The Free Market 23, no. 10 (October 2003) W hile listening to New York City’s CBS News Radio the other day, I was struck by the juxtaposition of two stories, apparently placed together without ironic intent. The first one was about New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visiting Staten Island to gripe about the “overdevelopment” of the borough. In his
While getting on the escalator at the London underground station tonight, I noticed a sign reading: STAND ON THE RIGHT HOLD THE HANDRAIL NO STROLLERS DOGS MUST BE CARRIED Well, I was standing on the right, I was holding the handrail, and I certainly had no stroller. But I wasn’t carrying a dog! Luckily, no one noticed. But I’m thinking of getting
Many science textbooks contain similar one-or-two-paragraph histories of how modern science miraculously emerged from the dark swamp of ignorance we call the Middle Ages. The main problem with such stories is that they are almost entirely false. Let’s compare the picture painted above with the current understanding of scholars studying the history
Here is an interesting paper by Christopher Coyne and Steve Davies. It counters the argument that empire produces public goods by pointing to the many public bads of empire.
The Free Market 19, no. 8 (August 2001) British economist A.C. Pigou was instrumental in developing the theory of externalities. The theory examines cases where some of the costs or benefits of activities “spill over” onto third parties. When it is a cost that is imposed on third parties, it is called a negative externality. When third parties
The Free Market 19, no. 11 (November 2001) Many “pragmatic” right-wingers criticize libertarians for attempting to be too ideologically pure. “Look,” they say, “we want a freer society as well. But your radical proposals will never be enacted, and they just turn off moderates.” Or we hear, “If you don’t support the Republican candidate, you’re
It is a common belief that every historian, in trying to describe any episode from the human past, cannot help but color his narrative with the hues of his own political stances, his positions concerning political economy, his visions of a just society, his religious beliefs, and other such subjective tinctures. Those influences will inevitably
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.
