ABSTRACT : In exalting the subjectivity of value, the marginalist revolution posed a fundamental problem for economic theory. Each person chooses how to allocate his means and thereby, economize his actions by rank ordering the value of alternatives. Being interpersonally incomparable, ordinal ranks cannot serve directly to economize means
ABSTRACT: In the division of labor, economizing valuations require an appraisement of the structure of market prices of goods beforehand. Yet, investment decisions concerning the purchase of an entire business enterprise, for example, necessitate considerations beyond appraisement. An economizing valuation of businesses must be based upon both
ABSTRACT: According to Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT), there is no macroeconomic market failure. Under laissez faire capitalism, with extremely limited or no government, there will be no credit-induced business cycles. However, suppose one part of the world engages in credit expansion, which, according to ABCT creates the business cycle,
[ Editor’s Note: In this selection from “ Is the Virus of International Macroeconomic Interventionism Infectious? An ABCT Analysis “ in the newest issue of Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, the authors analyze how a commodity-money-based economy would be effected by neighboring economies still using fiat money. The authors note that the
The Free Market 13, no. 11 (November 1995) Copy Japan! was the cry of the 1980s. That country, economically speaking, appeared to have it all: an industrial policy that knew good and bad investments before markets themselves did, a disciplined workforce, and, most of all, an unshakable banking system in which everyone had confidence. Surveying
The Free Market 14, no. 7 (July 1996) Two years ago, the Clinton administration fell into near total disrepute among the public. The primary reason was its plot to socialize and nationalize the entire medical industry and conscript doctors and patients into a central plan. Conservatives, Republicans, and free-market economists fought back in a
The Free Market 15, no. 2 (February 1997) If members of the congressional classes of 1994 and 1996 are serious about curbing government, they should rally around Ron Paul, the newly elected congressman from Texas’s 14th district. For Ron, a longtime friend of the Mises Institute, is the outstanding political opponent of the main engine of
The Free Market 16, no. 1 (January 1998) When the IMF declares a country an “economic miracle,” look out. A financial crisis cannot be far behind. First it was Japan, the juggernaut that was said to be on the verge of supplanting the U.S. as an economic superpower. Then it was Mexico, the model of how former banana republics can be transformed
The Free Market 16, no. 5 (May 1998) Winter’s economic crisis in Asia was blamed on “go-go capitalism” and “crony capitalism,” but those explanations don’t get to the root cause. The Asian meltdown stems from structural defects deep within the world monetary system itself. These are defects that no amount of bailouts, exchange controls, IMF
The Free Market 16, no. 12 (December 1998) With huge segments of the world economy mired in depression, can we conclude that capitalism has failed or that the market behaves irrationally? That seems to be the consensus among many commentators, so we hear a wide range of calls for government intervention to patch things up. Monetarists are
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.
