The rise of state pensions inevitably coincides with the destruction of peaceful, voluntary, and responsible institutions of civil society. This is no accident. Long before such schemes appear, violence steadily erodes capital through taxation, inflation, and regulation. When the remnants of liberty begin to fade, the state emerges as a self-declared savior, offering a solution to the very crisis it engineered.

There is a certain genius in simplicity and clarity. Conceptual and written clarity is one of the aspects of the writing of Mises and Rothbard that I have appreciated most, even while discussing complex concepts. In teaching economics to laymen, simple examples and illustrations that both correspond with reality (not disanalogies) and communicate concepts with clarity are essential. These examples can be historical, current, or even imaginary.

MCMAKEN: Following the financial crisis of 2008, there never was any sort of real reckoning for mainstream economists, who had totally failed to see the crisis coming or understand its origins. The Austrian School economists, though, immediately understood the problem. What is different about the Austrian School, and how does it give us a little bit of an edge in understanding things better?

I’d like to begin by telling you something about how I founded the Mises Institute in 1982 and what we are trying to accomplish. Thirty-five years ago, when I was contemplating the creation of a Ludwig von Mises institute, the Austrian School of economics—especially its Misesian emphasis—was very much in decline. The number of Misesian economists was so small that all of them knew each other personally and could probably have fit in Mises’s small living room.

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on Wednesday voted to again reduce the target policy interest rate by 25 basis points, down to an upper bound of 4.0 percent. The FOMC has now cut the policy rate (i.e., the federal funds rate) five times since September 2024, totaling a reduction in 150 basis points over 13 months. 

Dr. Paul F. Cwik is a Fellow of the Mises Institute and Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Mount Olive. He earned a BA from Hillsdale College, an MA from Tulane University, and a PhD from Auburn University, where he was a Mises Research Fellow. Dr. Cwik’s book, Austrian Business Cycle Theory: An Introduction, was released in 2024.

How did you first discover the Mises Institute?

America’s Fatal Leap, 1991–2016
By Paul W. Schroeder
Verso, 2025; 298 pp.

In this issue of The Misesian, we pay tribute to the great libertarian historian Ralph Raico, and in this review, I would like to discuss the views of another historian, one who was most definitely not a libertarian, but whose work Raico knew and respected.

This article is a transcript of Tom Woods’s opening lecture at the 2025 Mises University at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama