The people who design advertising and political campaigns know that if they can frame the issues, they’ve already won. In an economics context, I’ve previously alluded to euphemisms for tax hikes , and how in grad school we actually used the term “ social-planner’s solution “ to denote the ideal use of resources. How can an Austrian economist
In light of Bernanke’s plans to purchase $600 billion of longer-term government debt, many academic economists are beginning to worry : Could the Federal Reserve itself become insolvent ? In this article I’ll explain these fears and I’ll argue that the Fed, with its printing press, cannot really go bankrupt the way other corporations can. However,
The political upheaval in the Middle East underscores one of the most profound aspects of Ludwig von Mises’s worldview: all governments ultimately rely on the consent of the governed. Although the claim at first sounds preposterous — who could possibly argue that a dictatorship is subject to the will of the people? — there is an important sense in
I am pleased to announce that, starting July 20, I (and guest lecturer Peter Klein) will offer a Mises Academy class, Production and the Market Process . The course will focus on chapters 5–9 of Murray Rothbard’s masterpiece, Man, Economy, and State . The Scope of the Course The course runs for eight weeks, from July 20 through September 13. As
I am pleased to announce that in late June the Mises Academy will launch my new online class, Keynes, Krugman, and the Crisis . In the interests of both intellectual honesty and rhetorical effectiveness, it is important for Austrians to “know the enemy.” The class is designed to give students of the Austrian School a fair understanding of the
A major factor in the recent roller-coaster stock market is the sovereign-debt crisis. Investors the world over are growing more alarmed that the governments of the so-called PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) will default on their debts, which have assumed gigantic proportions because of reckless spending and ill-conceived bank
1. Total War The market economy involves peaceful cooperation. The division of labor cannot function effectively amidst a war. Warfare among primitive tribes did not suffer this drawback because the warring parties had not been engaged in trade before the hostilities. Thus they engaged in total war. Things were different in Europe (before the
I recently gave a talk to a student group at Connecticut College on the economics of climate change. (The video is broken up into three parts on my YouTube channel: one , two , and three .) In this post I’ll summarize three of my main points: (1) There is a huge disconnect between what the published economics research actually says about
The Free Market 25, no. 6 (June 2007) In response to mounting controversy over the student loan industry, the House passed the Student Loan Sunshine Act by a large margin (414–3). The Act would require lenders to disclose any financial relationships they have with educational institutions, and it would prohibit certain questionable activities,
The Free Market 26, no. 9 (September 2005) I f you are like me, you love Austrian economics—the logic, the rigor, the explanatory power. But we all know that this is not the usual approach to economics taken at the university level. If you can’t attend the Mises University, where can you go to study the subject systematically? Over the summer, I
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.