When I was an economics undergraduate back in the 1990s, central bankers at the Federal Reserve were more or less above criticism. Those were the days when Alan Greenspan was acclaimed as “the maestro” and it was simply assumed central bankers could skillfully plan the economy to ensure growing prosperity forever. This isn’t an exaggeration. In
The international system we live in today is a system composed of numerous states. There are, in fact, about two hundred of them, most of which exercise a substantial amount of autonomy and sovereignty. They are functionally independent states. Moreover, the number of sovereign states in the world has nearly tripled since 1945. Because of this,
In the seventeenth century, the capitalist bourgeois classes were becoming an increasingly important part of the European economy. The rising middle class was becoming too wealthy, too independent, and too influential. So, governments devised a response to the capitalist class: governments would create monopoly corporations that did what the
Over the past year, countless mainstream economists have shown a tendency to become upset when anyone suggests the economy isn’t great for everyone. The drive to convince everyone that things are swell began in 2022 and has continued through the whole summer. For example, last month Tyler Cowen penned an article in Bloomberg titled “The Economy Is
The Mises Institute is different. We don’t change our positions or our ideology to match the current zeitgeist. Rather, we’re in it for the long haul. Our business is to change the minds of both scholars and the general public. Victory in the battle of ideas doesn’t begin in legislative committee rooms. It begins in classrooms and living rooms. To
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a big-budget semi-satirical take on the spy genre, featuring the film clichés audiences now associate with the James Bond and Jason Bourne franchises. These include global intrigue, amazing gadgetry, beautiful women, hand-to-hand combat, and multiple international locales. Many friends of laissez-faire, and those
We’re eight episodes into the new Netflix series Marco Polo before we see the titular character’s first serious moral crisis over matters of state. While preparing to lay siege to their enemy’s capital city, the Mongolian troops, whom Marco Polo serves, begin butchering alive captured enemy troops so their fat can be rendered into boiling oil to
Since 2008, Marvel Studios, now owned by Disney, has been cranking out at least one big-budget new movie each year, with much success. The movies of the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe — which includes the post-2007 Marvel movies about the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Avengers — have combined to gross more than 8.5
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.