It is one thing to be concerned about the possible impact of the sum of many tiny human actions on the climate of the planet on which we find ourselves, for this is entirely consistent with choosing life. It is quite another thing to presume that we are doomed unless, whatever we are doing, we stop doing it right now, writes Clifford F. This. This
The Free Market 18, no. 3 (March 2000) America’ s first wage and price controls were enacted in Massachusetts, a little more than a hundred years after the first pilgrims arrived. The opportunities available in the New World combined with a strong work ethic were raising the wages of working men, to the consternation of their employers. In 1630,
During the late 19th century and early 20th, a confluence of circumstances transformed the United States into an industrial giant. Among these circumstances were a private-property, profit-oriented economy with a vast, internal free market. Soft coal from West Virginia and iron ore from Minnesota were sent to Pittsburgh to make steel and – with
Volume 8, No. 4 (Winter 2005) During the late nineteenth century, when silver agitation threatened the gold standard in the United States, gold bonds offered investors some protection from the uncertainties concerning the monetary standard in the United States. Gold bonds, therefore, sold at a premium relative to similar currency bonds. This
The Free Market 24, no. 5 (May 2004) That some factors of production are mobile, says the new protectionist, “proves” that free trade is not as attractive as (supposedly) David Ricardo argued. But factor mobility is not new. It has long been accepted by economists that either goods or people (and other factors of production) move. Indeed, part
The Free Market 19, no. 1 (January 2001) According to the dictionary, the word “wanton” means undisciplined or unruly, with connotations of self-indulgent, arrogant recklessness, and a disregard for justice or the rights of others. The word goes back to Middle English, being a combination of the words “wanting” or “wane,” meaning a lack of, and
Volume 12, Number 4 (2009) This paper tracks the economic and political developments in the state of Kentucky that led up to the murder, trial, and execution constituting “The Kentucky Tragedy,” and to a second murder involving a son of the Governor of the state. In doing this, the paper ties the developments in money, banking, and the economy
The Free Market 12, no. 7 (July 1994) Federal bureaucrats think they, not the financial markets should direct investment spending. They want to rebuild “infrastructure,” fund space stations, install magnetic supertrains, and set up information highways (or redistribute the existing ones). That’s what President Clinton means when he says he’ll
On the verge of the year 2000, many people are filled with hope and trepidation. New technologies, and new social and political arrangements offer mankind both the promise of higher standards of living and expanded human freedom, and the threat of even more powerful central government. For many, the year 2000 is to be a year of jubilee, the 2000th
Paperwork Reduced? Thanks to the Federal Paperwork Reduction Act, we Americans have the right to be told exactly why we have to fill out all the income tax forms we have to fill out and, furthermore, how long it should take. Right there, on page 51 of the 1998 Form 1040 instruction booklet, the IRS says that completing the Form 1040 takes an
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.