Mises Search

Röpke: Free-Market Liberal? Was Röpke a classical liberal who stood in the tradition of Jean Baptiste Say, Lord Acton, and Ludwig von Mises? Zmirak says categorically that he was not, for Röpke rejected laissez-faire capitalism, radical individualism, and the night-watchman theory of the state (”deputized to defend property rights and national

In late January, the diligent Internet surfer might have come across a chilling exchange of letters between Robert Wright and Robert D. Kaplan, the latter a respected foreign correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly; an author who has written a number of books based on his travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa, and North America; and war

How odd that the tax bills of many American families would fall during a period of exorbitant increases in federal spending due mainly to war. But once we discover the record levels of government debt accumulation, perhaps it is not so odd. It’s the shell game of government finance at work. The bills must be paid, but how? The Bank Credit Analyst

In the spring of 2002, Bush signed into law a witches-brew of protectionist legislation designed to stifle foreign trade in the name of free trade.  In March, he imposed various tariffs ranging from 8 to 30 percent upon imported steel.  In May, he signed a $170 billion farm bill lavishing $10 billion of annual subsidies upon America ‘s already

An assumption that dominates American historical studies is that the wealth and prosperity of the country would be much less without the existence of a powerful central government. This theme is but part of a larger, and now international, orthodoxy that larger political jurisdictions, as long as they are “democratic,” foster liberty and economic

The Old Republican leader John Randolph, the aristocratic liberal from Virginia, once famously remarked that the framers intended ours to be “a hard-money government.”  Is it true?  Contrary to the efforts of academics and judges to obscure this issue, the framers’ intentions in regard to money and banking were quite plain and are easily

When President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, the Dow had been in decline for a year, the other markets since March. Within a month, the economy officially fell into recession. Bush responded with a mix of Keynes (tax cuts and higher government spending) and Friedman (cutting interest rates and pumping up the money supply). During

The American people have not seen widespread bank runs since 1933. In that object at least, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has succeeded. But at what cost? To insure deposits is to invite bad banking—and worse; it is to foster reckless speculation and unsound investments, help make inflation permanent instead of intermittent, obstruct

Before there was the Federal Reserve there was the second Bank of the United States (1817–1836). Since the late nineteenth century, historians and economists have lauded this institution for its salutary control over the currency, its regulation of the state banks, its prudent stewardship of the government’s funds, and its example of a fruitful

Bush officials have suggested that their “war on terror” will last many decades.  Less than a month after 9-11, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld compared it to the “50-years, plus or minus” of Cold War with the Soviet Union .  In March 2002, Secretary of State Powell warned that the war “may never be finished, not in our lifetime.”  A month later,