When trying to explain complex economic situations, it sometimes best to abstract from money and look at a simple economy — a barter market. Assume that the only market for a society is its Saturday farmers market. Folks come from far and wide to exchange goods (that which they can produce efficiently for that which they cannot). One day, Uncle
“Sophistry?” my indignant neighbor replied, shovel raised. “Yes,” I responded, raising my shovel in response, “pure sophistry.” How did we, two friendly neighbors, end up in such a confrontation? What was the reason for raising shovels instead of slinging snow? To answer that, we must go back in time. The weather forecasters had predicted rain,
The virus has unleashed petite tyrants to haunt their tiny jurisdictions, using the cover of crisis to arrogate powers belonging to the people. Witness Robert J. Taylor , mayor of Ostrander, Ohio (population: 643 in the 2010 census), who just declared his village to be in a “state of emergency.” Along with this declaration, the self-righteous
Our goats love this time of year. The neighboring fields have been harvested, but not completely. Around the border and in odd spots throughout the field that adjoins our property are fugitives from the combine — soybean plants laden with browned, dried pods. We tug the goats toward the gate separating pasture from field, and then, once they
In his bid for the presidency, Pete Buttigieg rhetorically grabs a tiger by the tail, so to speak. Not the Siberian tiger still clutched by Russia, but an American mountain lion. The tails in both instances are vestiges of towns and cities far from viable markets, a situation that leaves those remaining with little hope for economic expansion.
One day over the next few weeks, I will find my bank account $4,400 higher than the day before. I’ll have more bread, so to speak. However, the circuses—the movies, concerts, sporting games, etc.—will remain nowhere to be found. Where is a Roman emperor when you need one? Bettina Bien Greaves recounts the story of a young Ludwig von Mises guiding
Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. The CDC estimates that 61,000 Americans died from the flu during the 2017–18 flu season (with a range of 46,000 to 95,000 deaths). Few of us even remember that event. Stores stayed open, folks met and worked, and everyone lived as normal. Taking sixty-one thousand deaths as our baseline, how
Who defends your liberty? According to the establishment and current ethos, your rights exist because US soldiers roam the globe crushing yesterday’s enemy of the state. So your ability to speak your mind, worship God in personal and corporate ways, own property and the fruits of your labor, in short, your right to be left alone by government, is
We landed at the Anchorage airport, deplaned, and hurriedly hustled through the concourse. Our rapid movement was both an expression of our excitement to see our daughters, who recently moved there, as well as an acknowledgement that a battle awaited. No, not a family squabble. Instead, we were advancing in double time toward a pending pitched
Where’s Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead? Seriously, what list of the greatest rock guitarists of all time would not—could not—include him? Sure, I know the internet article was just some teaser to get me to mindlessly click through an ad-laden list. But still, no Garcia. I object: Who wrote this article? And that is the question of the day: “Who
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.