Richard M. Ebeling
September 06, 2014

We live at a time when politicians and bureaucrats only know one public policy: more and bigger government. Yet, there was a time when even those who served in government defended limited and smaller government. One of the greatest of these died one hundred years ago on August 27, 1914, the Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk.

Joseph T. Salerno

August 29, 2014

According to mainstream economics textbooks, one of the primary functions of money is to measure the value of goods and services exchanged on the market. A typical statement of this view is given by Frederic Mishkin in his textbook on money and banking. "[M]oney ... is used to measure value in the economy," he claims. "We measure the value of goods and services in terms of money, just as we measure weight in terms of pounds and distance in terms of miles."

Patrick Barron

August 21, 2014
The following are six of the most prevalent economic myths that appear time and again in the mainstream media. I will give a brief description of each and a brief description of the economic reality, as seen from an Austrian perspective.

Nicolás Cachanosky
August 22, 2014

Argentina's economic minister, Axel Kicillof, has become famous for his assertion that it is possible to centrally manage the economy now because we have spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. This assertion comes from the mistaken view that the cost of production determines final prices, and it reveals a profound misunderstanding of the market process. This issue, however, is not new. The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the debate over economic calculation under socialism. Apparently, Argentine officials have much to learn from this old debate. The problem is not whether or not we have powerful spreadsheets at our disposal; the problem is the impossibility of successfully creating a centrally-planned market.

In June, the European Central Bank (ECB) made a historic and downright diabolical announcement. They decided to inaugurate negative interest rates for overnight deposits.

Julian Adorney
August 08, 2014
To defenders of the state, "anarchy" is a scary concept. They claim that we need government intervention to protect us or all hell will break loose.
But in fact we live anarchy every day, in one of the most crucial aspects of our lives: dating. Every day people meet, date, have one-night stands, fall in love, and break up; all without government intervention.

Peter G. Klein and Nicolai J. Foss
July 19, 2014

Mises Institute Senior Fellow Peter Klein and Associated Scholar Nicolai Foss were interviewed by Ángel Martín Oro for Sintetia.com. Klein and Foss discuss their 2012 book Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment: A New Approach to the Firm, published by Cambridge University Press.

Andrew B. Wilson
July 11, 2014

Ludwig von Mises, a mentor to Friedrich Hayek and a major figure in economics in his own right, set out his views on capitalism and inequality in a slender book (just 113 pages) called The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality. First published in 1954, and readily available online for less than $10, it is well worth reading today.

Jörg Guido Hülsmann

May 31, 2014
[A selection from Deflation and Liberty.]

The production of money in a free society is a matter of free association. Everybody from the miners to the owners of the mines, to the minters, and up to the customers who buy the minted coins — all benefit from the production of money. None of them violates the property rights of anybody else, because everybody is free to enter the mining and minting business, and nobody is obliged to buy the product.

Predrag Rajsic
May 22, 2014

Canada, a federal state consisting of 13 federal units — ten provinces and three territories — has a relatively long history of agricultural policy. While sometimes similar to American agricultural policies, there are key differences with Canadian agriculture that may help illustrate the economic costs of intervention in differing economies.