When I was an undergraduate math major, one of my classes tried to get the professor to show us his PhD dissertation, since many of us could not imagine what that entailed. Since the class involved lots of proofs, and his dissertation largely involved supplying a missing link in a proof, he showed us the condensed version of how he managed to
September 27 marks the anniversary of the publication of the first of the Antifederalist Papers in 1789. The Antifederalists were opponents of ratifying the US Constitution. They feared that it would create an overbearing central government, while the Constitution’s proponents promised that this would not happen. As the losers in that debate, they
Stockholders and managers of firms, whose interests lie in higher prices for what they own or manage, miss few opportunities to deride short sellers . As Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal put it, “short selling is a business widely unpopular with everyone who has a stake in seeing stock prices go up.” Regulators, whose blunders short
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid triggered a flurry of partisan attacks and counterattacks with his statement that “this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything.” Perhaps most striking about his assertion that we ought to abandon rather than escalate a war that cannot be won is how inconsistently it is applied. There are a host
Will Rogers wrote: ”This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when a baby gets hold of a hammer.” Americans can breathe a sigh of relief that no new legislation is imposed on them during summer break. Unfortunately, that relief is very temporary, since much of that time is used by promising constituents new legislative
How can one “fight” for liberty while renouncing the use of coercion against others? That problem gets more difficult when one is also unwilling to lie, since that amounts to a form of coercing others. What is left is reason, as only that can make the case for liberty. You could say that liberty has a comparative advantage in logic. Unfortunately,
Once, when my newborn son was barely back from the hospital, I was holding him in my arms with my wife looking on. I asked him, “Can you say marginal rate of substitution ?” My wife recognized that as a bit of economics jargon and accused me of trying to turn our son into an economist like me. While it was said as a little joke between the two of
Congress has again passed an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), only to have it vetoed again. That has given its backers yet another chance to proclaim how much they care for children and rehash attacks against President Bush, as when Lois Capps (D-CA) called it “denying vital healthcare to some of the most
Economists emphasize the importance of the concept of opportunity cost. TANSTAAFL — “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” — pervades the discipline. In a world of scarcity, every choice requires that something else of value must be given up, and the highest-valued alternative given up is the opportunity cost. That opportunity-cost emphasis
“Seniors hurt in Ponzi scam” headlined the story of elderly Southern Californians bilked in a pyramid scheme. While sad, the story reminded me of Social Security, since it is also a Ponzi scheme involving those older, with high payoffs to early recipients coming from pockets of later participants. With Social Security, however, it benefits those
What is the Mises Institute?
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.