Mises Search

A paper currency system contains the seeds of its own destruction. The temptation for the monopolist money producer to increase the money supply is almost irresistible. In such a system with a constantly increasing money supply and, as a consequence, constantly increasing prices, it does not make much sense to save in cash to purchase assets

Mises Institute : What prompted you to write In Defense of Deflation ? Philipp Bagus : One reason is that there was simply no complete treatment of deflation. The other reason is that the fear of deflation has brought disastrous consequences for our economies. This is so because the alleged threat of deflation is used to justify the production of

Thomas Piketty´s book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century , on growing inequality in capitalism, has become a bestseller. Piketty offers much data claiming that inequality is rising and draws the conclusion that the state should fix that ‘problem’ with additional taxes on the rich. It is true that the distance between the ‘super rich’ and the

Last month, Philipp Bagus and Andreas Marquart released their new book Blind Robbery!: How the Fed, Banks, and Government Steal Our Money , now available from FinanzBuch publishers. (See Karl-Friedrich Israel’s  full review on mises.org.) We recently spoke with Dr. Bagus about the new book and how certain politically influential groups benefit

Philipp Bagus, author of The Tragedy of the Euro recently spoke with the Mises Institute about recent developments in Switzerland and the European Monetary Union. Mises Institute: In January, the Swiss central bank unpegged the franc from the euro. What does this mean for the future of the Swiss franc? Philipp Bagus: The Swiss central bank

Philip Mirowski, known for his book More Heat than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Nature’s Economics in which he criticizes neoclassical economics for adopting methods from the natural sciences, recently published a book on neoliberalism and the economics profession during the financial crisis. In Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to

After the German elections held on the 23rd of September, the euro started a pronounced decline. But why was there such a sharp fall of the common currency? At the end, the election´s result does not seem to bring dramatic changes. Despite its losses, Merkel´s party, the CDU, remained the strongest force in the parliament. Merkel will continue to

Andreas Marquart and Philipp Bagus (see their mises.org author pages here and here ) were recently interviewed about their new book by the Austrian Economics Center. Unfortunately for English-language readers, the book is only available in German. Nevertheless, the interview offers some valuable insights.  Mr. Marquart, Mr. Bagus, you have

The last days and weeks of the coronavirus epidemic give an interesting insight into the human psyche. Elementary liberties are restricted all over the world, such as the freedom of movement or private property. Yet most people accept these restrictions without blinking, as the state declares their indispensability. A chronology of the events in

Murray Newton Rothbard died on the January 7, 1995. What would “Mr. Libertarian” say today about the government measures against the corona epidemic? As a response to the epidemic, Western governments have infringed upon private property rights to an unprecedented degree in peace times. They have expropriated and confiscated medical equipment and