Back in December 2006, the US Mint, in yet another power grab over economic life, made it illegal to melt pennies and nickels in addition to exporting large quantities of either. Though the Mint admitted there was no evidence coin melting was occurring, this was the government’s attempt at being proactive to prevent the destruction of its legally
[This article first appeared in American Mercury (November 1937).] I used to be a timid, thin man. I never got on very well in the city. When I was talking to people, they tended to drift away, or they turned to someone else and said: “Having nice weather, aren’t we?” I didn’t see in my job any of the heroic aspects my superiors were always
Egypt’s dictator, Hosni Mubarak, objected to the demand that he step down, on the grounds that this would lead to utter chaos in Egypt. Many commentators implicitly agreed with him, warning that anarchy could result unless there were some organized transition to a new government, a new source of law. The assumption that the state is the only
“I want the freedom to be responsible for my own actions.” [ Dear America (1975)] At two of the first seminars I ever attended at the Institute for Policy Studies, I heard two points made that I have never forgotten and that stand for me as actual beacons in finding my way through complicated matters to simple truths. At one, Milton Kotler
“This ‘trifling’ issue of capital suitability that so annoys the Keynesians is the very basis of market success or failure.” Business capital is the ticket to riches. True enough. After all, business capital conveys inputs from lower to higher value to eventually satisfy consumer demand. The more capital you own, the more demand you satisfy, the
“It is difficult to know just how much greater our sphere of medical knowledge would be if we lived in a freer society” In its April 2011 issue , Inc. (a publication dedicated to small-business entrepreneurs) ran an extraordinary article on Raymond Damadian , inventor of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Damadian and his team of research
The 2011 Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture, given on March 10 at the Austrian Scholar’s Conference. Watch it online . It’s the most privileged honor to be here at the Austrian Scholar’s Conference and deliver the Mises lecture. It’s carnival in Brazil this week, but to me the real feast is happening right here! Professor Salerno wanted me to speak
The story goes like this. A Democratic administration with lefty ideas gets elected, pushes hard for a series of goofy reforms like protosocialized medicine, which prompts a backlash and thereby a rethinking among the rulers, who then tack to the right and become “centrist” by praising the great contribution that the business sector makes to
I’m the guy who just last week managed to find a plumber who would increase the water pressure in my entire house, defying government controls and thereby causing all appliances to work better. It’s not surprising that this was necessary. Government regulations have made a mess of our daily lives. Whether it is banning effective products or
Every once in a while, we gain a glimpse of how things might work in a fully privatized society. When it occurs, like a flash of light in the darkness, we should take notice, try to understand its source, and seek ways to make the flash the norm to light up the world. And so it happened with my yard this week. Yes, I’m part of the whole American
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.