Production Theory

What better way to explain the relationship between higher-order and lower-order goods than with food? Here, we look at the falafel sandwich.

Economists use time preference to explain the existence of interest, but the ability of people to postpone some present consumption in order to save for the future has much broader social ramifications. 

When Adam Smith and the English classicals promoted division of labor as the most important ingredient in economic development, it took Carl Menger and his Austrian successors to point out that error and promote the proper economic theory of production.

Economic giant Robert Solow died in December 2023. He was a Nobel laureate, and four of his PhD students went on to also receive the Nobel. He is known for the growth model named in his honor. 

Mainstream economists turned climate warriors use cost-of-production methods to determine the “true” social cost of carbon. They appeal to a discredited methodology falsely attributed to medieval Scholastics.

Mainstream economists turned climate warriors use cost-of-production methods to determine the “true” social cost of carbon. They appeal to a discredited methodology falsely attributed to medieval Scholastics.

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 civilization is inseparably linked with our methods of economic calculation."

Recorded at the Mises Institute on 27 July 2023.

"The free market and the division of labor does not promote hyper-atomized individuals. It creates social harmony and community."