The Free Market 14, no. 2 (February 1996) Middle-class incomes, the core of what we call the “standard of living,” have been falling for more than two decades. Though people have known this intuitively, only recently have we heard much about it. Economists and the media have been conditioned to look for the ups and downs in the business cycle,
The Free Market 15, no. 7 (July 1997) If you love bad news, devote your life to studying government. You’ll learn about the colossal waste of NASA, the diseases spread by the school-lunch program, the lies of the FBI, the corruption subsidized by foreign aid, and the debauchery of the military base. So where can we turn for good news? To private
The Free Market 25, no. 3 (March 2007) I was born on the lower East Side of New York and brought up on the lower West Side. (I bring in these facts as introduction to some ideas that may be of general interest, not as autobiography.) Of my earliest experiences I remember practically nothing. But, one incident does come to mind. My father, an
The Free Market 25, no. 7 (July/August 2007) The world went bonkers for about ten years way back when. The stock market crashed in 1929, and with it fell the last remnants of the old liberal ideology that government should leave society and economy alone to flourish. After the Great Depression hit, there was a general air in the United States
The Free Market 25, no. 8 (September 2007) The tongue is a discerning instrument; in the hands of a traveled soda aficionado, it is capable of leading to insightful truths about politics. To the drinker who has imbibed foreign sodas, this truth stems from the peculiar, yet incontrovertible fact that American soda is not so hot. Though some blame
The Free Market 26, no. 11 (December 2008) We are now hearing ominous warnings about imminent deflation. Checking the welcome page at AOL this morning, I see that the lead item in the financial news section heralds “The Looming Threat of Deflation.” This headline encapsulates two highly problematic ideas. The first is that deflation would
The Free Market 28, no. 10 (July 2010) USA Today offered a roundup of how the great recession has affected American life. The trends are gleaned from US Census data, which provide a look at how economic downturns can devastate a society, and offer a glimpse into a theme that the Austrian tradition has long emphasized. Economics isn’t just about
The Free Market 29, no. 5 (May 2011) During the first-ever Federal Reserve press conference, Fed chair Ben Bernanke said the number of jobs in America was still 7 million behind the number of people employed when the recession began. When asked whether the Fed could do anything about long-term unemployment, Bernanke said the central bank has
The Free Market 29, no. 6 (June 2011) The debate over the federal-government debt ceiling dominated the Spring. Treasury Secretary Geithner sent a letter to Congress explaining that the statutory debt limit would be reached around May 16, and therefore Geithner would implement “extraordinary measures” to postpone the actual crisis point. As in
The Free Market 20, no. 12 (December 2002) Does business run on greed? More than a few commentators are saying so. Reacting to the corporate accounting scandals and the bursting of the Internet stock bubble, some pundits are claiming that recent business events are symptoms of a larger crisis. “Capitalism itself is corrupt,” the pundits say.
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.