Mises Institute

Monetary economist George Selgin agrees with Bob on the flaws with MMT, but then the two continue their debate (started at the Soho Forum) on fractional reserve free banking. The episode also includes George’s background and thoughts on Bitcoin. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: The YouTube version of this episode George’s monograph Praxeology and Understanding Mises’ book T...

Jeff Deist returns to the show to comment on Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing. Was Bader Ginsburg a judge or legislator? “She was a judge in name only, someone with a political agenda,” Deist says. Are there genuine revolutionaries in America? How does Keynesianism overlap with Fascism? “It’s no coincidence that Mussolini would praise Keynes; every dictator would need the financial wherewithal to ...

When Dr. Ron Paul suffered a health scare during his live Liberty Report show last Friday, I was perhaps less worried than most of his friends, family, and fans. His remarkable vitality, vigor, and energy are well known to those around him, along with his penchant for exercise, clean living, and light eating. Having known him thirty years, I simply had no recollection of him ever being sick or ...

[This essay is a selection from " Why Austrian Economics Matters ."] The concepts of scarcity and choice lie at the heart of Austrian economics. Man is constantly faced with a wide array of choices. Every action implies forgone alternatives or costs. And every action, by definition, is designed to improve the actor's lot from his point of view. Moreover, every actor in the economy has a differe...

Of extreme interest to many in academia is the impact of Western imperialism on former colonies. Exploring the implications of Western hegemony has become a cottage industry. There is a litany of studies examining colonial legacies in the developing world. For instance, distinguished scholars James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu trace underdevelopment in some countries to the institutional legacie...

Key Takeaways and Actionable Insights Why do business schools exist? Dr. Bylund wonders if business schools are facing an existential problem. Originally, their purpose was to train young people for a trade career. They transitioned into the field of management, preparing young people for the practice of management in large corporations. But the transition also turned the schools into creatures...

Today marks the birthday of Ludwig von Mises, and day #2 of our Annual Fall Campaign. Mises was the most important scholar of the twentieth century. He revolutionized our understanding of economic science as a powerful champion of liberty and property and remains one of the greatest enemies of socialism. In the streets of American cities, we are seeing what Mises feared: a generation of modern ...

"Thank you!" to the generous supporters, below, who donated to our Fall Campaign. The best people in the world support the Mises Institute. Will you join them ? The goal of our Fall Campaign is simple—to increase our Membership and our influence. Please take time to donate TODAY . Monday, September 28 Ms. Alyssa Bailey Mr. Andrius Balandis Dr. Francis Xavier Bardavío Ara Mr. Thomas Bertrand Mr....

The riots in Louisville are only the latest in a long string of violent, raging mob riots by the criminal Marxist BLM movement, their mostly white “antifa” thuggish allies, and assorted looters. In this case, “Two police officers have been shot in Louisville, Ky., amid riots following the announcement of an indictment in the shooting of Breonna Taylor. Louisville chief of police Robert Schroede...

The mission of the Mises Institute is simple. We want to spread the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and the scholars he inspired. Ideas that are vital for a free and prosperous civilization. We do this through our student programs, our popular articles, one of the largest free economics libraries available online, and our new animated videos for beginners. Online and in person, we attack the state, t...

The complete confiscation of all private property is tantamount to the introduction of socialism. Therefore we do not have to deal with it in an analysis of the problems of interventionism. We are concerned here only with the partial confiscation of property. Such confiscation is today attempted primarily by taxation. The ideological motivations of such action are immaterial. The only question ...

The employment recovery in the United States is as impressive as the collapse due to the lockdowns. In April I wrote a column stating that “The U.S. Labor Market Can Heal Quickly,” and the improvement has been positive. Very few would have expected the unemployment rate to be at 8.4 percent in August after soaring to almost 15 percent in the middle of the pandemic. This means that the unemploym...

From time to time, Austrian economists, goldbugs, and other economists on the saner end of the spectrum warn of the inflationary dangers of modern central bank policies. The most famous case of this was Bob Murphy’s bet with David Henderson that the Federal Reserve’s policies after the financial crisis of 2008 would result in high, i.e., double digit inflation. Unfortunately for Murphy, he lost...

Ontario’s ever-changing rent control policies prove that politicians are just as committed to flip-flopping as the Minnesota Vikings are to not winning the Super Bowl. Rent Control as a Means of Buying Votes Ontario's modern history of rent control legislation began during the 1975 election campaign, when it was actively promoted by the New Democratic Party (NDP). This was the stagflation era, ...

When visiting an exhibition about the Viking Age at the Museum of History in Stockholm I came across a memorial runestone that had been raised by Skuli and Folki in Torsätra in Uppland, 1 telling about their brother Husbjörn, who had died of sickness while collecting taxes in far away Gotland. Now, some years later, I found my photos of the stone, and it got me thinking that the stone might hav...