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[First published April 20, 2005.] Politics, like war, robs words of their meaning. This is especially true of the language of economics. For example, economists know what investment means and that it’s good for the economy; but the government uses investment to mean its profligate spending projects which are, of course, harmful to the economy. In

The more time you spend with Austrian economists or libertarian intellectuals, the more you realize that Murray Rothbard’s influence has been underestimated. No, his name is not a household word (yet) but his influence is felt in another way: those who read him experience what amounts to the intellectual challenge of their lives. Whether that

[From a speech delivered on the campus of Walsh College] Like most others, I found myself very gratified by the attention given to Pope John II after his death, and not just because he wrote a very good encyclical on economics that warmly embraces free markets. Karol Wojtyla began adulthood as a simple priest who only sought to minister to others

This talk was prepared for a Christian businessmen’s luncheon at the First National Bank in East Lansing, Michigan, on April 19, 2005. Some of the most vociferous attacks on free trade in recent years have come from religious lobbies, and are led by people who believe that they have the best interests of the workers in mind. They call on us to buy

Walsh College Economic State of the Union How inevitable is the continuing expansion of the domestic and international economy? Barring a major war and a major depression, and a policy response that repeats the errors of traditional countercyclical policies, I would say that continued world economic expansion is likely. For an Austrian all too

Here is what strikes me as a profound political paradox. The US government is larger, more consolidated, more powerful, and more intrusive than it has ever been in its history —indeed our sweet land of liberty is now host to the most powerful Leviathan state that has ever existed. Never before has a government in human history owned more weapons

The Kelo decision, in which the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the case of a local government taking of private property, touched off a huge  debate  among libertarians on the question of decentralization. The most common perspective was that the decision was a disaster because it gave permission to local governments to steal land.

The Mises Institute has worked for more than two decades to advance one purpose: the cause of economic freedom in academia and public life. The two comments on our work that I hear most often are: (1) you guys are doing a great job, and (2) it is not working. On the first point, I can only thank our  generous supporters  and faculty who make it

“No one can escape the influence of a prevailing ideology,” wrote Ludwig von Mises, and Gulf Coast residents know precisely what it means to be trapped — ostensibly by a flood but actually by statist policies and ideological commitments that put the government in charge of crisis management and public infrastructure. For what we are seeing in New

I was invited to speak at a peace march and rally in Birmingham, Alabama, sponsored by the Alabama Peace and Justice Coalition , and gladly accepted the offer to speak against the war in Iraq. Yes, as you might guess, the program was dominated by leftists who rightly oppose the war but want big government to run the economy. I accepted for the