Mises Search

In a previous  article , I described the “social function” of stock speculators. In the present piece, we’ll explore the role of healthy futures and forward markets in a modern economy. Of course, both parties to any voluntary exchange expect to benefit, at least ex ante — otherwise the exchange wouldn’t be voluntary. But beyond this truism, it is

In two previous articles we examined the “social function” of stock speculation and futures contracts . Rounding out the trilogy, today we shall discuss the beneficial effects of a free market in call and put options. Despite their intimidating complexity, these derivative contracts are just another example of the financial market’s growing

I applaud the online magazine Slate for its recurring series on “the dismal science,” as they call it. Rather than boring discussions of the housing market or the NASDAQ index, economists such as Steven Landsburg and others tackle interesting issues. Don’t get me wrong, I just about always disagree with the columns. I was never puzzled as to why

Critics of the welfare-warfare state are no fans of the magazine the Weekly Standard . Bill Kristol and its other regular contributors are among the most hawkish of neoconservatives out there. Yet these “right wingers” are also bad on economics too, even though the average person would probably consider them to be laissez-faire. Of course, there

Libertarians have been exasperated by the Bush Administration’s supposedly laissez-faire policies that are anything but. Yet as enjoyable as it is to poke holes in the plans to “privatize” Social Security and so forth, there’s nothing quite so fun as economic commentary from a good old-fashioned leftist. In this respect, Robert Reich’s recent

One of the strongest arguments in defense of large US trade deficits is to point out that they are the accounting flip side of a net capital inflow to the United States. This is quite effective rhetorically. Although the man on the street passionately believes that we ought to sell more stuff to foreigners than we buy from them, he also believes

In my opinion, given the current political and cultural climate, the two biggest threats to economic liberty are environmentalism and trade protectionism. On these pages I’ve written numerous articles on the latter, where I restated the traditional case for free trade, and defended it in light of new concerns such as outsourcing and global capital

Lately I’ve written several articles ( 1 , 2 , and 3 ) warning Austro-libertarians of a dangerous trend. I am concerned that many bona fide Rothbardians are so disgusted with fiat money and fractional reserve banking systems that they endorse criticisms of these institutions even when they are based on faulty economics. In particular, much of the

According to conventional wisdom, even though capitalism is better than socialism when it comes to varied products such as hot dogs, blue jeans, and laptops, nonetheless we need government central planners to provide us with military defense. In fact, this is so “obvious” to most people that the opposite view — namely, that a free market in

[This Study Guide to Human Action , Chapter III is also available in PDF .] “ECONOMICS AND THE REVOLT AGAINST REASON Reason is the primary tool for acting man. The modern revolt against reason was not due to exaggerated claims by the rationalist philosophers. What really happened was that the socialist opponents of the classical economists could