Mises Search

Signs of a “new era” in housing are everywhere. Housing construction is taking place at record rates. New records for real estate prices are being set across the country, especially on the east and west coasts. Booming home prices and record low interest rates are allowing homeowners to refinance their mortgages, “extract equity” to increase their

Economists of an Austrian bent just can’t take off their analytical spectacles, even when undertaking simple life activities like driving from here to there. Fortunately, this unusual way of looking at events and institutions yields fascinating results, as with a recent commute that nicely illustrated the universal truth that governments cause

There are those who have claimed Ludwig von Mises to be the greatest economist of the 20 th century, particularly the first half of the century. Others have claimed that Murray Rothbard is the greatest economist or social scientist of the second half of the 20 th century. I agree with both of these claims. These men were great in many different

The Star Wars saga will conclude on May 19 th when Episode III: Revenge of the Sith opens in movie theaters across the country. We already know a great deal about how the movie will end because writer/producer/director George Lucas must meld Revenge with Episode IV: A New Hope which debuted in 1977. (I’ve also written on Episode  I  and  II ) Thus

[This article is excerpted from chapter one of The Economics of Prohibition .] Prohibition has an ever-increasing impact on our daily life. In the United States, prohibition against certain drugs, involving “wars” on them, has become one of our most visible and hotly debated national problems. The purpose of the following investigation is to

Introduction [ previous article ] The Origins of the “Economics” of Prohibition In Defense of Prohibition Prohibition’s Blue Monday The Economics of Heroin Prohibition The Economics of Addiction [This article is excerpted from The Economics of Prohibition .] Economists and Prohibition “I hold that there is nothing much wrong with standard economic

Congress purported to act to protect the values of the American people when it passed the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.” The result has been a serious blow to a growing industry. Whose values was Congress protecting? It had nothing to do with the American people at large. Congress was protecting the “values” of casino owners and

[This talk was delivered on October 27, 2006, at  “Imperialism: Enemy of Freedom,”  the Mises Institute Supporter’s Summit. It is available in  MP3 audio  from  Mises Media .] People poke fun at Austrian economists because we support the gold standard. They cannot understand why we would “cling” to this “relic” of history. They view it as going

Lou Dobbs declares that there is only one option in the war on drugs — victory. I agree. The real question is how to achieve this victory. The two things we know for certain are that we will never eliminate drug abuse and addiction and we will never make any real progress towards reducing drug abuse and addiction by government. All the rest of the

If you watch Lou Dobbs’ show you would think that illegal immigration is the biggest problem facing America today — worse than government inflation and the Fed, standing armies, the military-industrial complex and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and government spying and suppression of our rights. Immigration, illegal or otherwise, is not the problem per