Prosperous, dynamic Malaysia is a country populated mostly by Muslims, a religion adhered to by a quarter of the world’s population but which is widely seen in the West as wedded to an impoverishing system of economics and law. Thus does Malaysia defy the stereotype, and underscore the universal effectiveness of market economies. It is now the
A growing recognition of the superiority of markets over planning has created an unviable hybrid: the planned market, one created not by property owners but rather by the state and for the state. Planned markets bear a close enough resemblance to the real thing to fool even astute observers who are otherwise friends of genuine market forces. And
Every once in a while, the truth somehow leaks out in Washington. For example, earlier this year Bush administration economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey got the boot. His political crime: He dared to suggest that the occupation of Iraq will cost upwards of $100 billion. In retrospect, it now seems his estimate was, if anything, on the conservative
An assumption that dominates American historical studies is that the wealth and prosperity of the country would be much less without the existence of a powerful central government. This theme is but part of a larger, and now international, orthodoxy that larger political jurisdictions, as long as they are “democratic,” foster liberty and economic
The Old Republican leader John Randolph, the aristocratic liberal from Virginia, once famously remarked that the framers intended ours to be “a hard-money government.” Is it true? Contrary to the efforts of academics and judges to obscure this issue, the framers’ intentions in regard to money and banking were quite plain and are easily
On Tuesday, December 17, 2002, Arenac Township and Omer City, Michigan held a joint referendum brought about by the actions of one woman, Cheryl Perry. The Perrys simply no longer wished to be looted by the Omer municipal government, even if it was only $41.62 a year. Omer bills itself as the Onion Capital of the World, although no one seems to
The War Over Iraq: Saddam’s Tyranny and America’s Mission by Lawrence F. Kaplan and William Kristol (Encounter Books, 2003, x + 153 pgs.) This book frightens me. The authors do not confine themselves to a justification of the American invasion of Iraq, which began shortly after their book was published. They offer a plan by which this war is but
This review of Epistemological Problems of Economics by Ludwig von Mises (Third Edition; translated by George Reisman. Introduction by Jörg Guido Hülsmann. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2003. Lxxxi + 257 pgs.) appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of The Mises Review ] As every reader of Human Action knows, Ludwig von Mises devoted much attention to
Aside from Noam Chomsky’s work as a linguist, he is a great critic of US foreign policy, the corporate state, and the media establishment. There is much to criticize in these spheres and Chomsky does so prolifically. He is so prolific a critic that we are inevitably drawn to the question, “What is Noam Chomsky for ?” It is difficult to discern
Polls suggest that only 45 percent of the public backs the tax bill signed by President Bush, which means that a majority are against it, indifferent, or confused. Now, we can dismiss the idea that people don’t want tax cuts. After all, if people wanted to pay taxes, we could just make them voluntary and be done with it. They are called taxes
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.