Articles
The Affordable Care Act Doesn't Go That Way, by
Sheldon Richman,
The Goal Is Freedom, 1 Nov 2013
Examines the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from the perspective of basic economics and its unintended consequences
Before the 18th century, Ludwig von Mises wrote, the "belief prevailed that in the field of human action no other criterion could be used than that of good and bad. If a policy did not attain its end, its failure was ascribed to the moral insufficiency of man or to the weakness of the government ..." But, Mises continued,
Then ... came a radical change. The founders of Political Economy discovered regularity in the operation of the market ... People came to realize with astonishment that human actions were open to investigation from other points of view than that of moral judgment ...
The Anatomy of Antitrust: An Interview With Dominick T. Armentano, by
Dominick T. Armentano,
Austrian Economics Newsletter, 1998
Discusses aspects of the United States v. Microsoft Corp case and related issues, such as product tying, exclusivity agreements, theories of compettion, price fixing, Robert Bork's views, government monopolies and Armentano's antitrust book
Mises isn't always as consistent on this topic as we might want him to be. Even when he's talking about a competitive market, he occasionally slips into a kind of pure competition analysis. There's a statement in Human Action where he says on a competitive market, there's no such thing as a price policy for the sellers ... Mises also discusses monopoly and even a monopoly price problem without all the distinctions Austrians make today. It doesn't come up very often in Mises, but it is there. He leaves a slight opening that would seem to call for regulation. However, he did not actually recommend antitrust laws.
Biography of Benjamin Anderson (1886-1949), by
Mark Thornton
Biographical and bibliographical essay
Benjamin Anderson is a rare example of an American economist who wrote in the Austrian tradition long before Ludwig von Mises emigrated to the U.S. ... His theoretical works, while not thoroughly Misesian, fall within the Mengerian tradition ... He died of a heart attack ... just prior to the publication of his magnum opus, Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946. Ludwig von Mises called [it] a "great book." ... Ludwig von Mises, who was often a target of Anderson's criticisms, called him "one of the outstanding characters in this age of the supremacy of time-servers."
The Businessman and the Defense of Capitalism, by Benjamin A. Rogge,
Can Capitalism Survive?, 1979
Chapter 1 of Part IX, "an explicit follow-up to the Schumpeter-based 'Can Capitalism Survive?'" (the lead essay in this volume); offers business leaders suggestions as to what to do and not to do in helping "the cause of freedom"
My first point then is that we are involved in a war of ideas. My second is that our target is not the masses but those men and women in society who deal in ideas ... In the words of one of the great idea men of this century, the late Ludwig von Mises, "The masses, the hosts of common men, do not conceive any ideas, sound or unsound. They only choose between the ideologies developed by the intellectual leaders of mankind. But their choice is final and determines the course of events. If they prefer bad doctrines, nothing can prevent disaster."
A Call to Activism, by
Margit von Mises,
The Free Market, Jun 1984
Speech delivered on 27 Feb 1984 at a Mises Institute dinner in her honor; relates how she wrote
My Years With Ludwig von Mises, then calling her late husband an "activist of the mind" and encouraging others to become likewise
Professor Hayek once called my husband "a great radical, an intelligent and rational radical, but nonetheless a radical on the right lines." This was correct, but Ludwig von Mises was also an activist—an activist of the mind. Not only did he write scholarly books containing great wisdom—he also promoted the free market in speeches, articles, lectures, and seminars ... He did not confine his interest and time to writing and contact with scholars only ... He stimulated the interest, and then the understanding of all the people he met. And he did even more. He stimulated them to action.
Related Topics:
Atlas Network,
Foundation for Economic Education,
The Freeman,
Grove City College,
F. A. Hayek,
Hillsdale College,
Human Action,
Israel Kirzner,
Mises Institute,
Leonard Read,
Lew Rockwell,
Murray N. Rothbard,
Hans Sennholz
The Case for the Barbarous Relic, by
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., 26 Jul 2006
Argues for a return to the gold stndard by reviewing U.S. political, economic and monetary history; from talk presented in New York City on 21 March 2006
Is the business cycle truly a natural part of the free market? Ludwig von Mises explored this question in his 1912 book called A Theory of Money and Credit. He first explored the possibility that discoordinations in gold flows between countries, caused by bad monetary policies, might be the source of booms and busts. And while he concluded that this is the root of international business cycles, he said this doesn't explain how a business cycle could be created in a single country. In exploring this issue, he went much further in his analysis that any previous thinker.
Related Topics:
George W. Bush,
Federal Reserve System,
Gold Standard,
Government,
Warren G. Harding,
Inflation,
Thomas Jefferson,
Money,
Franz Oppenheimer,
Murray N. Rothbard,
Socialism
Child Labor and the British Industrial Revolution, Part 1, by
Lawrence W. Reed,
Freedom Daily, Sep 1999
Contrasts the situation of "free labour" and "parish apprentice" children, as defined by J.L. and Barbara Hammond, during the British Industrial Revolution, the latter being mostly orphans placed in the custody of parish, i.e., government, authorities
Ludwig von Mises ... put it well in ...
Human Action when he noted that the generally deplorable conditions extant for centuries before the Industrial Revolution and the low levels of productivity which created them
caused families to embrace the new opportunities the factories represented:
It is a distortion of facts to say that the factories carried off the housewives from the nurseries and the kitchen and the children from their play. These women had nothing to cook with and to feed their children ... [T]he factory ... saved them, in the strict sense of the term, from death by starvation.
Classical Liberalism in Argentina: A Lesson for the World, by
Jacob G. Hornberger,
Freedom Daily, Jul 1994
Highlights Argentine history from the 1810 revolution to the late 20th century, arguing that the period from 1852 to 1930 demonstrated the validity of Adam Smith's writings, also discussing 1958 visits by Leonard Read and Ludwig von Mises
[In 1958], a small group of Argentineans, led by ... Alberto Benegas Lynch ... invited two [men] to deliver a series of lectures ... Mises ... had immigrated from Austria and was then teaching at New York University ... Mises' lectures were ultimately published in a book entitled Economic Policy. In the introduction ... his wife Margit Mises wrote: "We arrived in Argentina some months after Perón had been forced to leave the country ... Mises spoke without any restraint about capitalism, socialism, interventionism, communism, fascism, economic policy and the dangers of dictatorship ..."
Complex Societies Need Simple Laws, by
John Stossel, 15 Mar 2012
Reflects on the "uncountable" number of laws and regulations in the United States as well as Britain, and elicits the views of Lǎozǐ, Hayek, Buchanan and Mises in favor of ending "the orgy of rule-making"
Barack Obama and his ilk in both parties don't want parameters on their utopias. They think the world is subject to their manipulation. That idea was debunked years ago. "With good men and strong governments everything was considered feasible," the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises wrote. But with the advent of economics, "it was learned that ... there is something operative which power and force are unable to alter and to which they must adjust themselves if they hope to achieve success, in precisely the same way as they must take into account the laws of nature."
Does Freedom Require Empire?, by
Sheldon Richman,
The Goal Is Freedom, 5 Sep 2014
Critiques Daniel McCarthy's "Why Liberalism Means Empire" (July 2014), which attempts to justify British and American imperialism by insisting that "power is the basis of the peaceful order upon which liberal democracy rests"
McCarthy portrays the British empire as essentially benign ... and even attempts to enlist Ludwig von Mises in his cause ... But Mises was under no illusions about the nature of colonialism ... As Mises wrote in
Liberalism (1927):
No chapter of history is steeped further in blood than the history of colonialism. Blood was shed uselessly and senselessly. Flourishing lands were laid waste; whole peoples destroyed and exterminated ... It stands in the sharpest contrast to all the principles of liberalism and democracy, and there can be no doubt that we must strive for its abolition.
Don't Believe Those Inflation Numbers, by Mark Brandly,
Mises Daily, 1 Sep 2006
Discusses how the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported inflation rates are unlikely to be a true reflection of the actual increases in prices of goods
Consumers are often suspicious of economic statistics, and rightly so, since they see the rising prices daily. Ludwig von Mises, in explaining the fallacies of price indices, noted that in "practical life nobody lets himself be fooled by index numbers." In order to convince the public that their statistics are accurate, government officials report the CPI to one or two decimal places. In spite of the imprecision of economic statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is considering taking this a step further by reporting the CPI to three decimal places.
The Early History of FEE, by
Henry Hazlitt,
The Freeman, Mar 1984
Excerpted from Hazlitt's remarks at the Leonard E. Read Memorial Conference on Freedom, November 1983; reprinted in the May 2006 issue, including photos of early FEE senior staff
Friedrich Hayek ... raised the money [in] 1947, to call a conference at Vevey, Switzerland, of 43 libertarian writers, mainly economists, from half a dozen nations. The group of ten of us from the United States included such figures as Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, George Stigler—and Leonard Read ... [I]n an amazingly short time a stream of publications began to pour forth [from FEE] ... [I]n 1947, came Planned Chaos, a 90-page pamphlet by Ludwig von Mises. Lu had been put on the payroll by Leonard from the first year of the Foundation.
Related Topics:
Atlas Network,
Manuel Ayau,
Foundation for Economic Education,
Universidad Francisco Marroquín,
The Freeman,
Milton Friedman,
F. A. Harper,
F. A. Hayek,
The Law,
Mont Pelerin Society,
Leonard Read,
George Stigler,
The Wealth of Nations
Economic Fascism and the Bailout Economy, by Gary North, 7 Feb 2009
Discusses the fascist roots of the U.S. political system and events since September 2008 to extend government control of private institutions
[C]apitalism grew, but it ... grew because the fiat money was used to lower interest rates, and these lower interest rates led to malinvested capital. Mises showed how this system operated as early as 1912. Ever since September of 2008, we have seen the fruits of the fiat money roots that Mises warned against ... But modern free-market economists are as hostile to Mises's theory of the business cycle as they were hostile to Mises's theory of the economic irrationalism of socialism ... until the Soviet Union fell. Then, they got religion, but they still never mention Mises.
The Economics of Here to There, by Jeffrey Tucker,
Mises Daily, 17 Jan 2007
Discusses the necessity of product advertising, how more people are becoming aware that it is needed and why it is "tacky and unbearable"
[B]usiness is trying to reach the masses. Mises explains:
Business propaganda must be obtrusive and blatant. It is its aim to attract the attention of slow people, to rouse latent wishes, to entice men to substitute innovation for inert clinging to traditional routine. In order to succeed, advertising must be adjusted to the mentality of the people courted. It must suit their tastes and speak their idiom ... The art of advertising has evolved into a branch of applied psychology ... Like all things designed to suit the taste of the masses, advertising is repellent to people of delicate feeling.
Enemy of the State, by
Lew Rockwell,
Mises Daily, 24 Nov 2006
Review of Raimondo's biography of Rothbard,
An Enemy of the State, analyzing several of the conventional critiques of Rothbard that are countered in the book; includes quote of Rothbard to Robert Kephart about Rothbard's life choices
[Rothbard] worshiped Mises. Absurd. Raimondo quotes affectionate letters about Mises, and demonstrates that Rothbard saw Mises as the greatest living economist. But he also worked to improve Mises in many areas, including utility theory, the economics of law and intervention, public goods, and many other areas, giving rise to the claim that ...
He departed from Mises. Raimondo further shows that Rothbard was far and above Mises's leading expositor and defender, in economic theory and policy. They had a warm relationship. Mises, moreover, had the greatest respect for Rothbard as a man and an economist.
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: A Sesquicentennial Appreciation, by
Richard Ebeling,
The Freeman, Feb 2001
Broad biographical essay, including Böhm-Bawerk relationships with Menger, Mises and Schumpeter, and his two major works
Ten years after Böhm-Bawerk's death, one of his students, the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, wrote a memorial essay about his teacher. Mises said: "Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk will remain unforgettable to all who have known him. The students who were fortunate enough to be members of his seminar [at the University of Vienna] will never lose what they have gained from the contact with this great mind. ... Even when all those who have been personally close to Böhm-Bawerk will have left this life, his scientific work will continue to live and bear fruit."
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk:Capital, Interest, and Time, by Roger W. Garrison,
15 Great Austrian Economists, Jan 1999
Biographical and bibliographical essay; chapter 8
Reviewing [the 1959] translation [of Capital and Interest], Mises described this "monumental work" as "the most eminent contribution to modern economic theory." He indicated that no one could claim to be an economist unless he was perfectly familiar with the ideas advanced in this book ... [I]n 1912, referring to The Theory of Money and Credit, ... Böhm-Bawerk mentions to Wicksell "a book on the theory of money by a young Viennese scholar, Dr von Mises. Mises is a student of myself and Prof. Wieser, which, however, does not mean that I would want to take responsibility for all his views ..."
A Fairy Tale of the Austrian Movement, by
Joseph Salerno,
Mises Daily, 25 Sep 2007
Review of Brian Doherty's
Radicals for Capitalism (2007), in particular of the section in chapter 7 where Peter Boettke discusses Austrian economics
More evidence of Rothbard's explicit denial of such a connection is found in his vigorous critique of his mentor Ludwig von Mises, who was himself a notable advocate of strict Wertfreiheit in economic analysis. Rothbard chided Mises for his various attempts to formulate a value-free and purely utilitarian standard for prescribing economic policy ... Mises's treatment of public finance topics is woven throughout the 147 pages of analysis in Human Action (Mises 1998, pp. 712–857) devoted to "The Hampered Market Economy." There is, of course, also his seminal monograph on Bureaucracy (Mises 1962).
The Flagellation of the Pursuit of Happiness, by
George Reisman, 14 Jun 2006
Commentary on Paul Krugman's arguments against a Senate vote to abolish the estate tax
Mises [pointed] out the close connection between the ethics of egoism and the teachings of economics on the subject of the harmony of self-interests ... Mises showed ... that the pursuit of self-interest is the foundation of the saving and investment and continuous innovation and improvement of products and methods of production that serves to raise the standard of living of all. In a country governed by the principle of the individual's pursuit of his own happiness, the standard of living of the very poorest comes to surpass the standard of living of the very richest of a few generations back.
Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992), by
Peter J. Boettke,
The Freeman, Aug 1992
Lengthy biographical essay, including Hayek's criticism of Keynes and the impact of
The Road to Serfdom
When Hayek attended the University of Vienna, he sat in on one of Mises' classes, but found Mises' anti-socialist position too strong for his liking ... Yet, ironically it was Mises, through his devastating critique of socialism published in 1922, who turned Hayek away from Fabian socialism ... [Hayek's] life's work can best be appreciated as an attempt to make explicit what Mises had left implicit, to refine what Mises had outlined, and to answer questions Mises had left unanswered. Of Mises, Hayek stated: "There is no single man to whom I owe more intellectually."
Government: Creator of Uncertainty, by
Sheldon Richman,
Freedom Daily, Jul 2000
Discusses economic subjectivism, the principle that different persons attach different values to things or events, as evidenced by the early 2000 stock market downturn
For Ludwig von Mises, a Kantian in epistemology, this made the study of human action (praxeology) "synthetic a priori." Murray Rothbard, reformulating Mises's method through an Aristotelian prism, called the certainties of human action "broadly empirical" ... The time between act and expected consequences holds the possibility of the unexpected, which can change the consequences or nullify them entirely. In Human Action Mises quotes the adage, "There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip." At any moment, a person's knowledge is incomplete, and the gaps leave his plans open to being thwarted.
Government Failure, by
Sheldon Richman,
The Goal Is Freedom, 5 Oct 2007
Examines the validity of the concept of "market failures" as an argument for government intervention, reviewing arguments made by David Friedman in the article "Do We Need Government?",
Liberty, Dec 2005
Advocates of the free market have long emphasized that the countless self-regarding actions individuals perform daily in the marketplace generate a larger complex spontaneous, or undesigned, order—that is, a high degree of interpersonal coordination that is remarkably pleasing to consumers. This is the social cooperation Ludwig von Mises placed at the center of his description of the market process ... Mises and F. A. Hayek left behind a voluminous literature explaining that calculation and knowledge problems assure that government-generated outcomes will be inferior to market-generated outcomes.
Government Interventionism in Ireland, Part 2, by
Scott McPherson,
Freedom Daily, Jun 2004
Continued examination of the differences between Irish Protestants and Catholics in the early 20th century, suggesting the principles advocated by Mises could have resulted in better outcomes
In 1927, Ludwig von Mises's
Liberalism: The Classical Tradition addressed the very problems that were only exacerbated by Irish nationalists' interventionist tendencies ... According to Mises,
The first requirement [for peace] is private property. When private property must be respected [and] private ownership of the means of production prevails everywhere, an important motive for [conflict] has already been excluded.
This was completely contrary to the views of Ireland's socialists, who wanted to expropriate the private property of Protestant industrialists in their class war ...
A Guide to the Writings of Ludwig von Mises, by
Roy Childs, Dec 1990
At the original Laissez Faire Books; a suggested approach to reading Mises works, starting off with
Planning for Freedom and leaving
Human Action nearly last
The great social theorist Ludwig von Mises was born one hundred and ten years ago, published the majority of his important works before midcentury, and died nearly twenty years ago, at the end of a staggeringly productive life. ... Reading through these will give you one of the great experiences of a lifetime, an understanding of the world that you will treasure forever, and a commitment to liberty that will be as precious to you as life itself.
Hayek, Friedrich A. (1889-1992), by
Ronald Hamowy,
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, 15 Aug 2008
Biographical and bibliographical essay
In 1922 ... Ludwig von Mises published his devastating critique of a planned economy. In Die Gemeinwirtschaft (later translated into English as Socialism), Mises demonstrated that once markets are replaced by central planning, there exists no way of determining the values of goods and services, thus making rational economic calculation impossible. Mises's essay was decisive in proving that without a genuine price system real costs cannot be calculated. As a consequence of reading Mises, Hayek ... became a firm adherent of free markets and a regular participant at Mises's weekly seminars.
Hazlitt, Henry (1894-1993), by
Bettina Bien Greaves,
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, 15 Aug 2008
Biographical and bibliographical essay
Hazlitt ... reviewed Socialism in the [New York] Times, describing it as "the most devastating analysis of socialism yet penned ... an economic classic in our time." He sent his review to Mises in Switzerland and, 2 years later, when Mises came to this country, he phoned Hazlitt. Hazlitt recalled Mises's call as if coming from an economic ghost of centuries past. Hazlitt and Mises soon met and became close friends. Hazlitt's contacts helped establish Mises on this side of the Atlantic, enabling him to continue his free-market teaching, writing and lecturing.
Henry Hazlitt, by
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., 1998
Biographical and bibliographical essay
[Hazlitt] also met the emigre economist Ludwig von Mises, whose work [he] had admired. Hazlitt and Mises became friends, and Mises thrilled to Hazlitt's editorial blasts against government planning and often consulted Hazlitt on editorial matters and contemporary politics. It is said that Hazlitt even prepared, at Mises's request, a version of Human Action as a journalist would have written it. Mises thanked him, but rejected most of the changes ... [O]n the occasion of Hazlitt's 70th birthday ... Ludwig von Mises rose to the podium to pay tribute to his "distinguished friend."
Henry Hazlitt: An Appreciation, by
Roy Childs,
Richard Ebeling, Nov 1985
Tribute to Hazlitt on his 91st birthday, reviews his career and works
In 1937 [Hazlitt] read a review of the English translation of Ludwig von Mises powerful work Socialism, asked the publisher for a copy, and brought it to the attention of American readers in an important review that called it a "modern classic." A small group of American libertarians had begun to associate in ... the U.S., and it was Hazlitt who introduced Mises' ideas to them. Years later, when Mises arrived as in emigre ... and found himself unable to get a position with a major university, Henry Hazlitt joined with others to help secure both an American publisher ... and a secure academic position ...
How Empires Bamboozle the Bourgeoisie, by
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.,
Mises Daily, 28 Oct 2006
Speech at the Mises Institute Supporter's Summit; comments on two issues related to the U.S. population reaching 300 million: what kind of economy is needed to support that population and do all these people need to live under the same central government
In the early part of the 20th century ... [a] new democratic age had dawned, and monarchies had been overthrown. Mises was the new Montesquieu, warning against large states and urging radical devolution of government as the only path to peace and prosperity. The book in question is called Nation, State, and Economy. It was Mises's first book on politics. His explicit purpose was to map out a plan for Europe to avoid future war. To Mises, that meant turning the nationalist impulse toward a productive use in the creation of much smaller states, and avoiding the error of empire.
Related Topics:
American Revolutionary War,
Capitalism,
Thirteen Colonies,
Democracy,
Germany,
Government,
Patrick Henry,
Imperialism,
Iraq War,
Mises Institute,
Murray N. Rothbard,
Socialism,
United States,
Washington, D.C.
How I Became a Libertarian and an Austrian Economist, by
Richard M. Ebeling, 2 May 2016
Autobiographical essay highlighting the people and events who influenced Ebeling in his path to libertarianism and Austrian economics
It was during my time at Hillsdale College that I had the good fortune ... to locate and succeed in getting copies of Ludwig von Mises' "lost papers"–almost 10,000 pages in total–from a formerly secret archive in Moscow, Russia. Confiscated by the Gestapo from Mises' Vienna apartment in 1938, his papers were among a vast collection of documents and papers plundered by the Nazis ... I had the privilege serving as the editor of a three-volume collection of these "lost papers" that have been published by Liberty Fund of Indianapolis under the title, Selected Writings of Ludwig von Mises.
Related Topics:
Economics,
Austrian Economics,
Bettina Bien Greaves,
F. A. Hayek,
Institute for Humane Studies,
Israel Kirzner,
Ludwig Lachmann,
Libertarianism,
Man, Economy, and State,
Ayn Rand,
Murray N. Rothbard
How Nationalism and Socialism Arose from the French Revolution, by Dan Sanchez, 12 Apr 2017
Examines how three crucial ideas (liberalism, nationalism and socialism) emerged around the same time (18th and 19th century) and how they depended on the rise of the modern people's state
As Mises insightfully wrote:
"Nationalist ideology divides society vertically; the socialist ideology divides society horizontally."
Mises referred to such doctrines as types of "warfare sociology." He brilliantly identified the intellectual fallacies of warfare sociology as the philosophical basis for the ... quasi-religion of "etatism": faith in and devotion to the omnipotent state. What Mises didn't fully realize was that it was the institutional incentives of the people's state (which he too thought was a necessary bulwark for liberty) that made warfare sociology ... so alluring.
The Invisible Gnomes and the Invisible Hand: South Park and Libertarian Philosophy, by Paul Cantor, 4 Dec 2006
General discussion of
South Park with more detailed review and discussion of the season 2 "Gnomes" episode
Contrary to ... propaganda ..., corporations get where they are by serving the public ... As Ludwig von Mises makes the point:
The profit system makes those men prosper who have succeeded in filling the wants of the people in the best possible and cheapest way. Wealth can be acquired only by serving the consumers. The capitalists lose their funds as soon as they fail to invest them in those lines in which they satisfy best the demands of the public. In a daily repeated plebiscite in which every penny gives a right to vote the consumers determine who should own and run the plants, shops and farms.
Israel M. Kirzner and the Austrian Theory of Competition and Entrepreneurship, by
Richard Ebeling,
Freedom Daily, Aug 2001
Written on occasion of Kirzner's academic retirement at age 71; begins with biographical summary and then focuses on Kirzner's understanding of entrepreneurs in the market "process" and the detrimental effects of government intervention in the market
Kirzner saw listed a seminar in economic theory offered by Ludwig von Mises in the fall semester of 1954. In 1996, he recalled the first day of Mises's seminar and the impression it left on him:
That occasion was ... my first meeting with Ludwig von Mises, and it is etched deeply in my memory ... His very opening substantive sentence that evening [was], "The market," Mises began, "is a process." ... I now ... consider that all my subsequent training and research in economics, both before and after obtaining my doctorate under Mises, has consisted in learning to appreciate what it was that Mises meant by this assertion.
Jeff Riggenbach on Samuel Edward Konkin III, by
Jeff Riggenbach,
Freedom Network News, 2004
Lengthy biographical and memorial essay
In Manhattan [Konkin] attended Ludwig von Mises's famous seminar in Austrian economics at N.Y.U. ... One of Sam's principal mentors, Ludwig von Mises, argued in his seminal work Theory and History that history is impossible in the absence of certain assumptions – assumptions about what kinds of events are important and what kinds are not, assumptions about the ways in which causality functions in matters of human action. In the absence of such assumptions, the historian would have no basis for deciding what to write about.
The Justice and Prudence of War: Toward A Libertarian Analysis, by
Roderick T. Long,
Mises Daily, 20 Sep 2006
Examines the ethics of war from a libertarian viewpoint, considering both deontological (is war itself right or wrong) and consequentialist (are war's consequences right or wrong) perspectives
Ludwig von Mises used to argue that a market economy regulated by governmental intervention, hailed by many as a middle path between socialism and laissez-faire, is an inherently unstable system: each additional interference with private commerce distorts the price system, leading to economic dislocations that must be addressed either by repealing the first intervention or by adding a second, and so on ad infinitum ... Mises's insight that interventions breed more interventions is as true in foreign policy as it is in domestic economy.
Leonard Read, the Founder and Builder, by
Mary Sennholz,
The Freeman, May 1996
Biographical essay written by Read's secretary in the early days of FEE, as well as author of
Leonard E. Read: Philosopher of Freedom
Ludwig von Mises was associated with the Foundation [for Economic Education] from the day FEE opened its doors to the day of his death in 1973. [Leonard] Read and Mises formed a team of discovery, united in the love of liberty and truth, succeeding in all they undertook, and whose successes were never won by the sacrifice of a single principle. Their association and friendship, which began for an end, continued to the end. Their joint efforts were to make the Foundation in Irvington-on-Hudson the intellectual center of the freedom movement.
Libertarian Thoughts Reborn, by
John Hospers, 23 Aug 2003
Part of Walter Block's autobiography series; starts off with his grandparents, early life in Iowa, skepticism, astronomy, teaching at Columbia University and University of Minnesota, interacting with Ayn Rand, the 1972 LP nomination and parting thoughts
As for Mises, Ayn admired him greatly and gave me a copy of his book Socialism, though the one I came most to treasure was Human Action. I wish I had attended his Thursday evening seminars on economics at NYU – but I was very busy as it was ... I did meet Mises again at one of the last lectures he gave, at Long Beach State College in the late 1960s. He was well into his 80s then and ever so sweet and accommodating to students no matter how ill-informed their questions, but never enough to blunt the precision of the points he was making. I deeply regretted that I had never studied under him.
The life and times of F.A. Hayek, who explained why political liberty is impossible without economic liberty, by
Jim Powell, 2000
Lengthy biographical essay, with extensive quotes; alternate version of "The Worst on Top" chapter of
The Triumph of Liberty (2000)
In October 1921, with a letter of introduction from ... Friedrich von Wieser, Hayek met Ludwig von Mises who was a financial advisor at the Chamber of Commerce. Mises' 1912 book The Theory of Money and Credit had made him a respected economist ... Mises' 1922 book Die Gemeinwirtschaft [Socialism] had a major impact on Hayek's thinking ... Mises helped Hayek's career [in] many ways ... Upon his return [from his 1923-24 United States visit], Hayek began attending Mises' twice-monthly private seminar on free market economics. It met in Mises' office at the Chamber of Commerce.
Related Topics:
Capitalism,
Democracy,
Milton Friedman,
Government,
F. A. Hayek,
Frank Knight,
Law,
Rule of Law,
Liberty,
Carl Menger,
Money,
Mont Pelerin Society,
Nobel Prize,
George Orwell,
Karl Popper,
Socialism,
Thomas Sowell,
Vienna
The life and times of Murray N. Rothbard, by
Jim Powell
Full title: The life and times of Murray N. Rothbard, who showed why private individuals can do just about everything that needs to be done
Lengthy biographical essay
Rothbard evidently heard about the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises in the spring of 1949, probably from F.A. "Baldy" Harper ... Three decades earlier, Mises had identified the fatal flaws of socialism, reasons why socialism could never deliver decent living standards–despite all the claims being made. Mises had fled the Nazis and obtained a position at New York University where he would teach weekly seminars ... Harper seems to have told Rothbard that Mises would be conducting a weekly seminar at 6 Washington Square North, the New York University Graduate School of Business.
Related Topics:
American Revolutionary War,
analysis,
Walter Block,
Compulsory Education,
John T. Flynn,
Foundation for Economic Education,
Milton Friedman,
Government,
F. A. Harper,
Karl Hess,
Human Action,
Manny Klausner,
Libertarianism,
Man, Economy, and State,
Mises Institute,
Money,
Monopoly,
Property Rights,
Ayn Rand,
Lew Rockwell,
Murray N. Rothbard,
Mark Skousen,
The State,
Taxation,
Vietnam War
Ludwig Edler von Mises, by Roger W. Garrison,
Business Cycles and Depressions, 1997
Describes how Mises integrated ideas from the Austrian (Böhm-Bawerk), Swedish (Wicksell) and British Currency schools to develop his business cycle theory and offers explanations as to why the theory has not been accepted within mainstream macroeconomics
Building upon this early integration of value theory and monetary theory, Mises sought to explain how both market forces and bank policy affected the purchasing power of money. He also provided a clear account, in this first major work, of the credit-induced boom and subsequent bust. An extended treatment of what came to be known as the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle is provided in his 'Monetary Stabilization and Cyclical Policy' and in Human Action.
Ludwig von Mises and the Justification of the Liberal Order, by
William Baumgarth,
The Economics of Ludwig von Mises, 15 Nov 1974
Critically examines various Mises' writings on liberalism, democracy, the wisdom of the masses, special-interest politics, equal treatment under the law, anarchism, self-determination and of course economics
The political thought of Ludwig von Mises provided a forceful restatement and elaboration of liberalism as applied to a modern commercial society. Mises' thought was developed during the first half of [the 20th] century when liberalism, as a recognizable political force, was on the decline ... Mises explained that the controversies of the modern world are about means and not ends ... In Mises' words, "Liberalism is distinguished from socialism, which likewise professes to strive for the good of all, not by the goal at which it aims, but by the means that it chooses to attain that goal."
Ludwig von Mises: An Economist for Freedom and Free Enterprise, by
Richard Ebeling, 29 Sep 2016
Discusses three major themes in the works of Mises, namely, business cycle theory, his critique of socialism and the unfettered market economy; includes list of suggested additional readings
Over the middle decades of the twentieth century, Mises made a number of profoundly important contributions that challenged many of the fashionable and influential collectivist and socialist ideas of his time, and which still echo in the twenty-first century ... The author of over 20 books and hundreds of scholarly and popular articles, Mises influenced several generations of economists, sociologists, historians, and other social philosophers over his professional career, and his books and articles continue to be a major intellectual force, still regularly read by thousands every year.
Ludwig von Mises - Hero of the Day,
The Daily Objectivist, 2000
Biographical profile published by
The Daily Objectivist
In Socialism—published in 1922, and now hailed as the classic that predicted the breakdown of the communist experiment—he argued that socialism could not function in an industrial economy because there would be no market for capital goods and therefore no price system to calculate profit and loss. During the 1920s Mises saw a quickening of interest in his ideas in Europe, and he was one of the few to predict the Great Depression.
Ludwig von Mises, socialism's greatest enemy, by
Jim Powell, 2000
Lengthy biographical essay on Mises, including details on Menger and Böhm-Bawerk; alternate version of "Planned Chaos" chapter of
The Triumph of Liberty (2000)
Socialism's most outspoken adversary was the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises ... [He] explained how only capitalism enabled human beings to arise from barbarism [and] showed how, at a faster and faster pace, capitalism transformed luxuries for an elite into pleasures for millions ... Mises did a more complete job than anyone else describing a vision of liberty ... [He] persisted in expressing these radical views even though it meant being treated as an outcast. He was a highly respected economist in Austria, but the University of Vienna four times refused to make him a paid professor ...
Related Topics:
Austria,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk,
Bureaucracy,
Central Banking,
Foundation for Economic Education,
Gold Standard,
Henry Hazlitt,
Carl Menger,
Money,
Mont Pelerin Society,
Ayn Rand,
Socialism,
War
Mexico's Advanced Auction on Stolen Goods, by Christopher Westley,
Mises Daily, 10 Jul 2006
Discusses the 2006 presidential election in Mexico, where the margin of difference between the two leading candidates was less than one percent of the popular vote
Ludwig von Mises argued that ballots are to be preferred to bullets because while they bring about similar outcomes, the former has less bloodshed than the latter. Murray Rothbard (Mises's student) criticized this conclusion (which Mises shared, after all, with David Hume), because, he argued, democratic rule promotes political arrangements—not social optimality—as the ultimate end ... Mises was close friends with Otto von Habsburg, whose family once ruled Mexico under a model that, whatever its faults, endeavored to decentralize power and respect the rights of the individual.
Mises: Defender of Freedom, by
George Reisman,
Mises Daily, 29 Sep 2006
Written on the 125th anniversary of his birth, describes several of Mises' contributions to economics theory and other areas, along with some of Reisman's personal reminiscences
Mises must be judged not only as a remarkably brilliant thinker but also as a remarkably courageous human being. He held the truth of his convictions above all else and was prepared to stand alone in their defense. He cared nothing for personal fame, position, or financial gain, if it meant having to purchase them at the sacrifice of principle. In his lifetime, he was shunned and ignored by the intellectual establishment, because the truth of his views and the sincerity ... with which he advanced them shattered the ... fallacies ... on which most intellectuals then built ... their ... careers.
Mises on His 125th Anniversary, by Jörg Guido Hülsmann,
Mises Daily, 29 Sep 2006
Written on the 125th anniversary of Mises' birth, includes excerpts from memorial thoughts from Hazlitt, Kirzner, Rothbard, John Chamberlain, Leonard Read and others
Rothbard [writing in] Human Events ... (October 10, 1973) '... what they met was a mind of genius blended harmoniously with a personality of great sweetness and benevolence. Not once has any of us heard a harsh or bitter word escape from Mises' lips. Unfailingly gentle and courteous, Ludwig Mises was always there to encourage even the slightest signs of productivity or intelligence in his friends and students ...'
Module 11: The "Austrian" Case for the Free Market
Eleventh module of the Cato Home Study Course, includes link to listen or download audio program (2:56:27), questions and suggested readings
In the 1920s and for many years thereafter, Mises was one of a handful of scholars willing to criticize collectivism in general and socialist economic planning in particular. He was reviled and scorned for his work, but recent years have seen almost universal, albeit grudging, acknowledgement that he was right: socialism cannot solve the problem of economic calculation. ... A market economy based on private property is necessary to generate the prices on the basis of which resources can be allocated among competing uses. Mises's book Socialism, published in 1922, marked a turning point in the intellectual battle against full-scale collectivism.
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 30: The Gold Standard as Government-Managed Money, by
Richard M. Ebeling,
Freedom Daily, Jun 1999
Describes how, by allowing central banks to manage gold-backed currencies, the road was paved for central planning in other areas
In his Age of Fables, Gustav Stolper pointed out in 1942 that "there is today only one prominent [classical] liberal theorist consistent enough to advocate free, uncontrolled competition among the banks in the creation of money. [Ludwig von] Mises, whose intellectual influence on modern neo-liberalism was very strong, has hardly made one proselyte for that extreme conclusion." Now ... however, there has emerged a new generation ... who are in favor of ... private, free banking. Ludwig von Mises and ... Hayek have been the inspiration for this new school of advocates for a free market in money.
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 31: Ludwig von Mises on the Case for Gold and a Free Banking System, by
Richard M. Ebeling,
Freedom Daily, Jul 1999
Examines Mises' thinking on why the gold standard is needed, why it is necessary for it not be subject to political manipulation, why free banking is needed and the ideological environment required for its success
Throughout most of the 20th century, one of the leading proponents of the gold standard was the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. Why gold? Mises explained this many times, but did so, perhaps, most concisely in a 1965 essay entitled "The Gold Problem" ... Mises was conscious of the fact that even a gold standard established and controlled by the political authority was still a managed monetary system ... The importance of a monetary system based on gold ..., in Mises's view, was that it limited the range of discretion open to governments to manipulate the quantity and value of money.
Money and the Individual, by
Murray N. Rothbard, 1981
Foreword to the 1981 Liberty Fund edition of Ludwig von Mises's
The Theory of Money and Credit
Ludwig von Mises was a 'third-generation' Austrian, a brilliant student in Böhm-Bawerk's famous graduate seminar at the University of Vienna in the first decade of the twentieth century. Mises's great achievement in The Theory of Money and Credit (published in 1912) was to take the Austrian method and apply it to the one glaring and vital lacuna in Austrian theory: the broad 'macro' area of money and general prices.
Monopoly and Aggression, by
Sheldon Richman,
The Goal Is Freedom, 19 Dec 2014
Argues that monopoly and aggression are intimately related and that intellectual property laws are currently the main monopolistic interventions
Ludwig von Mises, I should acknowledge, believed that in theory there could be "instances of monopoly prices [harmful to consumers] which would appear also on a market not hampered and sabotaged by the interference of the various national governments and by conspiracies between groups of governments." However, he added, these "are of minor importance. They concern some raw materials the deposits of which are few and geographically concentrated, and local limited-space monopolies."
The Mont Pelerin Society's 50th Anniversary, by Greg Kaza,
The Freeman, Jun 1997
Historical and anecdotal essay about the founding of the Mont Pelerin Society and its first meeting, including insights on post World War II Germany
The dean of the Austrian economists was Ludwig von Mises ... [He] was the first economist to demonstrate that socialism could not possibly work because of the absence of a price system. In "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth" (1920), he had shown that without the guiding hand of the price system, there was no way to allocate scarce resources intelligently. Mises remained an implacable foe of government economic intervention; this steadfastness brought him into conflict with many of the other attendees, particularly over the role of gold in the monetary system.
Murray N. Rothbard: Mr. Libertarian, by
Wendy McElroy, 6 Jul 2000
A tribute to Rothbard as a "system builder," an integrator of multiple disciplines into a "philosophy of freedom"; examines several of Rothbard's essays and books
Rothbard self-consciously built upon traditions ... He considered Mises' ... Human Action (1949) to be pivotal in his intellectual formation because it resolved the many contradictions in economics with which he had grappled as a doctoral student at Columbia University. When Mises held his famed seminars at New York University, Rothbard attended eagerly from the very beginning. Mises emphasized the key role that human psychology and behavior–that "acting" man–played in economics. He contended that the marketplace was not an equation that functioned according to mathematical calculations.
Related Topics:
Roy Childs,
Economics,
Ethics,
Free Market,
Libertarianism,
Liberty,
Man, Economy, and State,
Property Rights,
Murray N. Rothbard,
The State,
War
The Nature and Significance of Economic Education, by
Israel Kirzner,
The Freeman, Oct 1998
Revised version of lecture given 19 March 1998; explains why economic education of both the general public and legislators is needed and why a teacher, such as Mises, must remain scientifically detached even if passionate about the teaching goals
I have been fascinated by what at first glance seems a paradoxical feature in Ludwig von Mises's attitude to the economics he taught ... [E]ven the casual reader of Mises senses the enormous passion with which he preached the message of the free society and its dependence upon free markets ... On the other hand, one of the foundations of economic science was, for Mises, the austere wertfreiheit with which, he maintained, the economist must pursue his scientific work. Science, Mises insisted, must never express or reveal the personal preferences, or judgments of value, of the scientist.
Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America, by
Richard Ebeling,
Freedom Daily, Oct 1993
Review of
Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America (1993) by Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway
The authors ... substantiate the explanation for high unemployment during the Great Depression given by Ludwig von Mises in 1933: "The duration of the present crisis is caused primarily by the fact that wage rates and certain prices have become inflexible, as a result of union wage policy and various [government] price support activities. Thus, the rigid wage rates and prices do not fully participate in the downward movement of most prices ... The continuing mass unemployment is a necessary consequence of the attempts to maintain wage rates above those that would prevail on the unhampered market."
Peace and Pacifism, by
Robert Higgs,
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, 15 Aug 2008
Reviews what prominent classical liberals and libertarians had to say on the subject of peace and war, as well as the history of United States wars from the War of 1812 to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the efforts of those who opposed them
Preeminent classical liberals, such as Adam Smith, Richard Cobden, John Bright, William Graham Sumner, and Ludwig von Mises, condemned war as fatal to economic and social progress ... Mises observed that
the [classical] liberal ... is convinced that victorious war is an evil even for the victor, that peace is always better than war. ... The progressive intensification of the division of labor [the process at the heart of sustained economic development] is possible only in a society in which there is an assurance of lasting peace.
Related Topics:
War,
American War Between the States,
Libertarianism,
Murray N. Rothbard,
Adam Smith,
Freedom of Speech,
Lysander Spooner,
William Graham Sumner,
Vietnam War,
World War I,
World War II
Persuasion Power Point #202: Are Government Failures the Result of the Wrong People Running It?, by Michael Cloud,
The Liberator Online, 11 May 2006
Examines the excuses given for the failure of government programs and whether the outcomes would be different if the "right" people were in charge
Do a thought experiment ... What if the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises were alive—and put in charge of the Internal Revenue Service. He's subject to today's mandates, laws, regulations, budget, constraints, and political reality. Could Ludwig von Mises make the IRS collect the money while NOT damaging lives—or the economy? ... Pick the brightest and wisest free market economist or libertarian to run any Big Government program you choose ... Can HE make Big Government work? Of course not.
Professor Ludwig von Mises Discusses Free Enterprise,
La Prensa, 2 Jun 1959
Original title: De la Libre Empresa Habló el Profesor Dr. Ludwig von Mises
Translation of article reporting Mises' visit to Buenos Aires; discusses his views on free enterprise, inflation, the policies of De Gaulle and Adenauer and the possibility of an Argentine economic recovery
The Austrian-born North American economist, writer, and teacher, Ludwig von Mises ... arrived from New York early yesterday morning ... [He] was born in Austria and moved to the United States in 1940, has been a member and consultant of the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, since 1946. He also teaches at the business administration school of New York University (NYU) and is the author of many books on economics, translated into Spanish, including, The Theory of Money and Credit, Omnipotent Government, and The Anti-capitalistic Mentality.
Rand, Ayn (1905-1982), by
Chris Matthew Sciabarra,
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, 15 Aug 2008
Biographical and bibliographical essay, also examining Rand's relationships with several leading thinkers
Rand also had dealings with other libertarian writers, such as Leonard Read and Henry Hazlitt. Hazlitt introduced her to Ludwig von Mises, the leading economist of the Austrian School. Although Rand objected to certain aspects of Mises's "praxeological" approach to the human sciences and to his views of morality, she respected his economic defense of free markets, and, in later years, she championed his writings in her various publications. Mises, in turn, is said to have greatly respected Rand's ideological courage.
Reading the Literature of Liberty, by
Roy A. Childs, Jr., May 1987
Childs' selection of "great books" on liberty and libertarianism, including works by Hazlitt, Bastiat, Rose Wilder Lane, Nock, Ayn Rand, Friedman, Hayek, Rothbard, Mises and Nozick
[W]ithout a doubt [Ludwig von Mises] has made a greater contribution to the intellectual defense of capitalism in our time than anyone else. Get copies of his two undeniable masterpieces: Socialism and Human Action. Socialism is ... one of the great works in social philosophy of the twentieth century; it is the most devastating indictment of socialism ever penned. Human Action is a bit more difficult to read, but it is undeniably one of the greatest products of the human mind of the 20th century. It is a full-scale treatise that really covers much more ground than just economics.
Related Topics:
Frédéric Bastiat,
For a New Liberty,
Milton Friedman,
F. A. Hayek,
Henry Hazlitt,
The Law,
Libertarianism,
Man, Economy, and State,
Albert Jay Nock,
Ayn Rand,
The Road to Serfdom,
Murray N. Rothbard
A Salute to Bettina Bien Greaves, by
Jim Powell,
The Freeman, Jul 1997
Guest editor column, written for Greaves' 80th birthday to show an appreciation and the extent of her work for liberty
[Bettina] helped make arrangements for the "Mises Dinner Circle" which, during the 1950s and 1960s, gave libertarian speakers a rare respectful forum in New York. She did practically everything, even humble chores, to help make Ludwig and Margit von Mises comfortable during their last years. Along the way, Bettina made herself into the world's foremost Mises authority ... The material she gathered became the basis for her authoritative two-volume Mises: An Annotated Bibliography (1993, 1995), which provides generous selections from articles and books, illuminating the intellectual history of the twentieth century.
Selling Ideas, by
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., 21 Dec 2005
Discusses the 2005 incident involving Bandow and Jack Abramoff and reminds us of previous incidents of left-vs.-right attacks (and vice versa), concluding with quotes from Mises'
Liberalism (1927)
I'll end with this strong reminder from Mises about the difference between liberalism and antiliberalism:
The parties of special interests, which see nothing more in politics than the securing of privileges and prerogatives for their own groups, not only make the parliamentary system impossible; they rupture the unity of the state and of society ... All antiliberal parties want nothing but to secure special favors for their own members, in complete disregard of the resulting disintegration of the whole structure of society. They cannot withstand for a moment the criticism that liberalism makes of their aims ...
Socialism, by Robert Heilbroner,
The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics
Describes socialism by reviewing policies in the USSR from the 1917 revolution to the
perestroika of 1987 and then discussing the central planning arguments between Mises, Hayek and Lange
In the mid-1930s, while the Russian industrialization drive was at full tilt, few raised their voices about its problems. Among those few were Ludwig von Mises, an articulate and exceedingly argumentative free-market economist, and Friedrich Hayek ... Mises in particular contended that a socialist system was impossible because there was no way for the planners to acquire the information ...—"produce this, not that"—needed for a coherent economy ... Mises called socialism "impossible" because it has no means of establishing a rational pricing system ...
Socialism: Illegitimate, Not Just Inefficient, by Gary North, 15 May 2001
Discusses two aspects in the criticism of socialism: whether it is efficient compared to capitalism (according to the theory of value-free economics) and whether it is immoral (or contrary to human nature)
[Harper] told me that he had once asked Mises this question: "If socialism were more efficient than capitalism, would you still oppose it?" Mises answered: "But socialism is not more efficient than capitalism." He said that he asked it again, and got the same reply ... Mises believed that the case against socialism was best made in terms of ... its inability to enable central planners to make rational economic calculations ... Mises argued that socialists successfully persuaded people to accept their economic system on this basis: the unproven slogan that socialism is inevitable.
Socialized Medicine in a Wealthy Country, by
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.,
Mises Daily, 2 Dec 2006
Talk given at LRC Health and Wealth Conference; discusses the view of socialized medicine held by left-socialists, examining the problems that existed in Soviet-controlled countries as well as current U.S. problems
Wouldn't it be better if everyone could just consume all the services and drugs and surgeries that they needed? Mises addressed this point brilliantly in 1922. He pointed out that that there is no clean division between sickness and health ... The will to health, Mises wrote, is an important determinant of our well-being ... Here is Mises ...: "By weakening or completely destroying the will to be well and able to work, social insurance creates illness and inability to work; it produces the habit of complaining ... We cannot weaken or destroy the will to health without producing illness."
The Story of a Movement, by
Peter Boettke,
The Freeman, May 1995
Reflects on the growth of Austrian economics from a set of lectures in South Royalton, Vermont in June 1974 to the current spread through several scholars and institutions, and discusses a Karen Vaughn book on the school and its debates
Vaughn's analysis of the potential tension within Mises' theoretical system is extremely important in this regard. Mises' Human Action presented the reader with a system of thought which was at the same time: (1) a radical subjectivist research program in economics that demanded a reconstruction of the entire corpus of economic science (from methodology to capital theory), yet was also (2) an example of orthodox economics pointing out the errors in the 'New Economics' of Keynes and the fallacies of Institutionalism and mathematical market socialism.
Szasz on the Liberal Tradition, by
David Gordon,
The Mises Review, Sep 2004
Review of Szasz' book
Faith in Freedom: Libertarian Principles and Psychiatric Practices, highlighting his criticisms of J.S. Mill, Mises, Hayek, Rothbard and Nozick
Szasz finds very much to his liking Mises's contention that all action is, from the point of view of the actor, rational: praxeology has nothing to say about the rationality of ends, and a person always chooses means he thinks best fitted to attain whatever ends he has. '... It is only a short step from Mises's assertion that human action is always rational, to my [Szasz's] assertion that mental illness is a myth' (p. 152). Unfortunately, Mises sometimes fell from grace by speaking of mental illness as though it were real; but he was a great man nonetheless.
A Tribute to Edmund A. Opitz, by
Robert Sirico,
The Freeman, Oct 1993
Remarks made at the dinner in honor of Opitz' retirement from the Foundation for Economic Education, on 13 Dec 1992
The birthday present my friend arrived with that day was a small library of books and magazines. Among them were titles with which this gathering will be familiar: Socialism, by Ludwig von Mises ... Not more than four years ago, Europe was in the literal death grip of history's most brutal institutionalization of collectivism. With great prescience Ludwig von Mises, of esteemed memory, and no stranger to these very corridors, demonstrated in the 1920s that socialism would fail because it interfered with the coordination of information as expressed in the free market's pricing system.
The Undiscountable Professor Kirzner, by Roger W. Garrison,
The Freeman, Aug 1997
Review of Kirzner's 1996
Essays on Capital and Interest, a collection of three previously published essays
Mises went so far as to suggest—as only Mises could—that no citizen who takes his civic duties seriously should exercise his right to vote until he has read Böhm-Bawerk! ... In late 1974, Professor Kirzner presented a paper titled "Ludwig von Mises and the Theory of Capital and Interest" in a special symposium at the Southern Economic Association meetings in Atlanta. At that time, a year after Mises's death ... there was a small but eager audience for his Austrian perspective. ... Kirzner shows how Mises's theory differs from Böhm-Bawerk's and how it compares favorably to the theories of J. B. Clark and F. H. Knight.
Up From Freedom: Friedrich von Hayek and the Defence of Liberty, by
Richard Ebeling,
ama-gi, 1996
Opens with biographical and bibliographical details and then discusses Hayek's insights. concluding that he was fortunate to witness the collapse of communism which "demonstrated the practical impossibility" of social engineering
After Ludwig von Mises, ... Hayek was the leading figure of the Austrian School of Economics during the last six decades ... In 1923, he became an assistant to Ludwig von Mises at the Austrian Reparations Commission, and in 1927 they founded the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research, with Hayek as the director and Mises serving as the executive vice president ... Developing several of Mises' ideas, Hayek argued that the Great Depression had been caused by the Federal Reserve System ... In the 1930s and 1940s, Hayek and Mises were the leading opponents of socialist central planning.
Von Mises Finds A Sweet Home In Alabama, by Kyle Wingfield,
The Wall Street Journal, 11 Aug 2006
Describes the Mises Institute, its location, its programs, faculty and students, including comments from Jeffrey Tucker (then a vice president at the institute) and Italian scholar Alberto Mingardi
In the 1920s and '30s, Ludwig von Mises was a leading light of Austrian economic thought, seeking to counter the growing trend toward socialism by arguing for limited government, lower taxes, stronger private property rights and less business regulation. In 1934, he fled the Nazis in Vienna — going first to Switzerland and later to America, where he was a prolific thinker and writer until his death in 1973 ... Having such an outfit so far away from the usual urban hubs is itself a rejection of the central planning and authority that Ludwig von Mises spent his life fighting.
Vouchers and Educational Freedom: A Debate, by
Joseph L. Bast,
David Harmer,
Douglas D. Dewey,
David Boaz (introduction),
Policy Analysis, 12 Mar 1997
Debate between Joseph L. Bast, Heartland Institute president, and David Harmer, former Heritage Foundation researcher, versus Douglas Dewey, National Scholarship Center president
Ludwig von Mises rebutted the presumption that the general public is too stupid to resist the false promises of expanded government:
The outlook of many eminent champions of genuine liberalism is rather pessimistic today. As they see it, the vitriolic slogans of the socialists and interventionists call forth a better response from the masses than the cool reasoning of judicious men. ... It is not true that the ideas of genuine liberalism are too complicated to appeal to the untutored mind of the average voter.
The War the Government Cannot Win, by
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., 1 May 2007
Discusses how government cannnot win the war on terror because economic law is more powerful than the state; talk given at the Wisconsin Forum in Milwaukee
Thus has one bad intervention led to another, precisely in the way that Mises spelled out in his 1929 book Critique of Interventionism. He explained that interventionism is not a stable policy ... "The idea of liberalism starts with the freedom of the individual," Mises wrote. "It rejects all rule of some persons over others; it knows no master peoples and no subject peoples, just as within the nation itself it distinguishes between no masters and no serfs." ... World War I had ended with many resentments stewing ... Mises wrote with an impassioned desire to stop the course of events.
Related Topics:
Cold War,
Economics,
Government,
Iraq,
Iraq War,
Liberty,
Socialism,
Society,
The State,
Terrorism,
United States,
War
William Harold Hutt (1899-1988): A Biographical Essay from an Austrian Perspective, by John B. Egger
Biographical and bibliographical essay
Austrian by neither birth nor residence, he could know nothing of Mises' privatseminars in Vienna. He apparently did not read German, and Mises's The Theory of Money and Credit was not translated until 1934 ... His personal recollection of Mises is interesting: "Mises had inspired me for many years before I first met him, through his impressive contributions in articles and books, but it was not until 1955 ... that I could first greet him face to face ... I was immediately struck by his really remarkable personality ... created by his deep emotional attachment to a free economy and the institutions on which it had to rely ..."
The Wisdom of Ludwig von Mises, by George Koether,
The Freeman, Sep 1981
Preface to a selection of excerpts from
Human Action arranged topically from Accounting to War, by one of Mises' former students
Human Action, generally considered to be the greatest work of the greatest economist of our times, is a towering monument to the mind of a genius ... As every human action bears on every other human action, so every principle of economic analysis relates to every other principle. Thus, in dealing topically with one subject, Professor Mises never overlooked its relation to all others. Hence his convictions on any one topic were spread throughout his book.
Work!, by
Sheldon Richman,
The Goal Is Freedom, 7 Mar 2014
Contrasts the "gospel of work" and "joy of labor" espoused by moralists and state socialists with the views of economists such as Adam Smith, Bastiat, John Stuart Mill, Mises and Rothbard
Mises devoted an entire chapter in Socialism to refuting the state socialists' claim that work is unpleasant only because of the market economy, and that it would be blissful if private property were abolished and the market were replaced with state central planning. Under any system, Mises wrote, labor may afford a small (and insignificant, he thought) measure of direct satisfaction, but that soon passes. Yet people must keep working to obtain its indirect satisfactions, the goods it enables them to buy ... Mises mocked the state socialists by putting scare quotes around the words joy of labor ...
Writings
"Anticommunism" versus Capitalism,
The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, 1956
Excerpt from part V
There exists today a sham anticommunist front. ... They make an illusory distinction between communism and socialism and — paradoxically enough — look for a support of their recommendation of noncommunist socialism to the document which its authors called The Communist Manifesto. They think that they have proved their case by employing such aliases for socialism as planning or the welfare state.
Capital Goods and Capital,
Human Action, 1949
Chapter 15, Section 2; explains what are capital goods, differentiates them from "capital", defines other terms such as saving, income and capital consumption, and discusses spurious concepts such as real capital and social capital
At the outset of every step forward on the road to a more plentiful existence is saving--the provisionment of products that makes it possible to prolong the average period of time elapsing between the beginning of the production process and its turning out of a product ready for use and consumption. The products accumulated for this purpose are either intermediary stages in the technological process, i.e. tools and half-finished products, or goods ready for consumption that make it possible for man to substitute, without suffering want during the waiting period, a more time-absorbing process for another absorbing a shorter time. These goods are called capital goods.
Catallactic Unemployment,
Human Action, 1949
Chapter 21 "Work and Wages", Section 4; defines catallactic or market-generated unemployment, details reasons why some people choose to remain unemployed and discusses "frictional" and institutional unemployment
What causes unemployment is the fact that--contrary to the above-mentioned doctrine of the worker's inability to wait--those eager to earn wages can and do wait. A job-seeker who does not want to wait will always get a job in the unhampered market economy in which there is always unused capacity of natural resources and very often also unused capacity of produced factors of production. It is only necessary for him either to reduce the amount of pay he is asking for or to alter his occupation or his place of work.
The Disastrous Middle Of the Road Policy,
The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, 4 May 1950
From a speech to the University Club of New York on 18 Apr 1950; argues that the middle of the road policies of interventionism, such as price controls and progressive taxation, eventually lead to socialism via central planning
The fundamental dogma of all brands of socialism and communism is that the market economy or capitalism is a system that hurts the vital interests of the immense majority of people for the sole benefit of a small minority of rugged individualists ...
What can prevent the coming of totalitarian socialism is only a thorough change in ideologies. What we need is neither anti-socialism nor anti-communism but an open positive endorsement of that system to which we owe all the wealth that distinguishes our age from the comparatively straitened conditions of ages gone by.
The Economic Role of Saving and Capital Goods,
The Freeman, Aug 1963
Explains there is a third factor of production aside from nature's resouces and human labor, and also that entrepreneurial judgement is necessary to attain the desired end of production
Capital goods come into existence by saving. A part of the goods produced is withheld from immediate consumption and employed for processes the fruits of which will only mature at a later date. ... Civilized man produces tools and intermediary products in the pursuit of long-range designs that finally bring forth results which direct, less time-consuming methods could never have attained, or could have attained only with an incomparably higher expenditure of labor and material factors.
The Fallacy of the Concept of "National Character",
Omnipotent Government, 1944
Section 2 of chapter 10, "Nazism as a World Problem"; explains why it is incorrect to generalize from some supposedly representative persons of a given nation to a national "character"
In the first World War British propagandists used to cite over and over again a few lines from Goethe's Faust. ... These verses do not at all express Goethe's own tenets. Faust concludes with a glorification of productive work; its guiding idea is that only the self-satisfaction received from rendering useful services to his fellow men can make a man happy; it is a panegyric upon peace, freedom, and—as the Nazis scornfully call it, 'bourgeois'—security.
A First Analysis of the Category of Action: Ends and Means,
Human Action, 1949
First section of chapter 4, chosen for its insights into describing what economics is about, contrasting it to other sciences and technologies
The result sought by an action is called its end, goal, or aim. One uses these terms in ordinary speech also to signify intermediate ends, goals, or aims; these are points which acting man wants to attain only because he believes that he will reach his ultimate end, goal or aim in passing beyond them ... [W]ith regard to the problem of valuation, all that we say about a consumers' good can be applied to any good of a higher order (except those of the highest order) if we consider it as a product. An economic good does not necessarily have to be embodied in a tangible thing. Nonmaterial economic goods are called services.
General Observations Concerning the Theory of Rent,
Human Action, 1949
Chapter 22 "The Nonhuman Original Factors of Production", section 1; explains that the differential rent concept, formulated by David Ricardo, can in general be accepted within modern economics, whereas the residual rent idea is incorrect
The fact that land of different quality and fertility, i.e., yielding different returns per unit of input, is valued differently does not pose any special problem to modern economics. ... Land and the services it renders are dealt with in the same way as other factors of production and their services. ... Only if one clings naively to general terms such as land or labor, is one puzzled by the question why land and labor are differently valued and appraised.
The Idea of Liberty is Western,
American Affairs, Oct 1950
Argues that the "idea of liberty is and has always been peculiar to the West", beginning in ancient Greece and moving westward to Europe and America, and discusses "liberty" as viewed by Harold Laski, contrasting life under Stalin with Italy under fascism
The history of civilization is the record of a ceaseless struggle for liberty. Social cooperation under the division of labor is the ultimate and sole source of man's success in his struggle for survival and his endeavors to improve as much as possible the material conditions of his well-being ... Should the mentality of the arrested civilizations sweep the ideals for the ascendancy of which thousands and thousands have sacrificed their lives? Ruere in servitium, they plunged into slavery, Tacitus sadly observed in speaking of the Romans of the age of Tiberius.
Related Topics:
Achievement,
Capitalism,
Free Market,
Germany,
Government,
Greece,
Italy,
Labor,
Liberty,
Russia,
Socialism,
Society
Inequality of Wealth and Incomes,
Ideas on Liberty, May 1955
Describes how attempts to equalize incomes and wealth lead to lowered standard of living for the masses and eventually to socialism
The market economy—capitalism—is based on private ownership of the material means of production and private entrepreneurship. The consumers, by their buying or abstention from buying, ultimately determine what should be produced and in what quantity and quality ... People must learn that the accumulation of wealth by the successful conduct of business is the corollary of the improvement of their own standard of living and vice versa. They must realize that bigness in business is not an evil, but both the cause and effect of the fact that they themselves enjoy all those amenities ...
Minimum Wage Rates,
Human Action, 1949
Chapter 30, "Interference With the Structure of Prices", Section 3; discusses the setting of minimun wages both by legislation and by collecitve bargaining, pointing out some of the resulting problems
The advocates of minimum wage rates, whether decreed and enforced by government or by violent action, contend that they are fighting for the improvement of the conditions of the working masses. ... However, the problem is precisely whether there is any means for raising the standard of living of all those eager to work other than raising the marginal productivity of labor by accelerating the increase of capital as compared with population.
On Equality and Inequality,
Modern Age, 1961
Examines the premise that "all men are created equal" and some possible as well as purported conclusions
The doctrine of natural law that inspired the eighteenth century declarations of the rights of man did not imply the obviously fallacious proposition that all men are biologically equal. It proclaimed that all men are born equal in rights and that this equality cannot be abrogated by any man-made law ... It is the goal to which the prevailing trends in our contemporary world are leading. But trends can change and hitherto they always have changed. The trend toward socialism too may be replaced by a different one. To accomplish such a change is the task of the rising generation.
Prices,
The Freeman, Sep 1981
Extracted from
Human Action by George Koether
The valuations which result in determination of definite prices are different. Each party attaches a higher value to the good he receives than to that he gives away. The exchange ratio, the price, is not the product of an equality of valuation, but, on the contrary, the product of a discrepancy in valuation. The characteristic feature of the market price is that it tends to equalize supply and demand. Any deviation of a market price from the height at which supply and demand are equal is—in the unhampered market—self-liquidating.
Rationality and Irrationality; Subjectivism and Objectivity of Praxeological Research,
Human Action
Chapter 1, "Acting Man", section 4; argues that all human action is rational, i.e., the outcome of reasonable deliberation
Human action is necessarily always rational. The term "rational action" is therefore pleonastic and must be rejected as such. When applied to the ultimate ends of action, the terms rational and irrational are inappropriate and meaningless. The ultimate end of action is always the satisfaction of some desires of the acting man ... Because [our science] takes the value judgments of acting man as ultimate data not open to any further critical examination, it is itself above all strife of parties and factions, ... it is universally valid and absolutely and plainly human.
The Ricardian Law of Association,
Human Action, 1949
Chapter 8 "Human Society", section 4; discusses how all people benefit when they cooperate with each other and how the division of labor results in greater productivity
Ricardo expounded the law of association in order to demonstrate what the consequences of the division of labor are when an individual or a group, more efficient in every regard, cooperates with an individual or a group less efficient in every regard. He investigated the effects of trade between two areas ... Reality again corresponds to the Ricardian assumptions. However, the teachings of the classical theory of interregional trade are above any change in institutional conditions. They enable us to study the problems involved under any imaginable assumptions.
Wages,
Human Action, 1949
Chapter 21 "Work and Wages", section 3; discusses labor, wages, how are wages determined and erroneus attacks on that explanation
Labor is a scarce factor of production. As such it is sold and bought on the market. The price paid for labor is included in the price allowed for the product or the services if the performer of the work is the seller of the product or the services. If bare labor is sold and bought as such, either by an entrepreneur engaged in production for sale or by a consumer eager to use the services rendered for his own consumption, the price paid is called wages.
