Did you know Afghanistan has a central bank? Established in 1939, it’s called Da Afghanistan Bank ( DAB ) and in the near future will likely come under control by the Taliban. Nonetheless, the institution has some history, like the nation of Afghanistan itself, which had a monetary system using coins dating back over two thousand years! Their
The predictable collapse of the American-imposed Afghan government has served as a powerful illustration of the hubris of the West’s Very Serious policy elites. Within the chaos of the past week emerged a figure that perhaps best personifies the sheer inadequacy of the modern ruling class: former president Ashraf Ghani. Looking at Ghani’s resume,
Leonard Read knew the problems of socialism and saw what a threat its growth was to Americans’ well-being as well as their liberties. He also saw that the attempt to improve things that cannot work well, as is true of socialistic efforts, could even tempt lovers of liberty into undermining what they believe in. Read made his case in “I Don’t
Today is Walter Block’s 80 th birthday. The title of most famous book, Defending the Undefendable , best captures his way of looking at the world. He will take a libertarian principle and deduce consequences from it with iron consistency, often using imaginative examples while doing so. You may think he is wrong, but you will find it more
As a precursor to this October’s inaugural Economic Education Month , the Economic Education Group of the Federal Reserve held a virtual Q&A session between Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and a variety of students and teachers from across the country. This education group includes over 50 subject matter experts who serve the outreach arm of
A trope of contemporary social commentary is that “science” has somehow become “politicized,” such that people no longer trust or believe what is presented as the scientific consensus on important social, political, and economic issues. The most salient example until recently was climate change, where various scientific professionals,
In the American imagination, China is on course to overtake America as an economic superpower. Commentators and average Joes alike are mesmerized by China’s manufacturing prowess and the swift ascent of Alibaba. On the nativist right, the rise of China is so intimidating that many propose industrial policy as a tool to enhance domestic
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN for short, does not seem to usually draw much attention in modern global media. This is despite the ASEAN having a total population bigger than that of the United States or even the entire European Union , and that the resources of its ten members combined make it one of the largest economies
The implementation of voter ID laws to prevent fraud has led some to argue that voting rights are under assault by the state. But this mistaken assumption is predicated on a false premise, because voting is not a right. Rights exist independent of the political regime, so even though communist states abrogate human rights, this does not alter the
The benefits of privatization are well documented by empirical studies , so they will not be rehashed in this piece. Yet many still assume that some commodities are beyond privatization. Too often proponents of privatization fail to appreciate that humans are sentimental characters, and as a result, they are unwilling to commodify resources deemed
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.