[Originally published as “Economic Science and Neoclassicism” in the Review of Austrian Economics: Winter 1999 ] For more than forty years, economists have routinely rejected the postulate that economic theory should be realistic. Ever since Milton Friedman (1953) sketchily outlined a positivistic methodology for economics, most students of our
As a true disciple of Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises began the presentation of his theory of money with an analysis of the nature of money itself. He then went on to deal with the determination of money’s purchasing power and with the impact of what he called Umlaufsmittel (fiduciary media) on the monetary system. In dealing with the nature of
A characteristic feature of modern civilization is the steady growth of government.1 This government growth occurs under two forms: either through a more intense taxation of its present subjects, or through bringing more people under its control. In other terms, government growth can either be an “intensification” or an “extensification” of
Ludwig von Mises emphasized that economics is the foremost political science of our age. As such, the clarification of the facts on which this science is built, and of the way political conclusions are based on them, is of the greatest practical importance. Volume 17, Number 1 (2003) Hülsmann, Jörg Guido. “Facts and Counterfactuals in Economic
This article will explore the economics of legal tender laws, arguing that they are not only a necessary prerequisite of paper money, but also benefit fractional-reserve banking. Such laws make paper money and fractional-reserve banking more widespread than they would otherwise be. Thus, legal tender laws must be understood as a major factor in
In his criticism of imperialist policies in the service of socialism, labor-unionism, and the socialist war economy Ludwig von Mises could not restate many conventional arguments. He faced an unprecedented task in confronting the claim that imperialism can enhance the welfare of a nation. His pioneering analysis brilliantly confirmed Carl Menger’s
The former St Louis Fed president, William Poole, now consultant for California-based Merk Investments, made an interesting statement on the Fed policy tradition. In an interview with Germany’s n° 1 daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Poole stated: In historical perspective inflation is a means to diminish the stress felt by debtors. The
[It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of Dr. Ralph Raico. In remembrance, here is the story of how Mises met the man who would go on to be one of the great champions of his ideas, as told by Guido Hulsmann in Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism .] Murray Rothbard was the first in a long line of whiz kids who found a new
I first met Professor Salin in late 1997, in his office at the University of Paris-Dauphine. When I mentioned that I had been drawn to the Austrian School not least of all because of Mises’s epistemology, he raised his eyebrows and put on a skeptical face. I stopped talking and he threw in with amusement, “And all of economics is for you nothing
JEFF DEIST: You are German, but not from a big city in Germany. GUIDO HÜLSMANN: That’s correct, a small town. JD: Did your small-town upbringing influence your career and outlook? GH: I think so. The town where I went to high school in those years had the highest communist voter percentage in all of Western Germany. And this presence made itself
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.