common with advocates for free markets than with socialists.
How Carl Menger Put Consumers at the Center of Economic Science
The Free Market 32, no. 4 (April 2014)
One of my favorite economists in the history of economic thought is the great Austrian, Carl Menger (1840–1921). While the mainstream of the economics profession acknowledges Menger’s place due to his contribution to the Marginalist Revolution in the 1870s, it otherwise ignores him because his theoretical framework does not lend itself to policy prescriptions.
The New Skyscraper Curse
The Free Market 32, no. 4 (April 2014)
From CNN to Barron’s to Le Monde, Mark Thornton has been featured as an authority on how record-setting skyscrapers signal impending economic downturns. Last month, Dr. Thornton spoke with us about the Skyscraper Index and the Skyscraper Curse.
Investors and Austrian Economics
The Free Market 32, no. 5 (May 2014)
Mises Institute: In recent years, we’ve seen more and more Austrian-tinged economic analysis coming from investors like Mark Spitznagel and Jim Rogers, to just name two. As someone personally involved in the investment world, have you yourself seen growth in Austrian ideas among investors and similar professionals?
What Henry Hazlitt Can Teach Us About Inflation in 2014
The Free Market 32, no. 5 (2014)
This article is adapted from a portion of the Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, delivered by James Grant at the Mises Institute’s 2014 Austrian Economics Research Conference.
You Can’t Run an Economy With Spreadsheets
The Free Market 32, no. 6 (June 2014)
Argentina’s economic minister, Axel Kicillof, has become famous for his assertion that it is possible to centrally manage the economy now because we have spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. This assertion comes from the mistaken view that the cost of production determines final prices, and it reveals a profound misunderstanding of the market process. This issue, however, is not new. The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the debate over economic calculation under socialism.
How Labor Unions Hurt Workers
The Free Market 32, no. 6 (June 2014)
Many Americans, perhaps a substantial majority, still believe that, irrespective of any problems they may have caused, labor unions are fundamentally an institution that exists in the vital self-interest of wage earners. Indeed, many believe that it is labor unions that stand between the average wage earner and a life of subsistence wages, exhausting hours of work, and horrific working conditions.
An International View of Drug Prohibition
The Free Market 32, no. 8 (August 2014)
Mises Institute: Why were you invited to debate at Oxford?
A New Austrian Textbook for All Economists
The Free Market 32, no. 7 (July 2014)
Randall G. Holcombe recently spoke with the Mises Institute about his new textbook Advanced Introduction to the Austrian School of Economics, now available from Edward Elgar Publishing.
Mises Institute: Why did you decide to write this book?
