Fiscal Theory

One of the canards of mainstream economics is that only government can provide the "optimum" number of nonrivalrous, or public, goods. Austrian economists have never accepted that theory.

Our taxes are due today. It's a reminder that we must get past the tax reformers’ favorite ploy of revenue neutrality.

Perhaps our most important job at the Mises Institute is to help intelligent lay audiences understand and fight political money. To that end we offer a brilliant new book by Dr. Thorsten Polleit, The Global Currency Plot. The book is a tour de force and we’ve excerpted some of the most compelling chapters.

The Communist Manifesto pushed a heavily progressive income tax as one of ten key ways to undermine the market order. Unfortunately, the idea didn't die with Marx. 

Standard Keynesian theory posits that if the economy slows, government can revitalize it by increasing spending, which supposedly creates new demand. But government can't create something from nothing.

While politicians claiming to be "fiscally responsible" call for balanced budgets, the real drag on the economy is government spending itself.

Murray Rothbard, writing in 1971, blasted both the Nixon administration and the erstwhile "free-market" conservatives, basking in the seats of power, who betrayed whatever principles they may have had for the service of the state.

The 1970s were the turning point in the wrong direction. Under Keynesian guidance, gold was abandoned, prices increased, and the dollar rapidly depreciated.

Everyone seems to agree that Reagan slashed the size and scope of government. Murray N. Rothbard exposes the truth.

"The worst failures of money, the worst things done to money, were not done by criminals but by governments."