What was Mises’s most important contribution to economic science? My answer, which coincides with the theme of maybe the central chapter of the entire book — chapter 10, A Copernican Shift , is: his analysis of the exact nature and the importance of economic calculation in a division-of-labor economic system .The substance of his contribution
It has been common knowledge at least since Adam Smith that continuous capital accumulation and rising productivity of labor, i.e. economic progress, are objectively possible only under an economic system that already possesses a sufficiently high degree of division of labor. Prof. George Reisman, whose careful analysis of the importance and
For 94 years, Americans were supposed to be awed and bored by the central bank, and pay no real attention to the greatest counterfeiting machine in the history of the world. Yet Ron has made an issue, and a huge one, out of the Federal Reserve and its destructivism and business cycles. Last month, 2,000 University of Michigan students cheered his
One of the claims made against the gold standard is that there has been more stability since we adopted a paper standard than when we were under gold. The unmentioned: the problems have been papered over at the expense of our savings and the dollar’s purchasing power. There has been a trade-off at work here. The more recessions are papered over,
The principal criticism of “scientific†socialists of capitalism is that it, in addition to being allegedly the most oppressive and exploitative system in the history of mankind, is an inherently irrational, “anarchic†system of economic organization invariably susceptible to recurring outbursts of overproduction leading to economic crisis,
Chapter 4 is one of the longest chapters of the book. It is densely packed with a fairly detailed account of a number of highly significant points concerning the origin of the Austrian school of economics, distinctiveness of the contributions of its main representatives, its relation to other schools and currents in economic theory. All these
In this second installment on the analytically very significant chapter 6, Treatise on Money , our main focus will be on the issue of non-neutrality of money, an aspect that played a particularly important role in Mises’s writings on the problems of monetary order and inflation. Despite the tens thousands of books and articles written on the
Not that it is the epitome of free-markets in action, however it arguably still retains some semblance of competition as the firms must satisfy the wants of each consumer in order to stay in business ( bailouts notwithstanding). And believe it or not, but in contrast with the socialized space flight industry, the domestic airline carriers in
If you remember, the two previous entries were about the problem of economic organization under capitalism and why this system of economic organization makes an integrated and comprehensive theoretical understanding of which a particularly distinctive task. A capitalist, division-of-labor, economic system is not at all like a Robinson Crusoe
After a welcome pause from the pace and vigor of the technically dense chapter 4, chapter 6 headed Treatise on Money takes us back to fundamental problems of theoretical economics. The chapter is much more than just a succinct and accessible summary of the well-known facts about the development of Mises’s views, and those of his contemporaries, on
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.