A Liberal World Order by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1991 The 20th century opened with great hopes for the future. For almost a hundred years, a major war had not disturbed the peace of Europe. And when military conflicts had broken out among the European nations, they had been localized and limited in both their duration and destruction. Most of the governments of Europe were either democracies or constitutional monarchies. The concept of the rule of law was almost universally endorsed. And throughout most of Europe, individuals could generally feel secure in their life and property. Even the colonial empires seemed benign; the British Empire was the leading example: the British ran their empire as one world-encompassing, free-trade zone — with Englishmen, colonial subjects and foreign traders more or less having the same legal protections and commercial liberty. The 19th century, of course, was not a paradise of freedom and limited government. Governments transgressed their legitimate bounds more often than is remembered. In the last decades of the 19th century, for ...
Book Review: Economic Freedom and Interventionalism by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1991 Economic Freedom and Interventionism: An Anthology of Articles and Essays by Ludwig von Mises (Irvington-on-Hudson, New York: The Foundation for Economic Education, 1990); 250 pages; $29.95-cloth; $14.95-paper. Ludwig von Mises is quite possibly the greatest economist of the 20th century. He was one of a handful of important thinkers in our time who consistently and incessantly warned of the dangers of all forms of collectivism, and who presented an uncompromising case for the free society. It is to those thinkers that we owe the intellectual arguments that have succeeded in preventing the socialists and interventionists from completely sweeping the field in the arena of ideas and in the realm of public policy. But time passes, and new generations arise who are more concerned with the views of their living contemporaries. In the process, the arguments made and the battles fought by the earlier generations pass into history. It is too often forgotten how much of our own views and ideas are dependent ...
FDR and the End of Economic Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 1991 The watershed years were 1932-1937 — the first two presidential terms of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was the crucial period in American history — the period in which Americans abandoned the principles of economic liberty on which our nation was founded. For it was during this time that the welfare-state, planned-economy way of life replaced the private-property, market-economy way of life which had existed up to that time. Of course, this is not what Americans have been taught. From the first grade in their government-approved schools, the American people have been indoctrinated into believing that the Great Depression was the failure of America's free-enterprise system, that FDR's New Deal saved free enterprise, and that the economic system which characterizes the United States today is one of free enterprise. And the indoctrination is so effective that ...
Book Review: Free Market Morality by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1991 Free Market Morality: The Political Economy of the Austrian School by Alexander H. Shand ( New York: Routledge, 1990) 228 pp.; $16.95 (h). The global collapse of socialism and central planning have left a large ideological vacuum on the world stage. What shall replace them remains uncertain. Declarations in support of ...
The Impossibility of Socialism by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1990 In May 1988, the Soviet newspaper Pravda ran an article which summarized the condition of the Soviet socialist economy: "Not one of the 170 essential sectors has fulfilled the objectives of the Plan a single time over the last 20 years ... this has brought about a chain reaction of hardship and imbalance which has led to 'planned ...
The Heritage of Economic Liberty by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1990 For the Founding Fathers, economic liberty was inseparable from the case for political freedom. Many of the grievances enumerated in the Declaration of Independence concern British infringements on the free movement of goods and men between the thirteen colonies and the rest of the world. It was not a coincidence that ...
The Limits of Governmental Activity by Ludwig von Mises April 1, 1990 It is an established fact that alcoholism, cocainism, and morphinism are deadly enemies of life, of health, and of the capacity for work and enjoyment.But this is far from demonstrating that the authorities must interpose to suppress these vices by commercial prohibitions, nor is it by any means evident that such ...
Book Review: Free Persons and the Common Good by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 1990 Free Persons and the Common Good by Michael Novak (Lanham Maryland: Madison Books, 1989); 233 pp.; $17.95. One of the most profoundly enduring, yet frustratingly illusive concepts, has been that of the "common good." Under its banner, noble ideals have been proclaimed and despicable crimes have been committed. Its elasticity of meaning and ambiguity of content have been its most appealing ...
