The Free Market 26, no. 1 (January 2005) It is the conviction of the liberal intellectual tradition dating back to the Middle Ages that society contains within itself the capacity for internal self-management. This is in contrast to the claims of the sociology literature, which posits that human society is riddled with conflict between groups:
The Free Market 26, no. 1 (January 2005) On October 4, 2004, the privately funded SpaceShip-One climbed to an altitude of over 70 miles, clinching the $10 million “X Prize.” Many analysts were excited by the prospects for commercial space travel, and the day when orbital or even interplanetary flights would be affordable for the average
The Free Market 26, no. 2 (February 2005) It is a sign of the times when the Chinese government, which was just granted market economy status by debt-laden Argentina, takes America to task over its gaping budget and trade deficits. When interviewed by the Financial Times, published Nov. 22, Li Ruogu, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of
The Free Market 26, no. 3 (March 2005) When Murray N. Rothbard (born 1926) died ten years ago, on January 7, 1995, he merited a headlined obituary in the New York Times, and many other tributes in that first sad and shocking week. Later a book appeared, and also special issues of journals and tributes of every sort. His memorial service in New
The Free Market 26, no. 3 (March 2005) I didn’t think anyone would dare to apply Bastiat’s Broken Window fallacy to the human tragedy that played itself out along the rim of the Indian Ocean, but sadly, faith in economic fallacies is even more common than deadly tsunamis. Many economists mistakenly believe taxation can be good for economic
The Free Market 26, no. 3 (March 2005) In the ten years between 1994 and 2004, a dramatic turn took place within the Republican Party. The themes of the 1994 election weren’t just about cutting government, though that was the central campaign promise of that generation of elected officials sent to Washington. The core was more revolutionary than
The Free Market 26, no. 4 (April 2005) For those who thought that the Microsoft antitrust nonsense was over, think again. In March of 2004 Microsoft was fined a record $648 million by the European Commission for exercising its (alleged) monopoly power in the operating systems market. The most important element of that alleged monopoly power was
The Free Market 26, no. 4 (April 2005) The concept of taxation well deserves its partnership with death. Death and taxes, you know. Two vultures. Both, to say the least, deadly. Why do we let them shear us like sheep every spring? I’m talking about taxes and their incremental, inexorable growth. The analogy of the farmer’s son who hefts the
The Free Market 26, no. 4 (April 2005) Has academia become so politicized that teaching good economics, and using politically sensitive illustrations, can lead to threats, fines, penalties, demotion and worse? It certainly seemed so in early February when Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a leading student of Murray Rothbard and senior fellow of the Mises
The Free Market 26, no. 4 (April 2005) Our image of Svengali derives from a 1894 novel by George Du Maurier (Trilby) that tells of a hypnotist who exercised psychological power over a woman. Insofar as Svengali is in control, she can sing beautifully. But when he is not around, she is reduced to barely functioning at all. Svengali himself
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.