Spoken Mises

Here we have Keynes, then: the twentieth century's most famous "economist." Out of false theories of employment, money, and interest, he has distilled a fantastically wrong theory of capitalism and of a socialist paradise erected out of paper money. Moreover, Keynes has offered no theory of stagnation at all (and with this, of course, no theory of how to get out of stagnation either). He has merely given a perfectly normal phenomenon, such as falling prices (caused by an increased demand for money or by an expanding productive economy), a bad name in calling it "stagnation," or "depression," or the result of a lack of effective demand, so as to find another excuse for his own inflationary schemes.

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The Misesian Case against Keynes (16.00 MB)

Few aspects of libertarian political theory are in a less satisfactory state than the theory of punishment, writes Murray Rothbard. Usually, libertarians have been content to assert or develop the axiom that no one may aggress against the person or property of another; what sanctions may be taken against such an invader has been scarcely treated at all. We have advanced the view that the criminal loses his rights to the extent that he deprives another of his rights: the theory of "proportionality." We must now elaborate further on what such a theory of proportional punishment may imply.

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Punishment and Proportionality (6.58 MB)

The Islamic Republic of Iran, writes Clifford Thies, has just issued a new 50,000 rial banknote. The denomination of the note is much larger than that of the highest banknote previously in circulation — 20,000 rials; which 20,000 rial note was only issued three years ago. In both cases, the notes were issued because rampant inflation was making the currency of the country awkward for use as a medium of exchange. Written on the new Iranian banknote, in Arabic, is a quotation of the prophet Mohammed, that the scientists of Persia would reach to the heavens for knowledge. If the government of Iran were scientific, it would heed the science of economics and desist from inflation before it totally ruins its own country.

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Radioactive Money (1.33 MB)

According to Say, all productive enterprises are created by individuals in society, not by the state. It is the responsibility of productive enterprise to support the continuity of families, the components of society. Likewise, if there are government officials in the society, they exist at the people's expense. Only those who refuse to acknowledge this reality can still represent the state under the emblem of the family and public authority as an image of paternal power. Furthermore, Say attacks the role of the government in commerce. He denounces those who pretend that government would have a favorable influence by asking what could be more favorable than a man's privacy as well as his liberty.

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Was Jean-Baptiste Say a Market Anarchist? (1.92 MB)

Can the Phillips Curve be revived? Some mainstream economists are doing their best, writes Frank Shostak. They discuss price changes without acknowledging any role that money might have had in these changes. The entire framework is based on dubious black-box, time-series analysis. While the research paper mentions extensively the word "inflation," it never even attempts to define this term. Covering undefined terms with mathematical dressing cannot make the analysis more meaningful if the object of the analysis is not clearly identified.

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Money and Inflation: The Tendency to Deny Reality (2.36 MB)

Robert Murphy is concerned that many bona fide Rothbardians are so disgusted with fiat money and fractional reserve banking systems that they endorse criticisms of these institutions even when they are based on faulty economics. In particular, much of the handwringing over the large current account deficits in recent years would, if valid, be just as applicable to deficits arising in a purely free market.

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Trade Deficits and Collectivism (1.82 MB)

What is that medium, asked F.A. Hayek, through which the substance — commonly called capital in the abstract — can be said to be transformed from one concrete form into another? Is there such a thing, as is implied in the habitual use of terms by economists? Or is it not conceivable that the thing which they all have in mind is that condition affecting the possibilities of production which cannot be expressed in terms of a substantive quantity? To assume that under changing conditions capital will be maintained constant in any quantitative sense is to assume something which will never happen, and any deductions derived from this assumption will therefore have no application to anything in the real world.

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The Mythology of Capital (12.99 MB)

All around us, every day, people consume far more than they need to survive, therefore saving far less than they could. Yet, writes Gene Callahan, we all know that saving is the road to wealth. Why don't top Wall Street traders live in tiny shacks, eat canned beans, and ride old bicycles to the train station? Why do movie stars go on mad shopping sprees and stay at fabulous vacation resorts? Shouldn't they live as paupers in order to save every penny they can? Humans can only consume in the present. It is our present dissatisfactions that call out for relief.

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As Time Goes By: The Factor of Time in Human Action (3.57 MB)

Many people cannot imagine old-age security without the state, says Oskari Juurikkala. This is particularly the case in continental Europe, where few people have private pension plans. But of course there can be food, houses, cars, and even music and literature without the state. There will be all of these in much greater abundance, when people are left free to pursue their own ends and satisfy their needs through individual responsibility, joint effort in local communities, and mutually beneficial exchanges in the marketplace. The same holds true for old-age security.

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Old-age Security Without the State (3.12 MB)

Henry Hazlitt was uniquely qualified to write the first and only novel in which the problem of economic calculation provides the central plot theme. He was literary editor of the Nation from 1930 to 1933 and a highly regarded critic. He also understood Mises's argument against socialism and how it went to the very core of the economic problem. Time Will Run Back — which has been out of print for a very long time but which is now available both online (in PDF) and from our new print-on-demand store — is unique in other respects.

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Time Will Run Back (4.46 MB)