These are the times that try men ’ s souls. That phrase is a stark truth from the American Revolution, yet most people can’t tell you who said it and where. It’s not as if it didn’t deserve better. Even if you believe the Revolution was a bad idea, given the inflation that funded it and the Hamiltonian government that emerged from it, it would be
Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is colloquially defined as insanity, per a quote attributed to Albert Einstein. Call me insane, but I wince whenever I hear this. As a rule of thumb, it’s fine but it can be slippery. I’m reminded of another quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who is alleged to have said, “A
Futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil wrote an essay in 2001, “ The Law of Accelerating Returns ,” that describes an exponential path to what for many is an unimaginable future. How certain is the exponential he describes? “We would have to repeal capitalism and every visage of economic competition to stop this progression,” he says. In today’s world
No one knows what the future will bring because the future doesn’t bring anything. People do. You and I and the rest of the world make the future, some more so than others—some a lot more so. The leading future makers of the past century—at least those who entered national politics—have left a long trail of blood and misery, and today’s political
Tom Woods’ bestseller Meltdown placed the blame for the financial debacle of 2008–09 on the government’s counterfeiter, the Federal Reserve. It was the Fed’s policies that created the problems, although most economists and economic talking heads didn’t see it that way. The Fed’s loose monetary policies funded the meltdown and became the
It is easy to think of the Fed as a good institution that simply lost its way. In truth, it was a bad idea and a bad institution from its beginning. Original Article: “The Fed Is Not “a Good Idea that Became Corrupt”: It Always Was Corrupt” This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher
Thomas Paine, whose fiery essay ”Common Sense” made a case for the American Revolution, is a much-neglected American founder. Original Article: “ Born on the Tenth of January” This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher
John Maynard Keynes derided gold-based money as a “barbarous relic,” yet it was gold that enabled a long regime of honest money -- and the advance of civilization. Original Article: “ The “Barbarous Relic” Helped Enable a World More Civilized than Today’s” This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher
While we speak of a desire for honest money, the larger problem is that the Federal Reserve System cannot coexist with an honest money regime. Original Article: “ Honest Money in Dishonest Hands” This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.
Historians praise the US entry into World War I because it enabled an Allied victory. But it also led to the economic disasters of the 1920s and ’30s. Original Article: “ World War I: The Great War Was also the Great Enabler of Progressive Governance” This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher
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.