Media and Culture

Recorded at the Mises Institute, May 1994.

Boom, Bust, and the Future (19:39) January 18-19, 2002

Paul Cantor discusses Austrian Economics and Literary Criticism at the 2002 Austrian Scholars Conference.  

Recorded at the Mises Institute, May 1994.

The negative stereotype of businessmen is as false as Marxist theory itself. While millions have, and continue to, suffer under Marxist or socialist economic regimes, entrepreneurs at work in the capitalist world invest capital, organize resources, develop new products, create jobs and make the world a better place for the millions that are affected by their energy and vision.

You have surely played the Parker Brother's board game Monopoly. It has been published in 26 languages and in 80 countries around the world. 

The Center for Responsible Lending says that payday lending is a predatory business in that it lures borrowers into a "debt trap." Mike Foley says this view is all wrong: pay-day lending provides liquidity when it is most needed, and an an opportunity to establish a positive credit history.

Jim Bovard is, without a doubt, the best political researcher-writer in politics today, say Karen De Coster. While most writers add a few footnotes to their writing, Bovard adds some first-rate writing to his immaculate set of footnotes. He doesn't make wild judgments or blanket allegations. Instead, he provides an encyclopedia’s worth of timely quotes laid out in chronological fashion, to funnel the reader through an extensive framework of US government double-dealing, coercion, corruption, and propaganda milling.

What possible difference can another book make? Why should anyone care about the message of one book as compared with its many millions of competitors? It comes down to this, writes Lew Rockwell. Though there is an astounding proliferation of words in our time, there is a drastic shortage of something that is essential to the survival of civilization: defenses of liberty against its ubiquitous enemies and its main enemy, the state.