Justin M. Ptak

Articles

The Cost of Money: Coinage, Fiat Power, and the Quiet Corruption of Value

05/13/2026 Mises Wire Justin M. Ptak

Governments take valuable things like paper and minerals, stamp something on them, and call them money, in the process rendering these things almost worthless. Something is wrong with this picture.

Circle Bastiat: How a Small Salon in 1950s NYC Helped Ignite the Modern Austrian Revival

03/07/2026 Mises Wire Justin M. Ptak

The revival of Austrian economics had roots in the Circle Bastiat group that met in New York City in the 1950s, among them Murray Rothbard and Ralph Raico.

In Honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Birthday of Dr. Murray Rothbard

03/05/2026 Mises Wire Justin M. Ptak

Murray Rothbard was born 100 years ago this week and his time on earth was much too short. Yet in that time he was here, he added much to the intellectual foundations of economic thinking.

Media

The Cost of Money: Coinage, Fiat Power, and the Quiet Corruption of Value

05/13/2026 Justin M. Ptak

Governments take valuable things like paper and minerals, stamp something on them, and call them money, in the process rendering these things almost worthless. Something is wrong with this picture.

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.