According to the teachings of the Greek philosopher Parmenides, language illustrates human thinking (and reasoning); confused language is thus tantamount to confused thinking; confused thinking, in turn, provokes unintended acts and undesired outcomes.
Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) was dean of the Austrian School. He was an economist, economic historian, and libertarian political philosopher. This essay is the introduction to a new edition of Mises’s The Clash of Group Interests, published by the Mises Institute, 2011.
Everyone knows that the unemployment situation is very bad, but the official figures (not surprisingly) understate the problem. In this article I’ll outline the severity of the stalled labor market, and explain some of the major causes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the official civilian unemployment rate in February was 8.9 percent. However, this figure (called U-3) is very misleading in the present environment, because so many potential workers have become discouraged and are no longer seeking work.
During the first-ever Federal Reserve press conference, Fed chair Ben Bernanke said the number of jobs in America was still 7 million behind the number of people employed when the recession began. When asked whether the Fed could do anything about long-term unemployment, Bernanke said the central bank has been fighting it with an aggressive monetary policy. But he admitted his crew operating out of the Eccles Building doesn’t have any tools to make the long-term unemployed employable again.
The debate over the federal-government debt ceiling dominated the Spring. Treasury Secretary Geithner sent a letter to Congress explaining that the statutory debt limit would be reached around May 16, and therefore Geithner would implement “extraordinary measures” to postpone the actual crisis point.
As in his previous letters, Geithner reiterated that failure to raise the debt ceiling would lead to catastrophe for the nation. In this article I’ll explain the main issues and why Geithner is wrong.
Fascism is the system of government that cartelizes the private sector, centrally plans the economy to subsidize producers, exalts the police state as the source of order, denies fundamental rights and liberties to individuals, and makes the executive state the unlimited master of society.
This describes mainstream politics in America today. And not just in America. It’s true in Europe, too. It is so much part of the mainstream that it is hardly noticed any more.
There will always be a 1%. The well-being of the 99% depends on who makes up the 1%: entrepreneurs or the state and its cronies. This in turn depends on the ideologies adopted by the 99%.
“We are the 99%!” This slogan of the Occupy Wall Street protesters has been called the most memorable quote of the past year. Those who rally to its cry do so in opposition to the villainous 1%.
To the minds of most environmentalists, the ham-hand of the government is needed to protect wildlife. Private property be damned— the government must step in, otherwise every species on the planet will be hunted into oblivion, or human development will gobble up all remaining wildlife habitat, leading to the complete extinction of all species.
From time to time, the Free Market will keep you up to date on the goings on at the Mises Institute. This is the first such edition.
This is it. This is what we have been preparing for. For 30 years, the Ludwig von Mises Institute has been laying the groundwork for an intellectual revolution. That revolution is now at hand. Thousands of young people have been inspired by Ron Paul’s message of liberty. And he has inspired them not only to rally, but to read. Not only to speak out, but to study.
