Introduction Most of my readers, not yet enlightened by the wisdom of hermeneutics, probably believe that the aim of economics is to discover true propositions about the external world. Exactly which members of the set of true propositions fall within economics, as against other disciplines, has occasioned much dispute. The Austrian approach,
The well-known libertarian economic journalist Robert Wenzel has written a post that would have delighted Murray Rothbard. Wenzel discusses a recent Monetary Conference held at the Cato Institute. “Under the direction of the billionaire Koch brothers, the institute appears to have drifted so far from its roots that it is barely recognizable as the
Peter Simpson is a distinguished classicist and philosopher, known especially for his work on Aristotle’s ethics and politics. (He is also, by the way, a mordant critic of Leo Strauss and his followers.) In Political Illiberalism , he poses a fundamental challenge to philosophical justifications of modern liberalism, culminating in the vastly
Earlier today, Dr. David Gordon took to the Mises Institute’s Facebook page to answer questions submitted by our followers. Here’s the transcript: Q: Would Mises have advocated for socialism if it turned out that it was better than capitalism at satisfying people’s ends, encouraging economic growth, etc.? What about Rothbard? Dr. David Gordon:
Jason Brennan, a remarkably prolific libertarian political philosopher, has a good eye for the essence of an argument. He puts this ability to effective use in Why Not Capitalism? In the book he challenges the defense of socialism in Why Not Socialism? by G.A. Cohen, whom Brennan rightly considers “the leading Marxist philosopher — and one of the
These United States: A Nation in the Making, 1890 to the Present , was published last month, and already it has attracted attention and acclaim. The book was written by two eminent historians, Glenda Gilmore of Yale and Thomas Sugrue of NYU. According to one reviewer, the book “wears its leftist politics on its sleeve.” Whether one likes such
The Economist reports that economist and Nobel Laureate Douglass North has died: Mr North’s work tended to focus on the biggest questions in economics, namely, how it is that some countries in some places became rich while others remained poor. His research came to emphasise the role of institutions in shaping long-run economic outcomes. While the
Last week, Matt Zwolinski, a philosopher from the University of San Diego, argued on the Tom Woods show that libertarians ought to support a basic income guarantee. Woods, genial but sharp and relentless in his questions, brought out the full extent to which Zwolinski’s proposal differs from libertarianism as commonly understood. Zwolinski thinks
Christian Human Rights . By Samuel Moyn. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. 248 pages. Samuel Moyn could take for his own Lord Acton’s remark that “few discoveries are more irritating than those which expose the pedigree of ideas.” Moyn, a distinguished intellectual historian, has in several books argued that appeals to human rights in recent
Irwin Schiff, imprisoned for his resistance to the federal income tax, died yesterday. Efforts by his son, the noted financial commentator Peter Schiff, to secure his release from prison so that he could die with his family were unsuccessful. Schiff’s sad passing illustrates an essential truth about the state: if you resist its orders, you will be
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.