[This Study Guide to Human Action , Chapter VIII is also available in PDF .] CHAPTER VIII. HUMAN SOCIETY Chapter Summary 1. Human Cooperation Society is the combination of individuals for cooperative effort. People collaborate — form social bonds — because they perceive the greater productivity afforded by the division of labor. This doesn’t mean
[This Study Guide to Human Action , Chapter XVII is also available in PDF .] CHAPTER XVII. INDIRECT EXCHANGE Chapter Summary 1. Media of Exchange and Money In direct exchange, each party intends to use the object being acquired for consumption or production. In contrast, during indirect exchange, at least one of the parties to the transaction does
[This Study Guide to Human Action , Chapter XIX is also available in PDF .] CHAPTER XIX. THE RATE OF INTEREST CHAPTER SUMMARY 1. The Phenomenon of Interest Originary interest is the discount applied to future goods versus present goods, and is ultimately due to the universal phenomenon of time preference. As chapter XVIII demonstrated, people
Chapter XVI. Prices Chapter Summary 1. The Pricing Process When two individuals trade goods as an isolated event, catallactics can only say that the exchange ratio in this act of barter will ensure that each trader gains something more valuable than what he gives up. Beyond that truism, the exchange ratio (barter “price”) could be anywhere in a
With all of the comparisons between President Obama and FDR, and especially all of the “lessons” we are told about the Great Depression, fans of the free market need a single volume to get up to speed as well as to educate their interventionist friends. I have written such a book in the newly released The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great
Ever since the fall of 2008, interest in the Austrian theory of the business cycle has exploded. Judging from the email I receive after a Mises Daily article, or the type of people who go to a Mises Circle event, I can personally attest that it’s not just ideological students and college professors anymore. On the contrary, actual financial
I am happy to announce that the Teacher’s Manual is now available for my introductory textbook, Lessons for the Young Economist . For those readers who are unfamiliar with it, let me explain that the student text was designed with junior-high students in mind, but it is applicable for younger, precocious students, and also even for adults who
I am pleased to announce that I will be teaching another installment of the Mises Academy online class Anatomy of the Fed. This class will cater to both the undergraduate student and the seasoned Wall Street executive. This was one of the most popular classes the first time we offered it in early 2011. The Scope of the Course This session of the
Just about everyone is drawn to the libertarian respect for property rights. Yet most people draw back from fully embracing property rights and taking libertarianism to its fulfillment in “anarcho-capitalism” or free-market anarchy. “Sure,” the cynics say, “it would be great to live in a society without the government and taxes, but who would
In the final section of Human Action , Ludwig von Mises stressed the importance of all citizens to acquaint themselves with the findings of economic science. Unlike physics or engineering — where the scientists could safely continue with their advancements, whether or not the average person understood how they worked — economic policies as enacted
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.