For those of us who see television news and commentary as a vast, statist wasteland, the work of John Stossel has been welcome relief. Each week on the ABC show 20/20, Stossel has his “Give Me a Break” segment in which he comments acerbically on the latest follies of government regulation and taxation. Stossel’s brief commentary, along with the
In recent days, political polls have seen Al Gore shoot past George Bush, especially in polls of potential women voters. Gore, according to those interviewed, has the “better ideas,” while Bush seems to be mired in a real slump. Perhaps we should be surprised at such numbers. Gore, after all, has given us proposal after proposal to increase the
Education vouchers have become one of the hot points of the current political campaign, and supposedly they pit the liberal Democrats against the Republican conservatives. Liberals argue that vouchers will harm public education, while conservatives believe that a voucher program is a key to improving education opportunities to children from
A mathematician and an economist were asked, “What is the sum of two plus two?” The mathematician immediately answered, “It is four.” The economist, on the other hand, closed all windows and doors and asked quietly, “What do you want it to be?” Just when we think this story is simply another silly economist joke, reality sets in. The latest
As the curtain has fallen upon the last of the Presidential “debates” and this current political campaign comes to an end in less than three weeks, it is time to take stock not of the candidates but rather of some of the myths surrounding them. The one I wish to tackle in this article is the myth that politicians are our “elected leaders.” Nothing
As the political season stumbles to a close, we need to remember that the historical relationship between economic policy, economic performance, and political rhetoric can be wildly unpredictable. For example, all these years later, it is worth reconsidering the presidency of Jimmy Carter, from 1977 to 1981. Many of the reforms that took place
Mt. Rushmore is famous because 60 years ago, someone carved the faces of four dead presidents into its lofty Harney Peak granite cliffs. The mountain itself is located in the Black Hills, a somewhat obscure mountain range in western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming that resembles the Southern Appalachians, which are located a couple of miles from
Hal Varian, whose mathematical textbook has been the bane of economics graduate students for many years, has now weighed in on a solution to our oil problems: increase the federal tax on gasoline. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Varian says that a stiff, new tax on gas will discourage motorists from driving, which would mean we would use less
As has recently been discussed among Austrian economists and fellow travelers, Europeans seem to be enamored with American socialists – and vice versa. There is something different about a romanticist, especially one who chooses to ignore the dirty, brutal history of socialism in this past century in his longing for a new, bright, golden age that
Mention immigration to Austrian economists and other free-market economists and you will hear a cacophony of opinions that range from “completely open the borders” to “completely close the borders.” It is hard to imagine a more divisive subject among those with libertarian philosophical and economic bents, and it plays out in the political arena
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.