[I]n a market economy, entrepreneurs play a very specific and important role. In the pursuit of profits, they make guesses about the future and then direct scarce productive resources, either their own or someone else’s, into a particular line of production. If they guess correctly, they earn profits; if they guess incorrectly, they suffer losses.
Jennifer Brea writes: Africa is a continent of despair and desperation. Here, eight year-olds toting AK-47s massacre whole villages and eccentric dictators feast on the organs of the opposition, believing it’ll boost their mojo. Tsetse flies nibble on the eyelids of starving children who sport distended bellies like it’s their birthright, not to
John Stossel writes in his column today: Individual freedom, with minimal government, made it possible for masses of people to cooperate for mutual advantage. As a result, society could be rich and peaceful. As the great economist Ludwig von Mises wrote, “What makes friendly relations between human beings possible is the higher productivity of the
Chris McGreal reports from Harare : Zimbabweans are shopping like there’s no tomorrow. With police patrolling the aisles of Harare’s electrical shops to enforce massive government-ordered price cuts, the widescreen TVs were the first things to go, for as little as £20. Across the country, shoes, clothes, toiletries and different kinds of food were
Organizers of the protests at the North American leaders’ summit in Montebello, Québec , say they have video that shows police disguised as masked demonstrators tried to incite violence on Monday. The video in question. Québec provincial police admitted Thursday that three of their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest
Yesterday the president of the Open Source Initiative attempted to show how the philosophy underscoring the open-source movement and libertarianism are best pals. But can they even be enemies? The problem with his argument, along with everyone else that attempts to make “open source” a philosophy on par with other political philosophies, is that
A trucker has sued the Drug Enforcement Administration, seeking to get back nearly $24,000 seized by DEA agents earlier this month at a weigh station on U.S. 54 in New Mexico north of El Paso, Texas. Anastasio Prieto of El Paso gave a state police officer at the weigh station permission to search the truck to see if it contained “needles or cash
A bizarre letter to the editor in the Business section of the Boston Globe: Current Fed chief isn’t the walrus I was making a purchase at a pharmacy in Harwich and a conversation with the manager of the store turned to the economy and he said something that made sense: “I liked that guy. You know the one who I didn’t know what he was talking
Charles K. Eames writes: New York state has failed the people. This beautiful state has vast resources, natural and man made yet people are leaving and companies are moving out. The reason is obvious. Under the New York City-based leadership, New York has become one of the highest taxed and most dysfunctional states in the nation. The state has
ComicMix asks the question. “My favorite comic book superhero is Baruch Wane, otherwise known as Batman, in The Batman Chronicles. “The Berlin Batman,” #11 in the series by Paul Pope, details Batman’s attempts to rescue the confiscated works of persecuted Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, from Nazi Party hands. “Batman’s assistant Robin writes
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.