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Months ago, the administration said the war's goals were regime change and the removal of all uranium from Iran. We never hear about that anymore because the war has failed to produce either goal. Instead, Trump calls for opening the Strait of Hormuz, which had been open before the war.Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off
Statistics can be interesting and informative, but only if one can properly understand them through sound economic theory.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/inflation-and-statistics-economics-explains-them-not-other-way-around
Statistics can be interesting and informative, but only if one can properly understand them through sound economic theory.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/inflation-and-statistics-economics-explains-them-not-other-way-around
The cardinal difference between Rothbard and most other gold advocates. He rejects the Chicago School's view of 100 percent reserves as a convenient tool for managing the money supply, grounding his case instead in property rights: notes and deposits are warehouse receipts, and issuing more than the goods on hand is legalized counterfeiting. He answers Spahr's bridge analogy and weighs the attractions of free banking.
Rothbard places the 100 percent program in the classical economists and the currency school, and in the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian political tradition—figures he argues historians have miscast as economically ignorant agrarians. He credits Condy Raguet with seeing before the British that deposits are money substitutes too, and recovers the neglected Charles H. Carroll and Isaiah W. Sylvester.
Murray Rothbard started his career with a foundational training in neoclassical economics. At Columbia University, he learned from highly regarded professors and demonstrated a thorough understanding of the positivist method, Keynesian and Marshallian economic theory, and institutional empirical analysis. Crucially, Rothbard perceived the fact that critical errors existed in these disparate strands of knowledge, although he could not yet articulate them. But the recognition itself motivated him to take the highly important step of contacting the free-market Foundation for Economic Education and the William Volker Fund, thereby discovering Austrian economics.
Murray Rothbard's economic perspective changed significantly in 1949 when he met Ludwig von Mises and read his magnum opus, Human Action. With the financial support of the Volker Fund, Rothbard accepted Mises's offer to write a textbook rendition of his treatise. Early on, Rothbard evinced a thorough understanding of Mises's monetary transmission mechanism and praxeological method. This allowed him to further develop the theories of value and price formation the emerging neoclassical synthesis had neglected. In particular, Rothbard used the means-ends relationship to deduce the law of ordinal marginal utility rankings and contrasted it with modern theories of utility. He then showed how this law logically resulted in demand schedules that always sloped downward, which in turn led to a theory of pricing that explained the process of equilibration to the market clearing price. Finally, he extended his analysis to price formation in a monetary economy. In addition to exhibiting his own intellectual progress, Rothbard's developments significantly advanced economic science because Mises assumed these logical deductions but never actually derived them.
Murray Rothbard's project drastically changed in mid-1953. Unable to rely on Mises's sparse treatment of production theory, Rothbard adopted his old Marshallian approach, focusing on an individual firm that faced fixed prices and restricted investment decisions. But he soon recognized the pitfalls of Marshallian partial equilibrium and discarded it for Austrian general equilibrium, emphasizing the Böhm-Bawerkian capitalist-entrepreneur's ability to invest in multiple firms across the structure of production and influence market prices. In doing so, Rothbard finished the Böhm-Baverkian system by integrating the pure time preference theory of interest of Frank A. Fetter and Ludwig von Mises into the production structure analysis of Knut Wicksell and F. A. Hayek. This interrelatedness approach led Rothbard to differentiate between factor incomes, apply Mises's theory of the impossibility of socialist economic calculation to a vertically integrated firm, and expose the flaws of neoclassical monopoly and competition theory. With these theoretical breakthroughs, by 1955 Rothbard moved beyond his initial goal of “bringing to the surface and clarifying” his mentor's “edifice” to deducing the architectonic edifice of praxeological economic theory along the lines of Mises's “great book” suggestion.
Murray Rothbard used his general-equilibrium approach with its emphasis on economic interrelations to erect a systematic framework of interventionism. He started by elaborating further on the concept of the purely free market and developing a comprehensive welfare theory. He then proceeded to create a typology of government policy, formulate a novel theory of monopoly that distinguishes between a monopoly price and a free-market price, develop an original theory of backward tax imputation, and analyze the calculational chaos caused by government expenditure. The capstone of Rothbard's analysis of interventionism was his integration of the Mises–Hayek theory of the business cycle into general economic theory. Rothbard was thus able to demonstrate how the boom could result only from credit expansion and not from an increase in the supply of commodity money such as gold. He also demonstrated how credit contraction during the bust promotes recovery. With these advances in the Austrian theory of the business cycle, Rothbard finally completed the monumental task of deducing the entire corpus of economic theory using the praxeological method.
Timothy Terrell revisits Mises's 1920 bombshell: under socialism, rational economic calculation isn't just hard—it's impossible. Without market prices for the means of production, a central planner is blind, unable to tell whether he's creating wealth or destroying it. Terrell traces the argument from Soviet railroads and steel-bodied fighter jets to a strikingly modern target: the U.S. government's central planning of the American West.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 21, 2026.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.
A critique of the German “Socialists of the Chair” and their social policy—by way of the Methodenstreit, the clash of control versus economic law, and Max Weber—showing how “social liberalism” abandons liberalism itself.
How German “anti-Marxism,” including national (anti-Marxian) socialism, absorbed the very Marxian ideas it claimed to oppose, with Werner Sombart as the case study of a thinker Marxist and anti-Marxist by turns.
Austrian economics does not share the same methodology as we see in the economics mainstream. The Austrian emphasis on praxeology provides a better explanation of economic events than does the mathematically-bound mainstream.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/praxeology-within-physics-social-sciences
Austrian economics does not share the same methodology as we see in the economics mainstream. The Austrian emphasis on praxeology provides a better explanation of economic events than does the mathematically-bound mainstream.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/praxeology-within-physics-social-sciences
Mises opens the philosophical half of the course by arguing that Marx's materialism—the claim that a person's economic class shapes his very ideas and logic—dominates modern thought, and he begins to dismantle it.
Money did originate from the state, no matter how many times contemporary monetary theorists might claim otherwise.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/backwards-history-money
Money did originate from the state, no matter how many times contemporary monetary theorists might claim otherwise.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/backwards-history-money
In 1952, at the height of Soviet power, Ludwig von Mises stood in the San Francisco Public Library and systematically dismantled Marx—not just his economics, but his philosophy, his theory of history, and his manipulation of language. This is the fifth of nine lectures, published in 2006 as Marxism Unmasked.Mises examines why Marxism went essentially unchallenged for decades—not because its arguments were strong, but because its opponents rarely engaged its philosophical foundations. He traces the intellectual lineage from Saint-Simon's totalitarian world council through Comte's positivism to Marx's dialectical materialism, showing how each system claimed to have discovered the final truth and therefore demanded the end of free inquiry. Along the way, Mises dismantles the conflation of Marxism with Freudian psychoanalysis, explains why governments have a built-in bias toward socialism, and reveals that the word "organize" entered political language as a Napoleonic term meaning to treat individuals as a builder treats stones. The essay's central insight is deceptively simple: the debate was never between planning and chaos. It was always between the plan of the dictator and the plans of free individuals—and the police exist to settle the dispute.
Bob sits down with economist Emmanuel Maggiori to discuss his new book If You Can Just Print Money, Why Do I Pay Taxes?, a carefully researched, point-by-point critique of Modern Monetary Theory that engages MMT on its own terms, drawing on the MMTers' own textbook, papers, and responses to critics.Related:If You Can Just Print Money, Why Do I Pay Taxes?: Mises.org/HAP552aBob's Mises Daily Article, "The Upside-Down World of MMT": Mises.org/HAP552bJonathan Newman and Bob's MisesU Lecture on MMT: Mises.org/HAP552c
Bob sits down with economist Emmanuel Maggiori to discuss his new book If You Can Just Print Money, Why Do I Pay Taxes?, a carefully researched, point-by-point critique of Modern Monetary Theory that engages MMT on its own terms, drawing on the MMTers' own textbook, papers, and responses to critics.Related:If You Can Just Print Money, Why Do I Pay Taxes?: Mises.org/HAP552aBob's Mises Daily Article, "The Upside-Down World of MMT": Mises.org/HAP552bJonathan Newman and Bob's MisesU Lecture on MMT: Mises.org/HAP552c
Time is a unique resource in economics because we cannot create more of it and are subject to its limitations. Ludwig von Mises and the Austrians understand the role of time in economic better than most other mainstream economists.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/subjective-nature-time-bergson-mises
Time is a unique resource in economics because we cannot create more of it and are subject to its limitations. Ludwig von Mises and the Austrians understand the role of time in economic better than most other mainstream economists.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/subjective-nature-time-bergson-mises
Bob argues that many Austro-libertarians (himself included, initially) have been too quick to dismiss the Trump administration's foreign and economic policy as mere incompetence or corruption, without grasping the strategic logic behind it. His thesis: the U.S. national security establishment sees China's rise as an existential threat and believes the window to act is closing fast, making the current flurry of aggressive moves less like random chaos and more like a desperate Hail Mary pass.Related:The Charts and Graphs Mentioned in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP549aThe Bob Murphy Show, "LEAKED: Trump's Secret Strategy Briefing": Mises.org/HAP549bCore Insights, "China Quietly Built a 10,400km Railway to Iran — The US is Terrified": Mises.org/HAP549cThe Tom Woods Show, "The Venezuela Propaganda, with David Stockman": Mises.org/HAP549dCelebrate Murray Rothbard's 100th birthday with a free copy of Anatomy of the State. Get yours at Mises.org/HAPodFree
Bob argues that many Austro-libertarians (himself included, initially) have been too quick to dismiss the Trump administration's foreign and economic policy as mere incompetence or corruption, without grasping the strategic logic behind it. His thesis: the U.S. national security establishment sees China's rise as an existential threat and believes the window to act is closing fast, making the current flurry of aggressive moves less like random chaos and more like a desperate Hail Mary pass.Related:The Charts and Graphs Mentioned in this Episode: Mises.org/HAP549aThe Bob Murphy Show, "LEAKED: Trump's Secret Strategy Briefing": Mises.org/HAP549bCore Insights, "China Quietly Built a 10,400km Railway to Iran — The US is Terrified": Mises.org/HAP549cThe Tom Woods Show, "The Venezuela Propaganda, with David Stockman": Mises.org/HAP549dCelebrate Murray Rothbard's 100th birthday with a free copy of Anatomy of the State. Get yours at Mises.org/HAPodFree
In 1871, the “discovery” of marginal economic analysis soon took a wrong turn, moving towards quantification, data, and mathematics. It is time to “rediscover” the margin, this time the margin as explained by Carl Menger.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/todays-ais-show-marginal-revolutions-unfinished-business
In 1871, the “discovery” of marginal economic analysis soon took a wrong turn, moving towards quantification, data, and mathematics. It is time to “rediscover” the margin, this time the margin as explained by Carl Menger.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/todays-ais-show-marginal-revolutions-unfinished-business
In this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken looks at Rothbard's essay "Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation State." The essay provides some key insights into the nature of the nation-state, its origins, and implications for modern-day topics like immigration, citizenship, and national borders. Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off
In this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken looks at Rothbard's essay "Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation State." The essay provides some key insights into the nature of the nation-state, its origins, and implications for modern-day topics like immigration, citizenship, and national borders. Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off
Bob responds to a new working paper from the Geo-chartalism project, which claims to offer a complete theory of the price level by combining insights from Menger, Cantillon, and Warren Mosler. Bob argues that the paper overlooks a crucial prior contribution: Mises' regression theorem, developed in The Theory of Money and Credit, which already solved the circularity problem in monetary theory that the paper claims required Mosler to resolve. Along the way, Bob also explains chartalism, Georgism, and Mises's explanation of the absolute price level.Related:Bob's Paper Critiquing Kevin Carson's Studies in Mutualist Political Economy: Mises.org/HAP548aGeorge Charles, “The Mosler-Cantillon-Menger Synthesis”: Mises.org/HAP548bMMT vs. Austrian School Debate: Mises.org/HAP548cThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree
Bob responds to a new working paper from the Geo-chartalism project, which claims to offer a complete theory of the price level by combining insights from Menger, Cantillon, and Warren Mosler. Bob argues that the paper overlooks a crucial prior contribution: Mises' regression theorem, developed in The Theory of Money and Credit, which already solved the circularity problem in monetary theory that the paper claims required Mosler to resolve. Along the way, Bob also explains chartalism, Georgism, and Mises's explanation of the absolute price level.Related:Bob's Paper Critiquing Kevin Carson's Studies in Mutualist Political Economy: Mises.org/HAP548aGeorge Charles, “The Mosler-Cantillon-Menger Synthesis”: Mises.org/HAP548bMMT vs. Austrian School Debate: Mises.org/HAP548cThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree
Despite support from some economists in the free market camp, fractional reserve free banking is doomed for failure, as Murray Rothbard pointed out.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/case-against-free-bankers
"There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom."Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/revolution-was
Despite support from some economists in the free market camp, fractional reserve free banking is doomed for failure, as Murray Rothbard pointed out.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/case-against-free-bankers
"There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom."Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/revolution-was
Ryan McMaken looks in detail at an important essay by historian Ralph Raico in which Raico critiques Ludwig von Mises's views on democracy, fascism, and immigration. Raico suggests that Mises's views of democracy and immigration fail to address some real-world problems.Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off
Ryan McMaken looks in detail at an important essay by historian Ralph Raico in which Raico critiques Ludwig von Mises's views on democracy, fascism, and immigration. Raico suggests that Mises's views of democracy and immigration fail to address some real-world problems.Be sure to follow Radio Rothbard at https://Mises.org/RadioRothbardRadio Rothbard mugs are available at the Mises Store. Get yours at https://Mises.org/RothMug PROMO CODE: RothPod for 20% off
John Williamson, who passed away five years ago, is known for creating what was called the “Washington Consensus,” which was an attempt to bring a liberal economic order to poor countries looking to transition from socialism to capitalism.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/memory-creator-washington-consensus
As the Marxians do not admit that differences of opinion can be settled by discussion and persuasion or decided by majority vote, no solution is open but civil war.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/marxism-vs-majority
After his recent Zero Hedge debate with MMT co-founder Randall Wray, Bob takes a deep dive into the sectoral balance approach. He explains why the MMT argument is technically a tautology, how it's deeply misleading, and why the private sector doesn't need government deficits to save, invest, and accumulate real wealth.Related:Is Paying Down Government Debt Bad for the Economy?: Mises.org/HAP545aBob's Article, "Does History Show Government Debt Paydown Causes a Crash?": Mises.org/HAP545bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree
In studying history, it is key to avoid definitional anachronism—failing to note how a word has changed over time and assuming the present meaning was the same in the past. This is often the case with the word currency as used in colonial America.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/note-currency-colonial-america
Despite the claims of the chartalists and modern monetary theory advocates, early American monetary history tells a much different story. In fact, much of the historical evidence illustrates Menger's theory.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/barter-media-exchange-and-colonial-america
However one may turn the matter, one cannot discover any reason why an ideological distortion of truth should be more useful to the bourgeoisie than a correct theory.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-daily/ideological-impregnation-thought
Bob untangles two arguments that even Austrian economists sometimes conflate: Mises' calculation problem and Hayek's knowledge problem. Then, he explains why the distinction matters, especially in light of recent claims that AI and modern computing could finally make central planning viable.Related:Bob's Article, "Socialism: The Calculation Problem Is Not the Knowledge Problem": Mises.org/HAP543aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree
Bob untangles two arguments that even Austrian economists sometimes conflate: Mises' calculation problem and Hayek's knowledge problem. Then, he explains why the distinction matters, especially in light of recent claims that AI and modern computing could finally make central planning viable.Related:Bob's Article, "Socialism: The Calculation Problem Is Not the Knowledge Problem": Mises.org/HAP543aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree
Professor Lucas Engelhardt examines how mainstream economics has deliberately abandoned the history of economic thought, and why Austrian economists must keep teaching and re-teaching the great debates of the past.The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Don Printz.The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition.
Milton Friedman and others tried to explain interest rates using liquidity, economic activity, and inflation expectations. These things, however, only describe interest but do not explain it. Only the Austrian theory of time preference correctly explains interest.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/popular-interest-rate-theory-describes-fails-explain
Milton Friedman and others tried to explain interest rates using liquidity, economic activity, and inflation expectations. These things, however, only describe interest but do not explain it. Only the Austrian theory of time preference correctly explains interest.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/popular-interest-rate-theory-describes-fails-explain
Bob uses clips from his recent interview with Eric Weinstein to explain why Weinstein thinks gauge theory can fix how economists measure the cost of living, unify competing price indices, and handle changing preferences over time, and why Austrians shouldn't dismiss him as a crank. He summarizes Eric's claim that standard mathematical economics relies on the simplest kind of derivative, explaining how much of modern economic modeling is using the wrong math.Related: Bob's Interview with Eric Weinstein on the InFi Podcast: Mises.org/HAP530aThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree
Bob walks through a recent WIRED video on “the economics behind the Great Depression,” correcting its claims on lax regulation, Hoover's alleged inaction, the role of the Fed and the gold standard, and the notion that World War II ended the slump.Bob's Article, "The Depression You've Never Heard Of: 1920-1921": Mises.org/HAP528aBob's Talk, "Contrasting Views of the Great Depression": Mises.org/HAP528bThe WIRED Video, "Economics Professor Answers Great Depression Questions": Mises.org/HAP528cThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree
Bob revisits capital and interest theory to show why the textbook result “interest = MPK” only holds in a one-good world, and why in actual markets the interest rate emerges from time, prices, and capital valuation—not raw productivity.Bob and Alberto Bisin Discuss the Use of Mathematics in Economics: Mises.org/HAP527aBob's Dissertation, "Unanticipated Intertemporal Change in Theories of Interest": Mises.org/HAP527bThe Mises Institute is giving away 100,000 copies of Hayek for the 21st Century. Get your free copy at Mises.org/HAPodFree