Free Markets

"Most of the essays in this book imagine radical new possibilities of living outside the status quo. Or perhaps we should say statist quo…"

If anyone is to take the blame for the current mess in which European countries find themselves, it should not be the bearers of bad news but those who steered the affected economies in the unsustainable direction.

Who then will bear witness in court? Whoever wishes to do so, freely and voluntarily.

A system of private-property rights over all else would be a better solution.

"If this mania increases we shall slide into a social order under which everyone has one hand in the pocket of another."

Reading groups can use Mises.org to provide most of the necessary resources free of charge — or at worst for relatively little cost — while they spread libertarianism to people that would have otherwise not stumbled upon it by surfing the Internet.

"Mercantilist 'theory' was a set of rationales designed to uphold or expand particular vested economic interests."

The fact is that, exactly as Mark Lilla fears, when people distrust authority in a generalized way and start thinking for themselves, often without much relevant information to guide them, they'll make many decisions that they'll later regret. But whose decisions are they to make?

"Fulfilling the doctrine of the 'invisible hand,' the speculator, by his profit-seeking activity, causes more food to be stored during years of plenty than otherwise would have been the case, thereby lessening the effects of the lean years to come."

"Instead of spending time on adapting their product to the desires of consumers, homebuilders are busy adapting their homes to the code. Innovation is the victim."