Mises Search

Here is an interesting table comparing 9 schools of economic thought. You can certainly quibble with some of the content, but it makes for a good “cheat sheet” for a history of economic thought class or a lecture on schools of economics. Interestingly, the Austrian school is the “middle of the road” of the table. The “Developmentalist” school

Economics has its big problems, notably Keynesian economics, Marxism, positivism, etc. But we are not alone. Even in the hard sciences, there is an alarming amount of ideological interference with the scientific process. Our friend Robert Bradley recently took a look back 25 years ago when the New York Times still had some scientific backbone. By

Let Me Google That for You, Paul By Mark Thornton Paul Krugman attacked Ron Paul, Paul Ryan, and “honest money” and also took a shot at Austrian economists on his blog recently. He called honest money a “Ron Paul dog whistle” and then went on to query Austrian economists on their position on money-market mutual funds (MMMF). He doesn’t expect a

A Good Talk for the Classroom by Mark Thornton Murray Rothbard argued that the cause of the Great Depression was the result of Herbert Hoover’s New Deal policies which sought to keep wages and profits high. Robert Higgs, Richard Vedder, and Lowell Gallaway extended this thesis to include FDR’s New Deal policies which created artificially high

[This article originally appeared in The Free Market , March 1996.]   “For those who appreciate the virtues of private enterprise, the UL insignia is an inspiration.” Look at the back of your computer monitor, the bottom of your table lamp, or the label on your hair dryer. Chances are you will see the symbol “UL” with a circle around it. It stands

The current crisis has revealed the Keynesian roots of mainstream economics. The only debate has been the type and size of bailouts and stimulus packages. For example, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University thinks nationalization is preferable to the Geithner-Summers toxic-asset-relief plan. The Keynesian fantasy is really a

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, like most mainstream economists, has an irrational fear of deflation — whether it is understood as falling prices or a contracting money supply. I have coined the term “apoplithorismosphobia” for this psychological malady. In contrast, average Americans love deflation whether it’s at Wal-Mart, in the Cash for Clunkers

In the wake of the downfall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the emergence of capitalism in China, I was asked to teach the comparative-economic-systems class at Auburn University for the summer term in 1989. My only exposure to the topic had been as an undergraduate student, where my teacher was a Cold War–era professor

[ Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays • By Joel Waldfogel • Princeton University Press, 2009 • 186 pages] This little book could have been a great Christmas gift for many of your friends and relatives. It has some neat information about Christmas, and I share the author’s sense that the Christian holiday has been overly

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. As usual, Wall Street and financial journalists were all in a tizzy. The Dow reached highs not seen since 2001, and the S&P 500 reached recovery highs. Bonds and the dollar scurried off in