Every once in a while, even The Economist gets it right. In a review of an intellectual biography of Marx ( Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion ), published this past fall, they argue that “the myth is more impressive than the reality”. Echoing, in fact, several arguments from the book—written, surprisingly enough, by a scholar with Marxist
The Economist recently ran a piece criticizing the suitability of GDP as a measure of economic development and material progress. In the past, the publication has touched on various other weaknesses of this aggregate measure—including the fact that it is not a timely and reliable indicator that can guide economic policy—as well as suggesting new
The Economist recounts the turmoil the U.N. is now going through trying to elect a new secretary-general. Aside from the usual bickering and reciprocal blocking of candidates among the five nations with veto power, voices from inside the organization have recently revealed other problems, including the “colossal mismanagement” of peacekeeping
This month marks almost 70 years since the NKVD directives for Eastern Europe—discovered and published in Poland in 1981 —were penned by Lavrentiy Beria, then head of the KGB’s precursor, following Stalin’s indications. The directives—written for Poland in particular, with speculated similar versions for Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria—were
The debate surrounding the EU referendum in Britain, scheduled in two weeks, and the fate of the UK outside of the EU, is now in full swing. Unsurprisingly, little of substance has been said so far on the issue. One would expect that both sides would be better prepared with arguments to support their cause, but many aspects discussed have not only
The news of Britain’s decision in the EU referendum—and the subsequent resignation of David Cameron—created a wave of confusion and fear on financial markets. The pound sterling dropped to its lowest level since 1985, and the London stock market opened with a FTSE 100 lower by 8.9% compared to the day before. Debates were revived on what sectors
It seems like every other news story about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reflects (at least in passing on the Fund’s uneven treatment of developed and developing countries. Established at the Bretton Woods conference to oversee the system of fixed exchange rates prevailing in 1944, the Fund’s mission has gradually expanded to promoting
On the eve of World War II, Keynes delivered the following chilling address on the BBC, talking about the “great experiment” of curing unemployment through war expenditure: Two years later to the day, in a lecture delivered shortly after his arrival in the U.S., Mises described how the great experiment really looked like: We are witnesses to the
A recent survey of UK firms conducted by Deloitte has revealed that the referendum decision to leave the EU has battered business confidence, as “82 percent of chief financial officers from FTSE 350 and large private companies expect to cut capital spending in the next year, the biggest proportion on record.” The accountancy firm’s warnings of the
A new international trade agreement has hit a stumbling block. Against the background of a decades long deadlock of the WTO negotiations, and the controversies surrounding the more recent Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Walloon region in Belgium has decided to ‘veto’ the CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) between EU and Canada. As
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.