Jean-Baptiste is certainly best known for his famous Law of Markets ( la loi des débouchés ) also referred to as Say’s Law. Though Say’s Law is one of the key points of the classical school of economics, the manner in which this obvious proposition has been distorted and misinterpreted in a significant number of economic textbooks as well as in
Gold-price history charts denominated in US dollars show a flat line at $35 that runs through most of the 20th century. Thirty-five dollars was, after all, the official gold price as set by the United States Treasury from 1934 on. Prior to 1934, the gold price had been fixed at $20.67 for almost a century, before President Franklin Roosevelt
While the current financial crisis has received much attention, another crisis has led to calls for government intervention. The Maryland blue crab population has dropped sharply in recent years. The annual catch is now thirty percent of its previous level of 140 million crabs. Some people blame pollution, overharvesting, and development of
In the eyes of governments, the private sector is a big buffet table. The enticing cuisine is just sitting there, waiting to be dished out to satisfy the appetites of the rent seekers who reinforce government power. This is not merely a consequence of the statist inclinations of the ministers and bureaucrats in power at any given time. In fact,
On February 7, 2009, and in the week that followed, bushfires ignited across Victoria, in Australia. [1] The fires raged through many towns, destroying at least 1,834 homes, [2] and killing at least 209 people, [3] more fatalities than any bushfire in Australian history. [4] Let’s compare: in the 1983 “Ash Wednesday” bushfires, seventy-five
It is well known that the libertarian political philosophy is antagonistic to coercively imposed rules that limit people’s freedom to use their private property as they see fit. Indeed, the very essence of libertarianism is the nonaggression principle that condemns the initiation of force against person or property. As a result, libertarians have
The April 20 explosion and subsequent round-the-clock oil spill from a BP-operated deepwater drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles off the Louisiana coast has generated justifiable anger across the nation. It’s also generated calls for strict sanctions against BP, the most drastic of which is confiscation of all company assets. The front
There is a slogan: “Everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.” It is especially true because so much of our transportation infrastructure is publicly owned. Every winter of bad weather brings us the same scenes of bleak road and highway conditions. Spinning tires, “beached” cars the shoulder of the road, cars stuck in the
In the first line of his book, Planning for Freedom , Ludwig von Mises, the famed Austrian economist, observed “Planning is socialism.” I will admit that my first acquaintance with government planners was a planning class in my Master’s program, where I was given the party line about how important it was to plan for growth. I read dozens of books,
Frédéric Bastiat is considered by many to be one of the greatest economic journalists of all time. [1] However, it has been argued that he also made far more important contributions to the science of economics than most economists realize. Various current issues could benefit greatly from many of the ideas put forth in his writings. One such issue
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.