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1. The Delimitation of Catallactic Problems There have never been any doubts and uncertainties about the scope of economic science. Ever since people have been eager for a systematic study of economics or political economy, all have agreed that it is the task of this branch of knowledge to investigate the market phenomena, that is, the

[Editor’s Note: In this very important chapter 15 of Human Action (the first half of which is presented here), Mises explains what the market really is - a process where millions of individuals interact through voluntary exchanges - and how it gives rise to the quantitative prices that undergird the mental concept of capital and hence economic

[This article is excerpted from chapter 15 of Human Action .  This article follows “The Market, Part 1.” ] 8. Entrepreneurial Profit and Loss Profit, in a broader sense, is the gain derived from action; it is the increase in satisfaction (decrease in uneasiness) brought about; it is the difference between the higher value attached to the result

The Pricing Process Valuation and Appraisement The Prices of the Goods of Higher Orders Cost Accounting Logical Catallactics Versus Mathematical Catallactics [This article is excerpted from chapter 16 of Human Action . Robert Murphy has written a study guide for this chapter, available in HTML and PDF . This article follows “Chapter XV. The

Arthur Travers-Borgstroem, a Finnish writer, published a book entitled Mutualism that deals with ideas of social reform, and culminates in a plea for the nationalization of credit. A German edition appeared in 1923. In 1917, the author had established a foundation under his name in Berne, Switzerland, whose primary objective was the conferring of

[From Planning for Freedom . Originally published in The Freeman , April 7, 1952.]   A few years ago, a House of Representatives Subcommittee on Publicity and Propaganda in the Executive Departments, under the chairmanship of Representative Forest A. Harness, investigated federal propaganda operations. On one occasion the committee had as a

[From Planning for Freedom . Originally published in Farmand , February 17, 1951, Oslo, Norway. An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Floy Lilley, is available for download .]   The outlook of many eminent champions of genuine liberalism is rather pessimistic today. As they see it, the vitriolic slogans of the socialists and interventionists

[From Planning for Freedom . Originally published in The Freeman , February 12, 1951. An MP3 audio version of this essay, read by Floy Lilley, is available as a free download .]   “Today the doctrine of the irreversibility of prevailing trends has supplanted the Marxian doctrine concerning the inevitability of progressive impoverishment.” One of

[This review, “Man, Economy and State: A New Treatise on Economics,” originally appeared in New Individualist Review , Autumn 1962. It was reprinted in Economic Freedom and Interventionism .]   Most of what goes today under the label of the social sciences is poorly disguised apologetics for the policies of governments. What the philosopher George

[This article is excerpted from chapter 2 of Human Action . You can download an MP3 audio version of the chapter or subscribe to the Human Action podcast. The entire book is being professionally recorded and uploaded on Mises.org, toward the completion of an audio book version.]   Praxeology deals with the actions of individual men. It is only in