The Wall Street Journal in its Letters section today has two good comments on Ruchir Sharma’s “How Spending Sapped the Global Recovery,” (op-ed, Jan. 16). The on-line teaser, “Nothing to Lose but Our Keynes: Government spending on infrastructure is only worth doing if it enables future value creation by the private sector.” Of particular interest
In a comment on my interview in the Free Market that ran on the 27 th as a Mises Daily asked if there was a video anywhere of my introductory lecture mentioned in the interview. Much of that lecture was incorporated into my presentation for a Mises Circle in Colorado Springs: Mercantilism[crony capitalism]: The Unvanquished Foe of Liberty . The
Letter in the WSJ today: Our Shortage of Jobs Isn’t From a Lack of Spending In “Voters to Democrats: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” (op-ed, Feb. 19), former President Bill Clinton’s pollster Doug Schoen writes: “Let’s be clear. The Democratic brand is in trouble–big trouble. . . . The Democrats need to do a number of things. First and foremost, they need to
Robert Higgs introduced the concept of “regime uncertainty”, government policies and actions that threaten property rights, in his outstanding paper, Regime Uncertainty: Why the Great Depression Lasted So Long and Why Prosperity Resumed after the War to explain the depth and duration of the Great Depression with special attention to the “Roosevelt
Pierre Lemieux wrote an indispensible book ( Somebody in Charge: A Solution to Recession) for anyone who wishes to understand the before, during, and immediate aftermath of the “Great Recession.” The book’s importance is greater than just his analysis of the crisis. He thoroughly exposes the underlying weaknesses and fallacies of the whole
“Infrastructure investments” or public works have long been the refuge of Keynesians and other progressives of like stripes as a cure for recession or stagnation. How can there be any significant costs to such projects when resources are idle and interest rates are low? The charge has been renewed with the announcement earlier this week of the
Yesterday when I went for my infusion, I brought two items of reading material with me; The Wall Street Journal and the SSRN un-gated version of the Steve Horwitz’s forthcoming paper in the Spring 2015 issue of Social Philosophy and Policy , “Inequality, Mobility, and Being Poor in America.” The paper is one of the best summaries of a very common
It is good to see Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard, President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and chair of Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984, join Joe Salerno ( here , here , ), Mark Thornton who has revived the term, apoplithorismosphobia (ay-pope-lit-horris-mos-foe-be-ah) or
Over at EconLog Alberto Mingardi has an excellent post on “ Ebeling on Mises, the Applied Economist . ” Ebeling is one of the top Mises scholars. Mingardi’s introduction : The Liberty Fund has recently made available on line the introductions, written by Richard Ebeling, to the three volumes of “Selected Essays” by Ludwig von Mises that he edited
In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal economist Douglas Coate suggests a need for “ Improving the GOP’s Free-Market Pitch .” He correctly points out, “Capitalism’s virtues don’t easily reduce to sound bites, but that isn’t a reason to give up.” Then he provides a reasonable summary of the benefits of free markets or capitalism including 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.