The traditional story is familiar to American schoolchildren: the American Indians possessed a profound spiritual kinship with nature, and were unusually solicitous of environmental welfare. According to a popular book published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1991, “Pre-Columbian America was still the First Eden, a pristine natural kingdom. The
It is a cliché of publishing to observe, when a book appears before the public years after it was first written, that it is more relevant now than ever. But it is difficult to think of how else The Betrayal of the American Right can be described. Murray N. Rothbard chronicles the emergence of an American right wing that gave lip service to
Just before Christmas I received the following from Joe Fullmer , and submit it to readers for their consideration: “I am a lay economist — I have no formal training, but I read much, and annoy my friends and associates. So, my comments aren’t those of a trained professional economist. “This morning, in FEE’s daily In-Brief email, I am informed
You can listen to the panel I appeared on at yesterday’s Cato Institute conference on globalization here (mp3) or view it here . Dr. Rich Brake of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute opens the panel, followed by the talks — first by me, then by Olaf Gersemann. After that, we have a fruitful question-and-answer session. The rest of the panels are
At the Austrian Scholars Conference this weekend we had the good fortune of hearing from Gerard Casey of University College, Dublin, speaking on the long tradition of statelessness in Ireland. A bunch of us wondered how someone so knowledgeable within the Rothbardian tradition could have completely escaped our notice until now. It turns out,
I am left speechless by this New York Times article about an environmentalist couple who have given up even toilet paper in order to “save the planet.” It is a “lifestyle experiment they call No Impact. Its rules are evolving...but to date include eating only food (organically) grown within a 250-mile radius of Manhattan; (mostly) no shopping for
This article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution quotes me on the subject of war and the economy. I got the impression during our conversation that the author understood the traditional what-is-seen and what-is-not-seen argument I made, yet anyone walking away from this article would probably conclude that war really is a nice if unfortunate
From National Review Online’s David Frum: What the gold standard really is, fundamentally, is a rule that the nation’s monetary stock should be determined, not by central bankers, but by miners. Why that should be regarded as an improvement by anyone, I cannot understand. Let me add one final note. Even to treat the gold standard as a live option
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.