Douglas French

Articles

Silver Price Shows What Government Has Done to Our Money

06/23/2025 Power & Market Douglas French

No one seems concerned about the constant devaluation of the dollar. They blame high prices on whoever is president or corporate greed.

Entrepreneurship Can’t Be Taught in a College Classroom

06/21/2025 Mises Wire Douglas French

College professors have suddenly discovered entrepreneurship and are teaching about it in their classes. However, while it is an interesting subject, one cannot teach someone how to be a successful entrepreneur.

Portland’s Politics and the Fall of Big Pink

06/12/2025 Power & Market Douglas French

The US Bancorp tower in downtown Portland is now half empty, with the bank, while leaving its name on the building, relocating most of its employees.

Publications

Walk Away: The Rise and Fall of the Home-Ownership Myth

11/18/2010 Douglas French

Housing, a central priority for government policy for many decades, collapsed in 2008; even today, millions of homes are under water. This poses many economic and ethical issues. This elegant and fact-filled book by Doug French examines the

Early Speculative Bubbles and Increases in the Supply of Money

08/19/1992 Douglas French

The Housing Bubble was hardly the first in human history. What’s eluded historians is the same issue that eludes commentators today: the underlying cause of bubbles. This book is the first (and only) book to solve the mystery of the most famous

Media

Entrepreneurship Can’t Be Taught in a College Classroom

06/21/2025 Douglas French

A Reply to Shostak: Can Increases in the Gold Supply Cause a Business Cycle?

01/23/2025 Douglas French

In replying to a previous article by Frank Shostak, Douglas French writes that if an increase in the supply of gold ultimately leads to an expansion of bank credit, that is enough to start the boom-and-bust cycles, even if there is no central bank to accelerate the process.

Today’s Pols Are All Bryanites

11/26/2024 Douglas French

In his failed 1896 presidential campaign, inflationist William Jennings Bryan declared that he would “not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.” But at least even Bryan favored silver money. Today‘s political candidates will crucify us on a cross of paper.

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.