[With this column, Mises.org inaugurates a regular column by Walter Block, senior scholar of the Mises Institute, professor of economics at the University of Central Arkansas, and author of Defending the Undefendable , a brilliant application of economic logic to everyday problems and political issues. You can read Professor Block’s vita here ]
[ This is the second of a regular column by Walter Block, senior scholar of the Mises Institute, professor of economics at the University of Central Arkansas, and author of Defending the Undefendable , a brilliant application of economic logic to everyday problems and political issues. You can read Professor Block’s vita here ] In my last column ,
[This is Part Three of a series. You can also read Part One and Part Two ] Stakeholder A new word has crept into our lexicon, courtesy of our friends on the left. It is “stakeholder” and it is the entering wedge of yet another attack on private property rights. In the good old days, a firm had contractual obligations to its suppliers, to its
In my previous columns on language, I suggested that our friends from the left have hijacked vast verbal territory, and used it against us. That is, they have taken words such as “profiteer,” “rent seeking,” etc., and used them as sticks with which to beat us and undermine our political economic perspective. I urged that we strive mightily to
Swamps Ever notice something curious? There are no more “swamps” out there. Swamps used to be bodies of water that smelled bad, were usually stagnant, and often had creepy crawly things running around in them, sometimes even alligators (or crocodiles, for the life of me I can’t tell the difference between them, nor do I want to learn enough about
Writing this introduction is a labor of love for me. You know how women sometimes say to each other “This dress is you! “? Well, this book is me! This was the first book on economics that just jumped out and grabbed me. I had read a few before, but they were boring. Very boring. Did I mention boring? In sharp contrast, Economics in One Lesson
[Excerpted from Defending the Undefendable ] The miser has never recovered from Charles Dickens’s attack on him in A Christmas Carol . Although the miser had been sternly criticized before Dickens, the depiction of Ebenezer Scrooge has become definitive and has passed into the folklore of our time. Indeed, the attitude pervades even in freshman
[ Libertarianism Today • By Jacob H. Huebert • Praeger, 2010 • 224 pages] “A consistent, uncompromising libertarianism is defended throughout this book. “ It has gotten to the point, nowadays, that whenever I see a new book out with “libertarian” or “libertarianism” in the title, I cringe. It is not because I don’t think that on net balance, they
[Excerpted from Defending the Undefendable (1976; 2008). An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download .] Advertising has long had a “bad press.” The case against it is detailed and seemingly compelling. It is claimed that advertising entices people, forcing them to buy products they would otherwise not buy.
[Extracto de Defendiendo lo indefendible ] El avaro nunca se ha recuperado del ataque de Charles Dickens en Un Cuento de Navidad . Aunque el avaro había sido duramente criticado antes de Dickens, la representación de Ebenezer Scrooge se ha convertido en definitiva y ha pasado a formar parte del folclore de nuestro tiempo. De hecho, la actitud se
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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.