The new film Margin Call is a tale of a Lehman-like collapse and a Goldman Sachs-like crony return that is the first to even try to explain the Austrian Business Cycle Theory in a major studio film even though they do miss the cause of these fluctuations that is the Federal Reserve, central banks, and the the fiat currencies that cause these
Today is the 85th anniversary of the birth of Murray Newton Rothbard , one of the greatest economists of the Austrian school , philosophers of liberty , and individual anarchists who defined libertarianism and provided the theoretical framework for a free-market anarchism that is known as anarcho-capitalism today. He certainly would be overjoyed
It has been a year today since Yves Leterme, Belgium’s caretaker prime minister abandoned his attempt to form a government but the country does not appear any closer to an end nor does it appear necessary. “ Local government carries on ; the refuse is collected and public transport works. The financial markets, far from taking fright at this
George Reisman, professor emeritus of economics at Pepperdine University responds to a recent article by Henry Blodget at Business Insider. Dear Mr. Blodget: I’ve read your article “ Finally, A Rich American Destroys The Fiction That Rich People Create The Jobs .” In a capitalist economy, the wealth of the rich is in the form of capital, i.e.,
Libertarianism.org has released this exclusive video from November 22, 1983 of F. A. Hayek discussing the evolution of morality and social norms, arguing that they result from unplanned, emergent processes. He contrasts this conclusion with other philosophical accounts of law and morality. A short clip from a rare Murray Rothbard lecture is also
Robert Wenzel reports on Roubini Attacks Austrian Economists at Economic Policy Journal: Nouriel Roubini is very well connected in the world of the financial power elite, but that doesn’t mean he knows is ass from his elbow when it comes to Austrian economics. He tweets: “The austerians’ Austrian austerity will not lead to Schumpeterian ‘creative
The Bitcoin community faced another crisis besides this on Sunday afternoon as the price of the currency on the most popular exchange, Mt.Gox , fell from $17 to pennies in a matter of minutes. Trading was quickly suspended and visitors to the home page were redirected to a statement blaming the crash on a compromised user account. Mt.Gox’s Mark
BitCoin, the world’s “first decentralized digital currency”, was devised in 2009 . Unlike other virtual monies it does not have a central clearing house run by a single organization. Nor is it pegged to any real-world currency yet it can be used to purchase real-world goods and services however it is also just as fiat as it is not pegged to any
David Kramer on Bitcoin— Just Another Bogus Medium of Exchange I’m sure by now many of you have heard about Bitcoin . The fact that it’s called “virtual currency” gives you an idea about its actual value as a real medium of exchange. While many people who are touting it on Facebook are enamored with the fact that it was voluntarily created by the
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.