Over the years George Selgin has dished out quite a bit of abuse in various and sundry blog posts to Murray Rothbard and those who hold that fractional reserve banking is inherently unstable and cycle-generating. I must concede Selgin is enormously entertaining in his balls-out, over-the-top ferocity in defense of something that he lately has been
So Senator Harry Reid, D-Nevada, thinks that the privately-funded United States Olympic Committee “should be ashamed” for providing its teams with uniforms made in China and that the uniforms should be “burned.” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Steve Israel, both Democrats from New York, quickly weighed in on the controversy with a
Robert Frank is a Cornell University economist who has written a series of books and articles kvetching about the enormous social damage allegedly wrought by competition in American life. One of Frank’s more remarkable arguments is that “expenditure cascades” initiated by the rich have “caused undue harm to others.” An example of such harm occurs
Yesterday morning my wife and I were planning to celebrate our wedding anniversary with dinner at an upscale restaurant. We had been to the restaurant in the past and were impressed by its atmosphere and the quality of its meal ingredients, preparation, and service. We also checked the menu online and decided our likely menu choices greatly
According to Bloomberg’s survey of economists, 58 percent believe that the FOMC will announce an extension of Operation Twist at the end of its meeting at 12:30 pm today. The majority expect the Fed to extend the maturity of its securities portfolio by substituting the purchase of long-term securities, possibly even more mortgage-backed
“While Rothbard was still busy writing and polishing the manuscript of his magnum opus, Hans Sennholz was already a quality product of Mises’s NYU seminar....And in distinct contrast to Rothbard, who spent nights working or discussing with friends, slept through much of the day, missed deadline after deadline, and tended to be messy and
Despite hysterical warnings about the grave evils of deflation from central bankers, mainstream economists, and financial pundits, we are reminded on a daily basis of the Austrian insight that falling prices are a boon to consumers and a manifestation of growing economic prosperity. Indeed, as I have argued elsewhere , a secular decline in overall
Under cover of its multiplicity of fabricated wars on drugs, terror, tax evasion, and organized crime, the US government has long been waging a hidden war on cash. One symptom of the war is that the largest denomination of US currency is the $100 note, whose ever-eroding purchasing power is far below the purchasing power of the €500 note. US
Robert Frank is a Cornell University economist who has written a series of books and articles kvetching about the enormous social damage allegedly wrought by competition in American life. One of Frank’s more remarkable arguments is that “expenditure cascades” initiated by the rich have “caused undue harm to others.” An example of such harm occurs
I highly recommend Robert Murphy’s insightful evaluation of Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State ( MES ) on the 50th anniversary of its publication. Murphy is one of the few commentators to recognize that one of Rothbard’s central contributions in MES was the complete reconstruction of neoclassical production theory. Indeed 5 of the 12
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.