The Free Market 24, no. 3 (March 2004) Before there was the Federal Reserve there was the second Bank of the United States (1817–1836). Since the late nineteenth century, historians and economists have lauded this institution for its salutary control over the currency, its regulation of the state banks, its prudent stewardship of the
The Free Market 24, no. 4 (April 2004) Debt is an institution in American government, long established and widespread. A cursory glance at debt statistics will quickly show that there has been a lull in the truth about debt, namely, that it cannot grow indefinitely at the rate at which it has been growing—at least not without a serious
The Free Market 24, no. 4 (April 2004) This dreadful election season will spew forth many promises by politicians to “lead us into the future.” I can hardly think of a worse fate for any society than to be led into the future by the political class of gangsters, marauders, looters, and liars. Fortunately, they haven’t the capacity to lead whole
The Free Market 24, no. 4 (April 2004) With a Republican president running sky-high debts, unleashing wars, imposing protectionist trade edicts, and risking the nation’s financial future, sometimes it feels like the 19th century all over again, specifically the year 1861 and following. The 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln sparked a secession
The Free Market 24, no. 5 (May 2004) I am often asked about career paths for freedom lovers. How can one combine professional life with the advancement of liberty? Let’s admit at the outset that it is presumptuous to offer any answer since all jobs and careers in the market economy are subject to the forces of the division of labor. Because a
The Free Market 24, no. 5 (May 2004) That some factors of production are mobile, says the new protectionist, “proves” that free trade is not as attractive as (supposedly) David Ricardo argued. But factor mobility is not new. It has long been accepted by economists that either goods or people (and other factors of production) move. Indeed, part
The Free Market 24, no. 5 (May 2004) A popular economics textbook that I once had to use while working as an adjunct professor had a section on government regulation in which the authors likened it to the placement of a stop sign at a busy intersection or a rule that was meant to prevent individuals from behaving dishonestly. The authors were
The Free Market 24, no. 6 (June 2004) You have surely played Parker Brothers’ board game Monopoly. It has been published in 26 languages and in 80 countries around the world. Since being introduced in 1935, in fact, an estimated one-half billion people have played it. It has taught the multitudes what they know about how an economy works. The
The Free Market 24, no. 6 (June 2004) It is always the fashion among many intellectuals to blame society’s ills on the free market. One college newspaper recently argued that the market is “The God That Sucked.” The course summaries in my university’s catalog, the themes of the lecture series, and the editorial content of the student newspapers
The Free Market 24, no. 6 (June 2004) Outsourcing, offshoring, what- ever the name, has become a hot issue in this election year. (As I write these lines, the government has announced that 2,400,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the last three years, currently leaving more than 9,000,000 Americans without jobs.) Blaming free trade for
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.