Volume 1, No. 1 (Spring 1998) The Banking Act of 1933, sometimes referred to as the Glass-Steagall Act, separated commercial and investment banking, instituted Federal deposit insurance, prohibited interest payments on demand deposits, and reorganized the Federal Reserve. The Glass-Steagall Act is typically explained as a public-interest measure
Volume 1, No. 1 (Spring 1998) Almost all contemporary Austrian economists are united in their opposition to central banking and their advocacy of a system of free competitive banking. However, a vigorous debate has arisen over the precise meaning of “free competitive banking.” Does “free banking” require 100 percent reserve deposit banking, or
Volume 1, No. 1 (Spring 1998) From Adam Smith’s day to our own, economists have tended to treat the intertemporal trade-off as something quite different from other trade-offs that market participants face. Whether based on the impartial spectator or on a perceived consensus among economists or on a supposed magic of compounding, their thinking
Volume 1, No. 1 (Spring 1998) A noteworthy feature of Murray Rothbard’s monumental history of economic thought is his vigorous denunciation of Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations . Smith was “an inveterate plagiarist,” but one who “plagiarized badly, adding new fallacies to the truths he lifted.” Smith’s “economics was a grave deterioration from
Volume 1, No. 1 (Spring 1998) This article argues that Murray Rothbard does indeed have scathing criticisms of Adam Smith in Rothbard’s recent work on the history of economic thought. It points out, though, that Rothbard had quite harsh words for many eminent economists. Moreover, in terms of methodology, Rothbard basically felt that he
Volume 1, No. 1 (Spring 1998) This volume of F.A. Hayek’s collected works brings together chapters, articles, and reviews Hayek wrote between 1935 and 1949. The volume’s editor, Bruce Caldwell, has divided the contents into three parts: market socialism and the socialist calculation debate; the economics and politics of war; and planning,
Volume 1, No. 1 (Spring 1998) This Festschrift is dedicated to one of the outstanding champions of liberty in Germany. For most of his scientific life, Gerard Radnitzky has been known as a philosopher of science in the tradition of Karl Popper. In recent years, however, he has won a reputation as a staunch defender of individual liberty through
Volume 1, No. 2 (Summer 1998) Terminological Remarks It is customary to distinguish between competition and monopoly. This distinction suggests the idea that in the case of monopoly there is no competition at all. However, this is not true with regard to the monopolies we have to deal with in a study devoted to the problems of a market economy.
Volume 1, No. 2 (Summer 1998) To decide whether an undertaking is sound we must calculate carefully. —Ludwig von Mises, Socialism The socialist calculation debate has been prolonged, contentious, and often confusing (Vaughn 1980; Yeager 1997). Few issues in economics are more important, yet our understanding remains muddled, judging by the
Volume 1, No. 2 (Summer 1998) What causes economic growth? At the risk of some oversimplification, the answers economists have given to this question can be divided into two broad camps, one following the ideas of Adam Smith (1776) and the other following the ideas of David Ricardo (1821). Smith, whose overriding goal was to understand the
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.