Essays in Political Economy

Mises was not one to praise individual economists very often. But he still had his favorites.

The term hermeneutics in this piece refers to the study of interpretation—of texts first of all and by extension of human action.

This is a concise critical history of the federal program of Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI), popularly known as Social Security.

When the state intervenes in family inheritance process, it increases its coffers at the expense of the smooth operation of family, society, and economy.

How much of the spectrum should be privatized? All of it, writes B.K. Marcus. Even the vast "beachfront property" held by the military? Yes, all of it.

Can a few courageous writers like Tom DiLorenzo and his colleagues, using logic, evidence, and moral suasion, negate what their opponents thought they had won with over a million troops on battlefields 138 years ago?

Social Security was designed as a tool of macroeconomic policy: a social arm of central planning passed in age of boundless faith in the power of the state.

The most accurate description of the twentieth century is "The War and Welfare Century." This century was the bloodiest in all history. More than 170 million people were killed by governments with ten million being killed in World War I and fifty million killed in World War II. 

Among the most popular and consequential beliefs of our age is the belief in collective security. Nothing less significant than the legitimacy of the modern state rests on this belief. And yet, the idea of a collective security is a myth that provides no justification for the modern state.

Writing about the cultural background of Ludwig von Mises, an eminent former compatriot of mine, poses some difficulties: how to present you with a world radically different from yours, a world far away, which in many ways no longer exists.