Mises Wire

John Stuart Mill is a study in contrasts. He wrote On Liberty, yet many of his ideas and theories promoted anything but liberty.

In 1871, the “discovery” of marginal economic analysis soon took a wrong turn, moving towards quantification, data, and mathematics. It is time to “rediscover” the margin, this time the margin as explained by Carl Menger.

From Monetarists to advocates of modern monetary theory, government edicts give money its value. Austrian economists from Menger to Mises to Rothbard know better.

In Graham Moore’s The Wealth of Shadows, John Maynard Keynes is a hero for his monetary manipulations. However, in the real world, the economics of Keynes has brought economic ruin.

This is not a cycle of greed. It is spontaneous order doing what it always does: finding the path around the obstruction.

Forget freedom. The rage today in politics is equality, not the kind of equality that promotes liberty but rather the state attempting to force equal opportunities and outcomes. In the end, we get neither liberty nor equality.

Does the theory of natural selection undermine the view that ethic can be objective? Dr. David Gordon, in this week’s Friday Philosophy, takes on the theory using insights from philosopher David Stove.

Marxists have claimed that capital undermines human freedom. Ludwig von Mises, on the other hand, pointed out that capital developed within a free market is essential to personal liberty.

To complain against the state’s actions, argues Hobbes, is to ultimately complain against yourself because you originally authorized the state through social contract and the state represents you!

Why do broken political systems survive despite failures? Don’t blame stupid people; it’s the smart ones that keep these broken systems afloat.