Spoken Mises

The concept of the just price is the basis of a great deal of erroneous economic thought that permeates our supposedly free market, capitalistic society. Laws against usury, loan sharking, price gouging, ticket scalping, dumping, profiteering, equal pay, price discrimination, predatory pricing and lending, product bundling, and antitrust — these are all prime examples of this fallacious way of thinking. Opinions expressed on these practices, and things like pay for supermodels, executives, actors, and athletes, are likewise predicated on just price theory

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The Myth of the Just Price (12.21 MB)

John Lilburne is a name that deserves to live in the future, not only to be remembered as a champion of liberty but also as one of the very first libertarians of England and indeed the world. In his own day, he was described as a Leveller, a term he did not like. He usually preceded it with words like "falsely so called" or "commonly (though unjustly) styled" to make his point. As one historian points out, "Lilburne always coupled liberty and property. Freedom to live unrestricted entailed freedom to possess: no passionate defender of the rights of individual could argue otherwise. It was 'liberty and propriety,' not 'communitie and levelling,' for which the Levellers stood."

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John Lilburne: The First English Libertarian (14.93 MB)

In a never-before-published essay, Murray Rothbard points to a book on American history as an archetype of how not to write history. "The first test of a historical work then, and one that the author fails, is a richness of factual material. But the historian is more than a chronicler; he must also have a command of the significance of events. The historian must have a 'vision' of the meaning, of the significance, of the material he is presenting."

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How Not To Write American History (1.59 MB)

Garrett believed in liberty and self-reliance, and not as two separate things. He was not eager to justify his belief. Some things just are, and liberty and self-reliance was who Americans were. Dependence on the state was an Old World idea, like the divine right of kings. Liberty, he believed, makes the individual strong. Here is a theme of his novels, essays, and postwar books. And how fares self-reliance today? Better here than in Europe, but worse than in Asia. Self-reliance in the new America is not what it was. Garrett died a saddened man.

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Garet Garrett: Far Forward of the Trenches (5.60 MB)

It is one thing to be concerned about the possible impact of the sum of many tiny human actions on the climate of the planet on which we find ourselves, for this is entirely consistent with choosing life. It is quite another thing to presume that we are doomed unless, whatever we are doing, we stop doing it right now. As Mises wrote: "Some philosophies … look upon life as an absolute evil full of pain, suffering, and anguish, and apodictically deny that any purposeful human effort can render it tolerable."

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Climate Change and the Choice of Life (1.93 MB)

A credit crisis has been spreading through the economic system. It began with the collapse of the housing bubble, which was the result of years of Federal Reserve–sponsored credit expansion. This follows generations of almost continuous inflation and credit expansion, in which almost everyone has become accustomed to assume that asset values will always rise.The solution is a radical reform: a full-bodied precious metal monetary system and an end to the government's control over the money supply and all of the violations of individual freedom that that control represents and makes possible.

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Our Financial House of Cards (8.38 MB)

The case against capitalism is indefensible. It is smoke and mirrors. It is rooted in envy and malice. It is fueled by a stunning ignorance of sound economics, which is part and parcel of a broader rejection of reason itself. These anti-capitalists, these New Barbarians will — if they get their way — finally destroy not only capitalism, but civilization itself.

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The Anti-Capitalists: Barbarians at the Gate (7.19 MB)

In Capital and Production, Strigl seeks to come to grips with the causes and possible cures for the Great Depression that plagued the Western world in the aftermath of 1929. Although many other Austrian economists of the time were engaged in similar projects, Strigl's work stands out for its analysis of time-consuming roundabout production processes and of their relevance for the Great Depression. This is what makes the book relevant again at the beginning of the 21st century, at a moment of history marked by the most extraordinary global bull market the world has ever experienced. Strigl combined Jevons's and Böhm-Bawerk's theory of capital into a genuinely Austrian theory of the economy as a whole; and he carefully analyzed the impact of credit expansion on the workings of this macroeconomy. His treatment of these issues is even more systematic, rigorous, and clear than the well-known works by Hayek which covered the same ground. In fact, Hayek hailed Strigl's work "for the simplicity and clarity of exposition of a notoriously difficult subject."

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Introduction to Strigl's Capital & Production (10.37 MB)

In the field of macroeconomic theory, the Austrian view is distinct from other schools of economic thought due to its emphasis on the role of capital. In attempting to extend the application of Austrian economics to virtual economies, it will be a worthwhile exercise to explore the nature of capital that exists within Second Life and observe how it is evolving. In the real world, one example of a capital good might be a bulldozer, which is not itself consumed, but is used to improve land by making it more suitable for human use. Analogously in Second Life, someone could use a scripted object to automate the shaping of virtual terrain. The object would only be capital, however, if reshaping the land were not an end in itself.

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The Coming Second Life Industrial Revolution? (2.91 MB)

It's civic baseball season again, that time of the year when we are reminded that everything we believe about how society works is wrong, at least in this area if not in all areas. Let's start with the most obvious point — obvious once you think about it. The idea that cities must provide this service is a deeply entrenched part of civic life. Hardly anyone questions the need to loot taxpayers to build large sports complexes, maintain them all year, pay referees, and generally administer this vast apparatus requiring millions in funding. Why? The reason usually given is that sport programs are a good thing, they bring the community together, they provide an outlet for kids, and socialize them into important life activities such as … playing sports. How can anyone oppose such a wonderful and essential thing?

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The Wacky World of Civic Baseball (1.49 MB)