The primary social evil of our time is lack of respect for self-ownership rights. It is what underlies both private crime and institutionalized crime perpetrated by the state. State laws, regulations, and actions are objectionable just because the state is claiming the right to control how someone’s body is to be used. When the state drafts a man
The uproar over Dubai Ports World’s planned purchase of franchises at several American port facilities continues. Being owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is enough to make the company a subject of demagoguery in Washington, DC. The nation’s capital is a place where people seem unable to comprehend the profit motive. And Dubai Ports could not
Is it possible that private companies can secure their own property? We secure homes and cars with private locks and private services, and the innovations here arrive in proportion to the threat to person and property. But what about whole companies? Disney World, with its 38.6 square miles of private property, provides security for its millions
We Americans are far too generous with Uncle Sam. Why do we yield to his pleas for funds so readily? He’s the spendthrift uncle who’s flat broke, but still likes to dress well and drive a Mercedes to his bankruptcy hearing. So, he drops by at suppertime, has a free meal, and hits you up for a hundred or so. Historically, we’ve been a soft touch
Suppose there existed a world democracy with one vote for each person in the population. Is it not obvious, as Hans-Hermann Hoppe points out, that the world would adopt a flagrantly favorable policy towards China and India at everyone else’s expense? On the other hand, suppose two robbers break into a house and start ransacking the place. When the
Experience has taught us that if too much money is chasing too few goods, inflation will be the inevitable result. And as inflation has proven itself to be a costly evil – damaging investment, production and employment –, great efforts have been taken to design a government controlled money system which shall preserve the value of the currency.
Investors in the international bond markets appear to be extremely confident about the outlook for inflation, expecting the loss of purchasing power of money to be low in the coming years. In fact, investors seem to view central banks’ promises to deliver low inflation as extremely credible, as indicated by inflation-linked bond prices. In view of
In virtually all major economies business sentiment indicators are promising additional production and employment gains. Most prominently, international stock market valuations, fueled by brightening expectations of future profitability gains, are regaining lost ground, swiftly moving back towards levels seen before the sharp price correction
What would the world economy and financial markets look like had government controlled central banks not followed a course of relentless increases in credit and fiat money supply? Any attempted answer to this question is sure to trigger a heated debate. In any case, however, answers would clearly depend on the alternative monetary systems that had
Today’s mainstream economics maintains that inflation — defined as an ongoing rise of the economy’s price level over time — is “a prerequisite for a growing and thriving world.” [1] A great number of arguments in support of the “inflationist view” have been put forward. For instance, inflation would be needed to allow real wages and employment
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.