Mises Institute

I. Warning against Fiduciary Media Early in the 20th century, Ludwig von Mises warned against the consequences of granting the government control over the money supply. Such a regime inevitably creates money through bank credit that is not backed by real savings—a type of money that Mises termed "fiduciary media." In 1912, Mises wrote, It would be a mistake to assume that the modern organizatio...

One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesias Portfolio Penguin, 2020 xx + 267 pages Matthew Yglesias, a cofounder of Vox and frequent writer for it, has some useful insights in this book. But he perfectly exemplifies a type of mind that is capable of doing great damage. I hesitate to say this, as he seems engaging and intelligent, but the evidence is unmistakable. He ...

To offer a semblance of solidarity with the working class, wealthy leftists have substituted identity politics for class conflict, and attempted to recast economic problems as problems of racism or bigotry. So, instead of assailing the manipulation of the economy by the state and crony capitalists, a black worker will instead attack systemic racism or better yet characterize capitalism as intri...

[Editor's Note: In 2011, Lew Rockwell penned this thorough explanation of what fascism really is and what must be done to combat it. Fascism, unlike what the dominant media narrative asserts, has virtually nothing to do with people expressing politically incorrect opinions, or people refusing to wear masks, or a group of disorganized rioters smashing windows in the US Capitol. Fascism, rather, ...

Democrats and anti-Trump GOP leaders are calling the Capitol riot a "coup" and "treason." This is in part because if Washington politicians can portray the riot as a grave threat, they can use the riot as an excuse to greatly expand federal power. Additional Reading "There Is No Such Thing as Treason" by Ryan McMaken: Mises.org/RR_49_01 "The Capitol Riot Wasn’t a Coup. It Wasn't Even Close." by...

Guido Hülsmann's The Ethics of Money Production is a masterclass both on the fundamentals of money and the disastrous moral consequences of monetary "policy." Inflation is not only an economic problem which impoverishes us materially, but a deeply corrosive force in society for individuals. There is no better work to explain the broader implications of central banking which go almost totally un...

The French political philosopher Pierre Manent has a view of politics that my readers are likely to reject, and rightly so. He has written a great deal about the French classical liberals, especially Tocqueville, but his heart lies more in the study of the classics. In his books, such as Metamorphoses of the City , he offers careful readings of Aristotle, Cicero, and many others. Few can match ...

The United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, and every country in Europe have fertility rates below replacement level (2.1 births per woman). And where there is smoke, the state has lit a fire. This is not an accident, and much of what’s behind these demographic trends can be found in economic policy. Below I’ll sprint through some of the many avenues through which the...

There are few works in the history of economics that may be truly considered “revolutionary” and “pathbreaking,” in their starting premises, logic, and implications. But one that is in this category is Carl Menger’s Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftsliche , his Principles of Economics in its English translation. This year marks the 150 th anniversary of its publication in 1871. Menger’s work is of...

Something good is coming out of the covid lockdowns. Economist David Rosenberg released a special report via the eponymous Rosenberg Research, concluding “the pre-COVID-19 ‘norm’ of a 7% personal savings rate will morph into a post-COVID-19 norm of 10%.” Rosenberg makes frequent TV appearances after he was chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch in New York from 2002 to 2009, when he wa...

What can be done now? President Trump should not urge us all to “come together.” Instead, he should support secession. Original Article: " The Truth about January 6, and Where We Should Go from Here​ ​ " This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Michael Stack.

By any measure, 2020 was not a very good year for human freedom. By now everyone is very familiar with the assaults on liberty stemming from measures ostensibly in the name of stopping the spread of covid and the way in which such measures have threatened the very existence of the social order. Beyond such obscene and unprecedented measures, 2020 also demonstrated that the leaders of our societ...

“Treason” is quickly becoming a favorite word among Washington politicos and their media allies. One need not look hard to find countless examples. For example, a late-night talk show host called the January 6 Capitol riot the “ treason finale ” of the Trump era. A Washington Post columnist concludes “the founders” would have “ denounced it as treason .” The Mayor of New York says Trump is guil...

Once a State has been established, the problem of the ruling group or "caste" is how to maintain their rule. 1 While force is their modus operandi , their basic and long-run problem is ideological. For in order to continue in office, any government (not simply a "democratic" government) must have the support of the majority of its subjects. This support, it must be noted, need not be active ent...

The Mises Institute was born of the "build your own platform" ethos. In the early 1980s few outlets existed for anyone interested in the Austrian school of economics or robust libertarian scholarship. Few universities taught Hayek, much less Mises or Rothbard. Libraries and bookstores carried little of interest for serious economists and thinkers in the old liberal tradition. Lew Rockwell and o...