The Role of Freedom in Economic Well Being: A Look at Evidence

Recorded at San Jose State University; September 25, 2003 [56:54]

The Classical Liberal Theory of Empire

Mises in 1919

The Firm vs. Nationalism

The Anti-Imperialist League and the Battle Against Empire

The New Global Marketplace

Taxation, Inflation, and War

Small States, Global Economy

A Libertarian Gallop Through American History

A Libertarian Gallop Through American History

350 Years of Economic Theory in 50 Minutes

350 Years of Economic Theory in 50 Minutes

Profit, Loss and the Entrepreneur (video)

Price Controls: Case Studies (video)

The Determination of Prices (video)

Exchange and Demand (video)

Scarcity, Choice, and Value (video)

How States Fall and Liberty Triumphs

8. Welfare and the Welfare State

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach [1:24:23]

7. Education

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach [1:06:58]

The Core of What Economics Teaches

Hosted at the Mises Institute on 30 April 2010. Sponsored by Jeremy S. Davis.

How High Can the Price of Gold Go?

Brown Bag Seminar; Recorded at the Mises Institute on February 10, 2005. [1:01:20]

Ludwig von Mises as a Laissez-faire Radical: The Quest for the Historical Mises

From the Libertarian Heritage Series, sponsored by the Center for Libertarian Studies; October 16, 1981. [32:59]

The Road to Serfdom

Finally, here is an edition of Road to Serfdom that does justice to its monumental status in the history of liberty. It contains a foreword by the editor of the Hayek Collected Works, Bruce Caldwell. Caldwell has added helpful explanatory notes and citation corrections, among other improvements. For this reason, the publisher decided to call this "the definitive edition." It truly is.

This spell-binding book is a classic in the history of liberal ideas. It was singularly responsible for launching an important debate on the relationship between political and economic freedom. It made the author a world-famous intellectual. It set a new standard for what it means to be a dissident intellectual. It warned of a new form of despotism enacted in the name of liberation. And though it appeared in 1944, it continues to have a remarkable impact. No one can consider himself well-schooled in modern political ideas without having absorbed its lessons.

What F.A. Hayek saw, and what most all his contemporaries missed, was that every step away from the free market and toward government planning represented a compromise of human freedom generally and a step toward a form of dictatorship--and this is true in all times and places. He demonstrated this against every claim that government control was really only a means of increasing social well-being. Hayek said that government planning would make society less liveable, more brutal, more despotic. Socialism in all its forms is contrary to freedom.

Nazism, he wrote, is not different in kind from Communism. Further, he showed that the very forms of government that England and America were supposedly fighting abroad were being enacted at home, if under a different guise. Further steps down this road, he said, can only end in the abolition of effective liberty for everyone.

Capitalism, he wrote, is the only system of economics compatible with human dignity, prosperity, and liberty. To the extent we move away from that system, we empower the worst people in society to manage what they do not understand.

The beauty of this book is not only in its analytics but in its style, which is unrelenting and passionate. Even today, the book remains a source of controversy. Socialists who imagine themselves to be against dictatorship cannot abide his argument, and they never stop attempting to refute it.

Misesians might find themselves disappointed that Hayek did not go far enough, and made too many compromises in the course of his argument. Even so, anyone who loves liberty cannot but feel a sense of gratitude that this book exists and remains an important part of the debate today.

The Mises Institute was honored that Hayek served as a founding member of our board of advisers, and is very pleased to offer this book again to a world that desperately needs to hear its message.

Mises: The Musical

This musical reconstruction of a setting from the Mises Circle in the interwar years, was performed at the Austrian Scholars Conference 2005: its debut! The stars are members of the senior faculty of the Mises Institute. The original German texts by Felix Kaufmann have been rendered in English. Enjoy! [38:17]

Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood "The Monster". But to most Americans today, Federal Reserve is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates.

Dedicated to Murray N. Rothbard, steeped in American history and Austrian economics, and featuring Ron Paul, Joseph Salerno, Hans Hoppe, and Lew Rockwell, this extraordinary new film is the clearest, most compelling explanation ever offered of the Fed, and why curbing it must be our first priority.

Alan Greenspan is not, we're told, happy about this 42-minute blockbuster. Watch it, and you'll understand why. This is economics and history as they are meant to be: fascinating, informative, and motivating. This movie could change America.

(NTSC format for DVD) or (NTSC format for US VCRs)

The Costs of a Gold Standard

Roger W. Garrison talks about The Costs of a Gold Standard at  the Capitol Hill Conference on the Gold Standard: An Austrian Perspective in 1983.

Value, Utility, and Price

Value, Utility, and Price Various Artists Mises University 2009

Value, Utility, and Price

Value, Utility, and Price Various Artists Mises University 2009

The Gilded Age and the Gold Standard

The Gilded Age and the Gold Standard Thomas DiLorenzo The Gold Standard Revisited

Inflation and the Bolsheviks

Inflation and the Bolsheviks. Yuri Maltsev, editor of Marxism Unmasked and a Russian economist in the last days of the Soviet state, explains the hidden history of inflation in Russia before the revolution. Inflation crippled society and destabilized the

How Abolishing the Fed Would Change Everything (for the better)

How Abolishing the Fed Would Change Everything (for the better) Llewellyn H. Rockwell. Jr. The Gold Standard Revisited

The Founding of The Federal Reserve

Recorded in Houston, Texas; October 27, 1984. [1:04:58]

The Founding of The Federal Reserve

Recorded in Houston, Texas; October 27, 1984. [1:04:58]

Skyscrapers and Business Cycles

Skyscrapers and Business Cycles Mark Thornton Our Enemy, Inflation

The Gold Dollar

The Gold Dollar Llewellyn H. Rockwell. Jr. Our Enemy, Inflation

Government Bailouts: Picking Winners

Government Bailouts: Picking Winners Various Artists Recovery or Stagnation?

Government Bailouts: Picking Winners

Government Bailouts: Picking Winners Various Artists Recovery or Stagnation?

How Not to Deal with Economic Depression

How Not to Deal with Economic Depression Various Artists Recovery or Stagnation?

How Not to Deal with Economic Depression

How Not to Deal with Economic Depression Various Artists Recovery or Stagnation?

Liberalism

New LvMI edition with foreword by Thomas Woods

This is Mises's classic statement in defense of a free society, one of the last statements of the old liberal school and a text from which we can continue to learn. It has been the conscience of a global movement for liberty for 80 years. This new edition, a gorgeous hardback from the Mises Institute, features a new foreword by Thomas Woods.

It first appeared in 1927, as a followup to both his devastating 1922 book showing that socialism would fail, and his 1926 book on interventionism.

It was written to address the burning question: if not socialism, and if not fascism or interventionism, what form of social arrangements are most conducive to human flourishing? Mises's answer is summed up in the title, by which he meant classical liberalism.

Mises did more than restate classical doctrine. He gave a thoroughly modern defense of freedom, one that corrected the errors of the old liberal school by rooting the idea of liberty in the institution of private property (a subject on which the classical school was sometimes unclear). Here is the grand contribution of this volume.

"The program of liberalism, therefore, if condensed into a single word, would have to read: property, that is, private ownership of the means of production... All the other demands of liberalism result from this fundamental demand."

But there are other insights too. He shows that political decentralization and secession are the best means to peace and political liberty. As for religion, he recommends the complete separation of church and state. On immigration, he favors the freedom of movement. On culture, he praised the political virtue of tolerance. On education: state involvement must end, and completely.

He deals frankly with the nationalities problem, and provides a stirring defense of rationalism as the essential foundation of liberal political order. He discusses political strategy, and the relationship of liberalism to special-interest politics.

In some ways, this is the most political of Mises's treatises, and also one of the most inspiring books ever written on the idea of liberty. It remains the book that can set the world on fire for freedom, which is probably why it has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

How marvelous to have it available in this low-priced, hardbound, modern edition.

Liberalism

New LvMI edition with foreword by Thomas Woods

This is Mises's classic statement in defense of a free society, one of the last statements of the old liberal school and a text from which we can continue to learn. It has been the conscience of a global movement for liberty for 80 years. This new edition, a gorgeous hardback from the Mises Institute, features a new foreword by Thomas Woods.

It first appeared in 1927, as a followup to both his devastating 1922 book showing that socialism would fail, and his 1926 book on interventionism.

It was written to address the burning question: if not socialism, and if not fascism or interventionism, what form of social arrangements are most conducive to human flourishing? Mises's answer is summed up in the title, by which he meant classical liberalism.

Mises did more than restate classical doctrine. He gave a thoroughly modern defense of freedom, one that corrected the errors of the old liberal school by rooting the idea of liberty in the institution of private property (a subject on which the classical school was sometimes unclear). Here is the grand contribution of this volume.

"The program of liberalism, therefore, if condensed into a single word, would have to read: property, that is, private ownership of the means of production... All the other demands of liberalism result from this fundamental demand."

But there are other insights too. He shows that political decentralization and secession are the best means to peace and political liberty. As for religion, he recommends the complete separation of church and state. On immigration, he favors the freedom of movement. On culture, he praised the political virtue of tolerance. On education: state involvement must end, and completely.

He deals frankly with the nationalities problem, and provides a stirring defense of rationalism as the essential foundation of liberal political order. He discusses political strategy, and the relationship of liberalism to special-interest politics.

In some ways, this is the most political of Mises's treatises, and also one of the most inspiring books ever written on the idea of liberty. It remains the book that can set the world on fire for freedom, which is probably why it has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

How marvelous to have it available in this low-priced, hardbound, modern edition.

Keynesian Economics: The Beast That Won't Die

Keynesian Economics: The Beast That Won't Die Various Artists Will the Decline Continue?

Keynesian Economics: The Beast That Won't Die

Keynesian Economics: The Beast That Won't Die Various Artists Will the Decline Continue?

Ticka, Ticka, You Need Good Timin'

Ticka, Ticka, You Need Good Timin' Various Artists Will the Decline Continue?

Ticka, Ticka, You Need Good Timin'

Ticka, Ticka, You Need Good Timin' Various Artists Will the Decline Continue?

Applying Economics to American History

Applying Economics to American History Various Artists Economics for High School Students

Applying Economics to American History

Applying Economics to American History Various Artists Economics for High School Students

The Bubble Economy

The Bubble Economy Various Artists Mises University 2009

The Bubble Economy

The Bubble Economy Various Artists Mises University 2009