In the sequence of Mises's books concerning policy, this book followed Socialism, and was the first to present a new theory of interventionism.

In Mises's view, interventionism is an inherently unstable policy because it creates new dislocations that would seem to cry out for further interventions, which, in turn, do not solve the problem. The end of interventionism is socialism, a fate which can be logically avoided only by a sharp turn towards free markets.

Along with Socialism and the Liberalism, this book stands as a masterpiece of policy logic.

This volume's contents include:

• Introduction (Hans F. Senholz)
• Foreword (F.A. Hayek)

• I. Interventionism
  • 1. Interventionism as an Economic System
  • 2. The Nature of Intervention
  • 3. Restrictions of Production
  • 4. Interference with Prices
  • 5. Destruction Resulting from Intervention
  • 6. The Doctrine of Interventionism
  • 7. The Historical and Practical Arguments for Interventionism
  • 8. Recent Writings on the Problems of Interventionism

• II. The Hampered Market Economy
  • 1. The Prevailing Doctrine of the Hampered Market Economy
  • 2. The Thesis of Schmalenbach

• III. Social Liberalism
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Socialism of the Chair
  • 3. Liberalism and Social Liberalism
  • 4. Control or Economic Law?
  • 5. The Methodensteit
  • 6. The Economic Doctrines of Social Liberalism
  • 7. The Concept and Crisis of Social Policy
  • 8. Max Weber and the Socialists of the Chair
  • 9. The Failure of the Prevailing Ideology

• IV. Anti-Marxism
  • 1. Marxism in German Science
  • 2. National (Anti-Marxian) Socialism
  • 3. Sombart as Marxist and Anti-Marxist
  • 4. Anti-Marxism and Science

• V. Theory of Price Controls
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Price Controls
  • 3. The Significance of the Thoery of Price Control for the Theory of Social Organization

• VI. The Nationalization of Credit?
  • 1. Private Interest and Public Interest
  • 2. Bureaucratic Management or Profit Management of Banking?
  • 3. The Danger of Overexpansion and Immobilization
  • 4. Summation

• Readings for Further Reference
• Name Index
• Subject Index

Publication Information

Kritik des Interventionismus: Untersuchungen zur Wirtschaftspolitik und Wirtschaftsideologie der Gegenwart. [Critique of Interventionism: Inquiries into Present Day Economic Policy and Ideology]. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1929. English translation of the 1976 German new edition. Translated by Hans F. Sennholz. Revised English translation of the 1976 German new edition. Translated by Hans F. Sennholz. Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996.