Mises Search

[Part of a week-long series on neoclassical economics] Steven Landsburg’s The Armchair Economist (The Free Press, 1993) is an absolutely delightful book. It is filled with compelling arguments that will challenge any reader’s opinions. Unfortunately, in several instances Landsburg falls into the familiar neoclassical trap of relying on unrealistic

[Part of a series on neoclassical economics] In a recent article, this author demonstrated that two of Steven Landsburg’s ‘surprising’ results were due to his false assumptions, and that the ‘naïve’ layman was thus exonerated from Landsburg’s criticism. In this article, we will attempt to do the same with an argument presented by the eminent David

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard P. Feynman, as told to Ralph Leighton W. W. Norton & Company, 1985 and 1988. 346 and 248 pgs. Second to deciding which CD or book to take to a desert island, perhaps the most popular mental exercise is to select the single person from all of human history

[The anniversary of Mises’s death (1973) and the founding of the Mises Institute (1982)] In previous articles, the present author pointed out the distressing tendency of many neoclassicals to contrast the “naïve” conclusions of the layman with the counterintuitive, “correct” reasoning of the expert economist. It was found that not only was the

The Driving Force of the Market: Essays in Austrian Economics by Israel M. Kirzner; Routledge, 2000. xii + 289 pgs. Review by Robert P. Murphy The Driving Force of the Market (Buy from Amazon.com for $100 or Laissez-Faire Books for $24.95) is the newest addition to Mario Rizzo and Larry White’s “Foundations of the Market Economy” series. Those

In his April 15 article, “ Why I am not a libertarian ,” Charley Reese offers some fairly standard arguments against libertarianism.  Though the following analysis will be largely unfavorable to his claims, such criticism cannot detract from the honesty and good sense so characteristic of Reese’s work.  With this caveat in mind, let us examine the

Ethics as Social Science: The Moral Philosophy of Social Cooperation by Leland B. Yeager (Edward Elgar, 2001. viii + 299 pgs. Reviewed by Robert P. Murphy Hi, my name’s Bob, and I’m a recovering utilitarian.  It’s been a few months now since I admitted the truth to myself.  You see, I used to believe that all moral issues could be reduced to a

[Interventionism: An Economic Analysis by Ludwig von Mises; Bettina Bien Greaves, ed. (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, 1998), xiv + 93 pp. Reviewed by Robert P. Murphy] One never tires of reading eloquent passages from Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action or Socialism , no matter how familiar they become. But to read

The Market for Liberty by Linda and Morris Tannehill, Foreword by Karl Hess (Fox & Wilkes, 1993. 169 pgs.)  One of the problems with being a so-called anarcho-capitalist is the battery of questions that people always throw at you: What about product safety? Won’t the Mafia take over? How do we defend ourselves from foreign invasion? And so on. If

Since September 11, many commentators have declared libertarian thinking to be outmoded on grounds that we live in a world with massive security threats. Even libertarian writers have rushed to declare their old infatuation with limited-government thinking to be mistaken or inapplicable. In this, they join a parade that had already begun before