Renowned Keynesian polymath, Woody Brock, in a presentation given at the ADC Forum in 2012, advocated for government investment in profitable private sector infrastructure projects in order to generate income with which to combat rising deficits. Basing his arguments on Arrow and Kurz’s Public Investment, the Rate of Return, and Optimal Fiscal Policy (1970), he argued the following:We need a new investment bank with investors from around the world, with analysts paid two to three million a year to keep them non-corrupt, who do nothing but evaluate different [infrastructure projects].… These objective people using the Arrow-Kurz calculus will compute that [the rate of return on project A] is -4[ percent]. It will be posted worldwide. [Project B] has a rate of return of 16%. [It] will get

The decayed and degraded state of German infrastructure has prompted Eric Gujer to publish an opinion piece in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) in which he advocates for a compromise between conservatives (increase the debt limit and thereby free up funds for renovations), progressives (reform social spending), and the government (reduce subsidies). Should Germany fail to manifest the collective willpower necessary to bring about such a political compromise, then, he fears, there will be no end to the disrepair into which it is falling.While Mr. Gujer is correct in seeing this problem as a failure of politics, he is mistaken in thinking that its solution can be of a political nature. Rather, the surest, quickest, and cheapest way to renovate the nation’s failing infrastructure is by

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.

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.

Richard Duncan recently appeared on the podcast Wealth Formula to discuss the Austrian school of economics. Despite being only 42 minutes long, the episode is packed full of errors and fallacies. What makes the discussion relevant for Austro-libertarians is not that these two non-Austrians know nothing about Austrian economics, but that their uninformed critiques are characteristic of the kind of simplistic descriptions of Austrian thought that we can expect to encounter in the future, as similarly un- and misinformed individuals on the right distance themselves from us in an attempt to attract new adherents as the Zeitgeist shifts to the right.Duncan argues along the following lines: 1) Austrians proceed from the premise that gold is money and that credit expansion thus cannot continue

On his podcast Wealth Formula, Buck Joffrey recently covered, together with his guest Richard Duncan, the Austrian School of Economics. Despite being only 42 minutes long, the episode is packed full of errors and fallacies. Superficially, there is no reason for anyone to watch the episode, let alone for someone to write a response correcting the many misconceptions therein contained. However, the episode does merit discussion by Austro-Libertarians, not because Joffrey’s opinions matter, but precisely because they do not. As Konstantin Kissin recently pointed out on his podcast Triggernometry and Joe Rogan described in his most recent interview with Bret Weinstein, the Zeitgeist is undergoing an abrupt shift to the right and consequently, what is thought and said on the Right is rapidly

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.

One of the tremendous benefits of praxeology is that it highlights not just the dynamic, purposive, and speculative nature of economics, but also the economic nature of all human action. For example, this allows us to analyze all institutions, including the state, from an economic perspective and determine whether they are value-productive or not.Economic Justification for the StateSay’s Law states that, in a laissez-faire system in which life, liberty, and property rights are protected, the only way that demand can be manifested is by contributing supplies that others want to the market. The various exchange rates (prices) are then determined by the subjective valuations and voluntary actions of individual market actors. A corollary is that the only way to increase one’s demands on

Albert J. Nock was one of Murray Rothbard’s favorite essayists, and for good reason; his erudition, clarity of thought, and wisdom make his works supremely edifying and a joy to read, and none more so than his Theory of Education in the United States (1932).Nock sets out to examine the theoretical underpinnings of the American education system, which that had undergone an ill-fated organizational “revolution” around the turn of the 20th century and, after three decades of continuous tinkering since, was universally viewed as decidedly deficient. Any construct, he reasons, builds upon theoretical considerations; if a system cannot be made to yield satisfactory results after so much “improvement,” then perhaps the underlying theory is unsound. Thus, he identifies three axiomatic principles

Albert J. Nock was one of Murray Rothbard’s favorite essayists, and for good reason; his erudition, clarity of thought, and wisdom make his works supremely edifying and a joy to read, and none more so than his Theory of Education in the United States (1932).Nock sets out to examine the theoretical underpinnings of the American education system, which that had undergone an ill-fated organizational “revolution” around the turn of the 20th century and, after three decades of continuous tinkering since, was universally viewed as decidedly deficient. Any construct, he reasons, builds upon theoretical considerations; if a system cannot be made to yield satisfactory results after so much “improvement,” then perhaps the underlying theory is unsound. Thus, he identifies three axiomatic principles

I am a great admirer of your work and thank you for the tremendous job you are doing in raising the level of public discourse and, importantly, combating the cultural Marxist nonsense emanating from academe. Your exposition of the hypertruth of ancient religious narratives has had a transformative effect on my thinking, and through it you have, in my opinion, single-handedly shifted the broad societal debate on religion from the mundane, unproductive sphere of factual historicity to its proper domain of analysis — namely, from “is it true?” to “in what ways is it true and why is that important?” Additionally, your popularization of psychological insights has rendered an inestimable service to millions by helping them improve their lives in fields as diverse as parenting, mental

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.

Terry L. Anderson and Peter J. Hill’s fascinating account traces the decline of the American constitutional framework from its origins in laissez-faire individualism to its current state of redistributive collectivism. Viewing the evolution as a series of legal developments motivated by ever greater financial incentives to involve the federal government, they highlight the following pivotal cases: (1) Marbury v. Madison (1803), which established the Supreme Court’s right to perform judicial review, striking down laws it considered unconstitutional; (2) McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), which sanctioned Congress’s founding of the Bank of the United States, deemed that states could not tax instruments of the federal government and further solidified the basis for judicial review; (3) Ogden v.

Argentinian president Javier Milei recently snubbed the Spanish political class by visiting Spain and refusing to meet with any government officials, attending a rally of the opposition party Vox, and insinuating that the socialist Spanish president’s wife—currently at the heart of an anticorruption case—was corrupt. In retaliation, the Spanish president recalled his country’s ambassador from Buenos Aires.Now none of this will interest those who have realized the parasitic nature of government and the vapid nature of political theater, but it does touch upon an issue important to many social conservatives, namely culture, traditions, and behavioral norms. To whatever degree we may have dispelled the notion from our thinking that the head of state somehow represents or acts on behalf of

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.

Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Renato Moicano’s recent statement that patriots should read Ludwig von Mises has led the Institute of Economic Affairs to upload a nine-minute video addressing the most googled questions about Mises. It is largely accurate and does justice to some of Mises’s major contributions, and for these reasons it is to be lauded; however, the presenter, Kristian Niemitz, notes that Mises’s intransigence led to his getting “a few things wrong,” including his belief that “there could be no such thing as a mixed economy in the long term.” In contradiction of Mises’s position, he argues, “Virtually all the world’s economies are mixed economies of one kind or another.”The position under attack is Mises’s famous 1950 article, “The Middle of the Road Leads to

A position that has gained popularity on the Left in recent decades is a push to redefine racism to prevent the term from encompassing racism against whites. According to this position, “racism equals power plus prejudice.” And while whites can experience racial prejudice, there exists a prowhite and anti-non-white bias in western institutions, which is what is meant by the term “power.” Accordingly, it is argued that the term “racism” should be reserved for instances of racial prejudice against a nondominant racial group, which assumes an added dimension of institutional reinforcement not present in “mere” antiwhite prejudice.Now aside from the blatant attempt to push a particular narrative in the “culture war,” this redefinition implies the organicist assumption that racial groups behave