The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Foreword
• Part I: Can Capitalism Survive?
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Can Capitalism Survive?
• Part II: The Philosophy of Freedom
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Case For Economic Freedom
• Chapter 2: The Libertarian Philosophy
• Chapter 3: Who’s to Blame?
• Chapter 4: Paradise In Posey County
• Part III: On the Nature of Economics
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Adam Smith: 1776-1976
• Chapter 2: Christian Economics: Myth Or Reality?
• Chapter 3: College Economics: Is It Subversive of Capitalism?
• Part IV: On the Business System
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Profits
• Chapter 2: The Businessman
• Part V: On Labor Markets
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Labor Monopoly
• Part VI: On Money and Inflation
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Long-run Economic Outlook
• Chapter 2: Alleged Causes of Inflation: Corporate Monopolies
• Part VII: On the Problems of Cities
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Problems of Cities
• Part VIII: On Education
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Financing Higher Education In the United States
• Chapter 2: The Promise of the College
• Part IX: On What to Do
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Businessman and the Defense of Capitalism
• Chapter 2: Reflections On the Election of 1964
• Chapter 3: The Foundation For Economic Education: Success Or Failure?

Introduction

In this section, I deal with that most ubiquitous of all diseases of economic life: inflation. As Lenin predicted, it is fast becoming the instrument of the disintegrating process in capitalist economies—though its ravages are equally visible in the socialist economies of the world.

The first paper is one version of a long-run-economic-outlook speech that I have been giving to various groups for a number of years. Given the bleakness of the outlook presented here, I wish that I could report that events have given the lie to my prophecies, but such does not seem to be the case.

The second paper, “Alleged Causes of Inflation: Corporate Monopolies,” was presented in March 1976 at the fourth annual conference of the Committee for Monetary Research and Education, held at Arden House, Harriman, New York.