Capitalism

For a long while it has been clear that statists, right, left, and center, have been growing more and more alike — that their common devotion to the State has transcended their minor differences in style.

Language policy is a perfect example of the socialist-calculation problem. Governments necessarily adopt nonoptimal language policies. They are incentivized to violate the rights of minority-language speakers and support fewer languages rather than more.

The author of The Case for Legalizing Capitalism describes the topic of poverty as a key battleground in the war of socialism versus capitalism. He examines how much poverty exists in the United States, and how we can truly eliminate it.

Libertarianism does not claim to encompass the whole of morality. Quite the contrary, it asks only, when is force or the threat of force permissible? The answer to this question delimits a sphere of rights, but not everything that is within one's rights counts as morally acceptable.

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk was Mises's great teacher. Here is a very early statement (1891) on the cost controversy, published in English. It demonstrates why Böhm-Bawerk remains a standard-bearer of the Austrian tradition.

Once the monetary interventions start, they can't be stopped. The economy requires ever more of the same to fix the problems created by the first round. This is the ratchet effect that Robert Higgs applies to statist policies in general.

By eliminating the analytical straightjacket imposed by neoclassical economics, economists could have a lot more to offer about how to improve the world. They would start thinking about changing preferences, not just incentives.

The Austrian theory of the trade cycle explains why the Fed's below-market interest rates invariably lead to a correction known as the bust. The theory is not new. Why has it been so out of favor with most economists?

If the learner made an error, the teacher would administer an electric shock to the learner by remote control, pressing a button on a control console. Each electric shock administered would be stronger than the one before.

Regarding the media frenzy about the "Ground-Zero Mosque," Ryan Long asks: if the land surrounding the World Trade Center is so sacrosanct for some Americans, why haven't they purchased it themselves?

Rothbard shows that Gresham's law was introduced not by Sir Thomas Gresham but by the "arrogant, boorish, and feisty" Sir Thomas Smith the Elder (1513–1577), a bitter critic of debasement who was exiled from the court in 1549. He fought back with a book.

What happens to the price of hotels in Rome when the Pope dies? The market experiences shock that, in macroeconomic terms, would seem to destabilize the system. Still, with careful planning, the market manages just fine.

The stock market does not work the way most people think, writes Kel Kelly. One commonly held belief is that a stock-market boom is the reflection of a progressing economy. Not so: it mostly reflects money creation.

Lew Rockwell explains that government-planned prosperity was only a dream. Massive unemployment and failing industries are the reality. Stimulus is just hitting the snooze button.

It seems now that almost everyone, from journalists to academics to clergy, relies unthinkingly on Marxian doctrines. Their deterministic ideas seem impervious to any argument. Of course, they've never read Ludwig von Mises.

Newsweek recently proclaimed Finland the "best country in the world." But Kaj Grüssner brings us first-hand experience with his homeland's onerous taxes, skyrocketing national debt, and byzantine healthcare system.

The US money supply can be increased at the whim of Federal Reserve officials, writes C.J. Maloney, with no compensation at all given to those whose current holdings will be debased by the newly created money.

Sterling Terrell discusses a new video that condemns the existence of markets that produce. The narrator doesn't put it that way, but this is the upshot of a screed that fails to understand the benefits of either trade or production.

From the Great Depression to the War on Terror, the state has manipulated its subjects by telling tales of monsters in the dark. Jonathan Catalan turns on the lights and points to where the real danger lies.