From Imperialism and Social Classes by Joseph Schumpeter, translated by Heinz Norden (Meridian Books, 1955) pp. 50-52 [T]he policy of the [Roman] Empire was directed only toward its preservation and therefore was not imperialist within our definition. True, there was almost continuous warfare, because the existing situation could be maintained
Some time ago, the Nobel Prize committee changed the definition of the antiwar prize to include activism for government welfare and environmentalism (exactly the sort of coercive redistributionism that undermines social peace). This was a direct betrayal of the founder, who had stipulated that the prize be awarded “to the person who shall have
More than three years ago, George Bush unleashed the dogs of war on Iraq, perhaps hoping that he would take his place among the “great” war presidents. It’s strange how these guys imagine themselves written about in history books in the manner of Washington, Lincoln, and FDR, rather than Truman, Johnson, and Nixon. It’s been more than half a
In his obit, Samuel Brittan astutely note s the differences on method between Friedman and the Austrians. Indeed, Friedman lived long enough to see a reaction against basing economics on discoverable numerical relationships and the revival of so-called Austrian methods which concentrated on predicting general features of interacting systems on the
From conservative author Rod Dreher, of National Review and the Dallas Morning News, on a broadcast essay at NPR: “As President Bush marched the country to war with Iraq, even some voices on the Right warned that this was a fool’s errand. I dismissed them angrily. I thought them unpatriotic. “But almost four years later, I see that I was the
Perhaps the most ghastly aspect of wartime is how, in the name of fighting tyranny abroad, the US takes such strides in imposing it at home, thereby absorbing into our own political system the very thing we are supposedly combating. This happened in the Cold War. And today, one wonders what institutions from radical Islam the US will absorb in the
Among those that accuse libertarians of being wrong on some aspect of politics or history, the same themes come up again. I won’t list the really stupid ones, such as those accusing me of being anti-American, unpatriotic, a traitorous left-liberal Democrat, a capitalist pig, an apologist for the corporatist hegemon, an uncritical defender of the
Hardly anyone noticed when President Bush signed a proclamation giving Iraqis the right to export thousands of products to the US without paying any duties. After imposing years of duties and tariffs on many dozens of goods from timber to textiles to shrimp during his term, this might be his first action fully consistent with free trade. How about
In the weeks before the election, with the usual partisan hysteria becoming ever more intense, public intellectuals are ripping off the mask of principle to come out in favor of one or the other candidate. Typically, many libertarians are throwing their support behind Bush, and on the usual grounds that he is better than a hypothetical
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.
