Production Theory

Charles, the third Viscount Townshend (1700–1764), has been shamefully neglected by virtually all historians of economic thought.

If the entrepreneur aims at the highest possible profit, he performs a service to society in managing an enterprise. Whoever hinders him from doing this acts against the interests of society and imperils the satisfaction of consumer needs.

It is the seeking of profits that is the key to increased living standards for everyone. But high profits do not necessarily correspond to real economic growth and can come about due to adverse circumstances.

Paul Krugman is despairing of late, because a growing number of mainstream economists are adopting (versions of) Austrian business-cycle theory. The most recent convert is Minneapolis Fed president Narayana Kocherlakota.

First published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman, "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read" is written from the point of view of an Eberhard Faber pencil.

Carried through consistently, the right of property would entitle the proprietor to all the advantages that the good’s employment may generat

There is no such thing as interests independent of ideas, preceding them temporally and logically.

It is good luck for the laborer if market conditions are such that a kind of work he is able to perform is lavishly remunerated; it is chance, not

Labor is a factor of production. The price the seller of labor can obtain on the market depends on the data of the market.

Recorded at FreedomFest, 10 July 2010. Includes an introduction by Douglas E. French.