It is certainly true that our age is full of conflicts which generate war. However, these conflicts do not spring from the operation of the unhampered market society. It is not capitalism that produces them but anticapitalistic policies, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). T his audio Mises Daily...
Audio Mises Daily
Audio recordings of Mises Daily articles.
In our times, a major reason, and perhaps the major reason, for the phenomenal progress of the ideas of liberty is the work of the Mises Institute. This is the infrastructure that gives rise to and supports all the rest. We need your help, writes Doug French. This audio Mises Daily is narrated by...
Prohibition and the New Deal are alike in their professed intention. Both assumed the guise of disinterested benevolence towards the body politic. We are judged incapable of setting up an adequate social defense against vicious rum-sellers and malefactors of great wealth, writes Albert Jay Nock...
The envy-driven masses do not care a whit for what the demagogues call the “bourgeois” concern for freedom of conscience, of thought, of the press, for habeas corpus, trial by jury, and all the rest. They long for the earthly paradise that the socialist leaders promise them, writes Ludwig von Mises...
The first self-conscious school of economic thought developed in France shortly after the publication of Cantillon’s Essai. They called themselves “the economists” but later came to be called the “physiocrats,” after their prime politico-economical principle: physiocracy (the rule of nature), writes...
The honor of being called the “father of modern economics” belongs not to its usual recipient, Adam Smith, but to a gallicized Irish merchant, banker, and adventurer who wrote the first treatise on economics more than four decades before the publication of the Wealth of Nations, writes Murray N...
Julian Assange, through WikiLeaks, has made available to society a vast collection of information that undermines the state’s legitimacy. Assange cracked the government’s veil of benignity and brought into question the state’s tactics. His website undermines its moral authority, writes Jonathan M...
Private ownership of the means of production is the fundamental institution of the market economy. It is the institution the presence of which characterizes the market economy as such. Where it is absent, there is no question of a market economy, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). This audio Mises...
Charles, the third Viscount Townshend (1700–1764), has been shamefully neglected by virtually all historians of economic thought. He is virtually unknown and is often confused with his son of the same name, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995). This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach...
The environment determines the situation but not the response. To the same situation different modes of reacting are thinkable and feasible. Which one the actors choose depends on their individuality, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). This audio Mises Daily, excerpted from the audiobook version...
Like today’s central bankers, John Law proposed to “supply the nation” with a sufficiency of money. The increased money was supposed to vivify trade and increase employment and production — the “employment” motif providing a nice proto-Keynesian touch, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995). This...
A man who is obliged to justify his handling of a matter in the eyes of other people often resorts to a pretext. As the motive of his deviation from the most suitable way of procedure he ascribes another reason than that which actually prompted him, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). This audio...
Plans are already in the works to put the initiative back on the ballot for 2012, which is expected to have higher turnout from young people. But in order for the ballot initiative to succeed, we must first understand why it failed, writes Mark Thornton. This audio Mises Daily is narrated by the...
Weighing in on the side of John Locke, not only on interest rates but also in a general and comprehensive vision of economic laissez-faire that even surpassed Locke, were two brothers, Dudley and Roger North, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995). This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff...
It is a hopeless task to interpret a symphony, a painting, or a novel. The interpreter at best tries to tell us something about his reaction to the work. He cannot tell us with certainty what the creator’s meaning was or what other people may see in it, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). This...
If it were not for the police, lawlessness and chaos would rule; therefore, we owe our safety, our civilization, our very lives to the selflessness and dedication of the police; thus, police are our “heroes.” So we were told, and so we believed, writes Stephen Mauzy. T his audio Mises Daily is...
John Locke, the Protestant Scholastic, was essentially in the hard-money, metallist, anti-inflationist tradition of the Scholastics; his opponents, on the other hand, helped set the tone for the inflationist schemers and projectors of the next century, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995). This...
The collectivist doctrines look upon the individual merely as a refractory rebel. This sinful wretch has the impudence to give preference to his petty selfish interests as against the sublime interests of the great god society, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). This audio Mises Daily, excerpted...
One of Josiah Child’s main deviations from free-market and laissez-faire doctrine was to agitate for one of the favorite programs of the mercantilists — to push the legal maximum rate of interest ever lower. Formerly discredited “usury laws” were making a comeback on faulty economic rather than...
What if a president took a different direction and sought popularity by expanding rather than reducing liberty? There is a model here they could follow, but it is not one you have thought of. It is Franklin D. Roosevelt, writes Mark Thornton. This audio Mises Daily is narrated by the author.
