Austrian economics has finally reached that point where people who aren’t Austrian at all claim to be Austrians. A case in point is the fact that Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater ( aka Xe Services, aka Academi ) counts among his main influences Austrian economics and libertarianism. In a recent column at Forbes, the author writes: Prince got his
Today at The Street , Dana Blankenhorn writes that you shouldn’t let the Austrians at the Mises Institute harsh your buzz. Blankenhorn implores his readers to “Ignore The Doomsday Chorus” and observes: What most of today’s Doomsday Chorus has in common is a devotion to libertarianism and to Austrian Economics, which holds that there are absolute
[From the Summer 2013 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics ] By Nicolay Gertchev The distinctive feature of modern central banks is their political and privileged position within the economy. Indeed, the very framework in which paper monies are produced and introduced into circulation is fundamentally different from that of
Robert Higgs, in spite of his reservations about writing op-eds, has written a great one for the McClatchy-Tribune wire : One of the main reasons for containing our joy is that the rate fell from 7 percent in November despite the addition of just 74,000 net new jobs, a weak performance by any measure — and far below the 2013 monthly average of
To battle the evils of deflation and dis-inflation, the European central bank is blazing new trails: According to CNBC : The European Central Bank (ECB) took the unprecedented step Thursday by imposing a negative interest rate on banks for their deposits—in effect charging lenders to park money with it. The move was part of a series of measures
I’m often fearful when I learn about new feature-length movies that are explicitly libertarian because they often suffer from tiny budgets and inexperience among the actors and crew. In this case however, the movie looks to have an adequate budget (based on the diversity and quality of shots in the trailer) and the actors have real and lengthy
A typeface can be a very exciting thing. There’s a whole feature-length movie about the Helvetica typeface, for instance. Here at the Mises Institute, we’ve introduced a new typeface and format for our name (feel free to just call us “the Mises Institute”), as reflected in the store’s new page , in the future Mises.org , and in our new sign at
It may be a stillbirth. As mentioned here and here , banks refuse to conduct business with legal cannabis-related businesses in Colorado because federal regulations prohibit banks from doing business with merchants who deal with substances deemed illegal by the federal government. In response, the Colorado legislature passed legislation providing
States have a long tradition of bringing the best and the brightest into its sphere. The National Socialists, for example, certainly had no shortage of highly qualified and ingenious intellectuals on its side, from a great many medical doctors and engineers, to brilliant intellectuals like Albert Speer and Leni Riefenstahl. The Soviet regime
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.