Exploring Capitalist Fiction: Business through Literature and Film , by Edward W. Younkins (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2013). Aphorist Don Colacho once wrote that “a cloud of incense is worth a thousand sermons.” He meant that a glimpse of beauty and an emotional connection with a religious ceremony is more effective and edifying than many a
What would have happened if one or two states had somehow managed to legalize alcohol during prohibition? Most likely, those states would have become centers of entrepreneurship with retail outlets, medicines, and innovation in equipment, machinery, and other forms of capital related to alcohol-related industries. With the recent legalization of
When Barack Obama used the transcontinental railroads as an example of the wonderful things that can be accomplished with grandiose government programs, he was attacked for mistakenly referring to the railroads as “ inter continental.” Notably, he was attacked by approximately no one for talking up a government program that in reality should be
Since at least as early as the eighteen century, classical liberalism, and its modern variant libertarianism, have opposed warfare except in cases of obvious self-defense. We see this anti-war position clearly among the anti-federalists of eighteenth-century America (who opposed all standing armies) and more famously within George Washington’s
A recent study from Princeton and Northwestern concluded that the United States is an “oligarchy” ruled by a small group of wealthy elites and interest groups. According to authors Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page: The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have
The Supreme Court’s recent decision on prayer at government meetings reminds me that Supreme Court “season” is upon us, and for the next two months or so, we can expect to see the court decide on a variety of cases that can have profound impacts on the lives of citizens and non-citizens alike. The court’s decision in Town of Greece vs. Galloway
This week’s internet-fueled Outrage of the Week is the case of Harvard attorney Ben Edelman who has insisted on “notifying the authorities” to punish a small restaurant for “overcharging” the professor to the tune of four dollars. Boston.com reported on the case, posting the full email exchange . Now, the professor has received the sort of
The recent civil disobedience, rioting, and police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri reminds us of what happens when police states and bad economics are mixed together. Devastated by decades of ruinous economic policies, the economies of many inner cities continue to languish as the self-ownership of local residents is treated with contempt by the
This article is also available as an Audio Mises Daily When I heard that environmentalists were sounding the alarm about a new “threat” to Grand Canyon National Park, my first thought was that the federal government had finally managed to pull the trigger on its plan to dam up and flood parts of the canyon. Damming up North America’s most
The fact that opponents of private property rights have managed to frame the debate over health-care mandates as some sort of religious issue is one of the great public relations coups of our time. Note below, for example, the top of a full page ad in the New York Times taken out by a group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation. After
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.