The Dead Zone: The Implicit Marginal Tax Rate
Everywhere, the government’s desire to be generous to the poor is destroying the positive incentives to work and to save that are so necessary for a well-functioning economy.
A Path To Runaway US Inflation
Housing prices have been propped up, banks and auto companies have been bailed out, regulations have been increased, debt covenants have been violated, unemployment insurance has been extended.
Securitization and Fractional-Reserve Banking
For good economists, the link between the operation of a fractional-reserve banking system and the recurrence of boom-bust cycles is of little doubt. One of the paramount figures who has contributed to the intellectual elaboration of this relationship and to its transmission to young economists, among which the present writer has had the pleasure to count himself, is Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe.
A Free-Market Operative in the Bowels of Bureaucracy
Even the most conscientious bureaucrat, and there are many, cannot achieve efficient results. How does he know what is best for individual members of society?
Classical Natural Law and Libertarian Theory
If libertarianism wishes to give up modern political categories, it has to think about law in a different way. Murray N. Rothbard, the most important exponent of the radical libertarian school, is right when he rejects the historicism and relativism of legal realism and when—for the same reasons—he criticizes Hayek and Leoni.
Why We Have Rights
Rights are the means by which we can reasonably predict human behavior. Without predictability, the existence of higher life forms would be impossible.
A Live Blog From Salamanca
The live blog from Salamanca, Spain, has been a popular feature of the Mises blog. It was my “job” to do this in Salamanca during the Supporter’s Summit this year, but it ended up being a joy, and much easier than I expected.
Transformation of the American Right
The promise of laissez-faire performs the same function for the Right as the promise of unlimited abundance under communism did for Stalin: the promise of a future utopia to make current sacrifices worthwhile.
The Real Meaning of Inflation and Deflation
[Excerpted from Chapter 17 of Human Action.]
The Last Evening in Salamanca
I’m no longer live blogging, judging it tacky to be typing on a laptop in a formal dining room at Archbishop Fonseca College, surrounded by dignitaries from Spain wearing glorious wool capes. So I took notes, and mainly I carry very strong memories of this evening, memories which begin the courtyard.
