[ An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (1995)] James Mill (1771–1836) was surely one of the most fascinating figures in the history of economic thought. And yet he is among the most neglected. Mill was perhaps one of the first persons in modern times who might be considered a true “cadre man,” someone who in the Leninist
[From Conceived in Liberty , volume 3, part 69, “The Shot Heard Round the World: The Final Conflict Begins.”] Despite the mounting tension in the South, the main focus of potential revolutionary conflict was still Massachusetts. The British authorities, ever more attracted to a hard line, were becoming increasingly disenchanted with the
[From Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Nature and Other Essays ] Until very recently, free-market economists paid little attention to the entities actually being exchanged on the very market they have advocated so strongly. Wrapped up in the workings and advantages of freedom of trade, enterprise, investment, and the price system, economists
[Excerpted from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought , vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith (1995).] One problem that any laissez-faire liberal thinker must face is: Granted that government interference should be minimal, what form should that government take? Who shall govern? To French liberals of the later 17th or
[From The Essential von Mises ] Included in The Theory of Money and Credit were at least the rudiments of another magnificent accomplishment of Ludwig von Mises: the long-sought explanation for that mysterious and troubling economic phenomenon—the business cycle. Ever since the development of industry and the advanced market economy in the late
Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. [This article first appeared in the L ibertarian Forum , January 1, 1970.] Now that the New Left has abandoned its earlier loose, flexible non-ideological stance, two ideologies have been adopted as guiding theoretical positions by New Leftists: Marxism-Stalinism, and anarcho-communism.
Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. The Great Society is the lineal descendant and the intensification of those other pretentiously named policies of twentieth-century America: the Square Deal, the New Freedom, the New Era, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and the New Frontier. All of these assorted Deals constituted a basic
[From Chapter 8 of Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State .] We shall concentrate on the capitalist-entrepreneurs , economically the more important type of entrepreneur. These are the men who invest in “capital” (land and/or capital goods) used in the productive process. The capitalist-entrepreneur buys factors or factor services in the present; his
[This lively essay appeared in James H. Weaver, ed., Modern Political Economy (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1973), pp. 419–30, as chapter 28; it followed an essay by Professor Robert T. Averitt, to which Rothbard refers once or twice in his piece.] In order to discuss the “future of capitalism,” we must first decide what the meaning of the term
In the vast stretches of America, William Penn envisaged a truly Quaker colony, “a Holy experimentthat an example may be set up to the nations.” In his quest for such a charter, Penn was aided by the fact that the Crown had owed his father, Admiral Sir William Penn, the huge sum of 16,000 pounds for loans and back salary. In March 1681 the king
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.