Economics

Austrian Economics & Public Policy

by Richard M. Ebeling August 30, 2016

The following is the introduction to FFF’s newest ebook, Austrian Economics & Public Policy: Restoring Freedom and Prosperity by Richard Ebeling. (But it on Amazon for $4.99.) The ebook is being launched in conjunction with a new 9-part video series entitled An Introduction to Austrian Economics by Richard Ebeling. Watch part 1

Free Trade Is Fair Trade

by Laurence M. Vance June 1, 2016

As relayed by Harvard economics professor and chairman of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, N. Gregory Mankiw, “The Princeton economist Alan Blinder once proposed Murphy’s Law of economic policy: ‘Economists have the least influence on policy where they know the most and are most agreed; they have the most influence on policy where they know the least ...

Praxeology and Hostile Action

by Joseph R. Stromberg June 1, 2016

Praxeology according to Mises Ludwig von Mises saw praxeology — “the general theory of human action” — as the foundation of proper economic reasoning. Starting from the self-evident fact that men “act” so as to substitute more satisfactory states of affairs for those now existing, he believed he could build the basic toolkit of economic science by working deductively from ...

Governments Create Monopolies and Cause Worker Exploitation, Not Free Markets

by Richard M. Ebeling May 16, 2016

The world is threatened with a renewed wave of anti-capitalism and anti-business sentiments and policies. Many who cheered the demise of Soviet communism in the early 1990s, presumed that this meant that, by default, the case for free markets and competitive enterprise had won in the battle of ideas. Over the last twenty-five years it has become clear that ...

The Libertarian Angle: Economic Fascism

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 15, 2016

In this segment, Richard Ebeling and Jacob Hornberger discuss the principles of fascism, the administration of FDR, and corporatism. Go to the podcast.

The Libertarian Angle: History of Economic Thought, Part 8

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 8, 2016

In this segment, Richard Ebeling and Jacob Hornberger discuss the rise of the Austrian school of economic thought and its contributions. Go to the podcast.

Wilhelm Röpke: The Economist Who Stood Up to Hitler

by Richard M. Ebeling March 2, 2016

Sometimes there are men of principle who live their values and not merely speak or write about them. People who stand up to political evil at their own risk, and then go on to say and do things that help to remake their country in the aftermath of war and destruction. One such individual was the German, free-market economist, ...

The Libertarian Angle: History of Economic Thought, Part 7

by Future of Freedom Foundation March 1, 2016

In this segment, Richard Ebeling and Jacob Hornberger discuss the rise of the Austrian school of economic thought and its contributions. Go to the podcast.

The Economist Who Saw the Future

by James Cook March 1, 2016

Hans Sennholz (1922–2007) was a professor of economics and a student of Ludwig von Mises while at NYU. He was an intrepid critic of government deficits: If we cannot return to fiscal integrity because the public prefers prodigality over balanced budgets, we cannot escape paying the price, which is ever lower incomes and standards of living for all. The pains ...

Carl Menger and the Foundations of Austrian Economics

by Richard M. Ebeling February 23, 2016

Today is Austrian economist, Carl Menger’s, birthday. Born on February 23, 1840, he died on February 26, 1921, at the age of 81. Menger is most well known as one of the first formulators of the theory of marginal utility, separately though in published form almost simultaneously, with William Stanley Jevons and Leon Walras in the early 1870s. But ...

The Follies and Fallacies of Keynesian Economics

by Richard M. Ebeling February 16, 2016

Eighty years ago, on February 4, 1936, one of the most influential books of the last one hundred years was published, British economist, John Maynard Keynes’s The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. With it was born what has become known as Keynesian Economics. Within less than a decade after its appearance, the ideas in The General Theory ...

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: Leading Austrian Economist and Finance Minister of Fiscal Restraint

by Richard M. Ebeling February 12, 2016

We live at a time when politicians and bureaucrats only know one public policy: more and bigger government. Yet, there was a time when even those who served in government defended limited and smaller government, one of them being the Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk who was born 165 years ago today, on February 12, 1851. Böhm-Bawerk is famous as ...