Economic Freedom and Interventionism
Economic Freedom and Interventionism is both a primer of the fundamental thought of Ludwig von Mises and an anthology of the writings of perhaps the best-known exponent of what is now known as the Austrian School of economics. This volume contains forty-seven articles edited by Mises scholar Bettina Bien Greaves. Among them are Mises’s expositions of the role of government, his discussion of inequality of wealth, inflation, socialism, welfare, and economic education, as well as his exploration of the “deeper” significance of economics as it affects seemingly noneconomic relations between human beings. These papers are essential reading for students of economic freedom and the science of human action.
Economic Freedom and Interventionism: An Anthology of Articles and Essays, selected and edited by Bettina Bien Greaves (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007).
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The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.
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Table of Contents
- CONTENTS
- FOREWORD
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ECONOMIC FREEDOM AND INTERVENTIONISM
- PART I: Economic Freedom
- 1: The Economic Foundations of Freedom*
- Freedom as a Postulate of Morality
- The Struggle for Freedom
- The Supremacy of the Consumers
- The Political Aspects of Freedom
- The Socialist Misrepresentation of the Market Economy
- Capital Accumulation Benefits All of the People
- Economic Well-Being Threatened by Statism
- No Personal Freedom Without Economic Freedom
- The Meaning of the Effective Right to Dissent
- 2: The Individual in Society*
- Innate Inequality
- Within Society
- Self-Interest
- Compulsion and Coercion
- New Definitions
- A New Subterfuge
- Competition
- Consumers Choose
- The “Planned” Life Is Not Free
- 3: The Elite under Capitalism*
- Inborn Inequality
- Confusion Concerning Property
- Two Kinds of Power
- The “Power” of the Employer
- A Duty of the Elite
- 4: The Economic Role of Saving and Capital Goods*
- Three Factors of Production
- Consumers Direct the Use of Capital
- Intervention and Unemployment
- The Only Sound Policy
- 5: Luxuries into Necessities*
- 6: The Saver as a Voter*
- Unrecognized Dangers
- “Do You Know That You Are a Creditor?”
- 7: The Market and the State*
- Cooperation versus Violence
- Socialist Planning
- Individual Freedom and the Market Economy
- 8: The Outlook for Saving and Investment*
- Foreign Investment
- The “Productivity of Labor”
- Anti-capitalistic Ideas
- 9: Inequality of Wealth and Incomes*
- Demand for “Distribution”
- Supremacy of the Consumers
- Demand for Equalization
- PART II: Interventionism
- 10: The Why of Human Action*
- Sound Money versus Inflationism and Expansionism
- The Economic Theory of Socialism
- The Middle Way
- The Interconnectedness of All Economic Phenomena
- 11: Deception of Government Intervention*
- Middle-of-the-Road Policy
- 12: The Agony of the Welfare State*
- The Welfare State
- Let the Rich Pay
- Derailment of State Railroads
- Subways at a Dead End
- 13: Wage Interference by Government*
- Labor Union Privileges
- Above-Market Wage Rates
- 14: Unemployment and the Height of Wage Rates*
- Consumer Sovereignty
- What Makes Wages Rise
- What Generates Unemployment
- Inflation Not Fit to Fight Unemployment
- How Honest Workers Plan to Do Away with Unemployment
- 15: Wage Earners and Employers*
- 16: Full Employment and Monetary Policy*
- Effects of Labor Unions
- The Alternative—Socialism
- A New Messiah
- A Few Dissenters
- 17: Gold versus Paper*
- The Alleged Blessings of Inflation
- Why Perpetual Inflation Is Impossible
- Full Employment and the Gold Standard
- The Specter of an Unfavorable International Balance
- 18: Inflation and You*
- Social and Economic Effects of Inflation
- Hedging Against Inflation
- Moral and Political Effects of Inflation
- Inflation and Government Borrowing
- 19: Inflation*
- Wartime Experience
- A Semantic Trick
- 20: Inflation: An Unworkable Fiscal Policy*
- End of an Era
- The Housewife’s Behavior
- Taxation the Key
- Inflation: A Convenient Makeshift
- Going After Lower Brackets
- Semantic Confusion
- 21: Socialism, Inflation, and the Thrifty Householder*
- Socialism and Planning Not Different from Communism
- Unwitting Support of Socialism by Inflationary Policies
- Inflation and the Creditors
- The Common Man a Creditor
- The Communists Favor Inflation
- 22: Inflation Must End in a Slump*
- 23: The Plight of Business Forecasting*
- What Brings About the Slump
- Economics: Not Quantitative
- Statistics: Necessarily Retrospective
- The Self-Contradiction of Forecasting
- PART III: Mises as Critic
- 24: Why Read Adam Smith Today?*
- 25: The Marxian Class Conflict Doctrine*
- Status or Caste in Precapitalistic Society
- Marxian “Classes”
- Marxian Ideology Doctrine
- The Destruction of Marxian Ideas Demands Vigorous Criticism
- 26: The Marxian Theory of Wage Rates*
- Doctrines of Marx
- The “Iron Law” of Wages
- Capitalist Production
- The Inevitability of Socialism
- 27: The Soviet System’s Economic Failure*
- 28: On Some Atavistic Economic Ideas*
- Land Reform
- Favoritism for Debtors
- 29: Capital and Interest: Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and the Discriminating Reader*
- 30: The Symptomatic Keynes*
- Keynes’s Appeal to “Progressives”
- 31: Professor Hutt on Keynesianism*
- To Clear the Air
- The Market Economy
- 32: The Trade Cycle*
- 33: How Can Europe Survive?*
- Main Points of Argument
- 34: The Economic Point of View*
- 35: Liberty and Its Antithesis*
- Freedom and Western Civilization
- Authoritarianism
- The Welfare State
- 36: Man, Economy and State: A New Treatise on Economics*
- 37: Understanding the Dollar Crisis*
- The Gold Standard
- 38: The Secret of American Prosperity*
- Foreigners View American Prosperity
- Rappard Views American Prosperity
- Prosperity and Capital
- 39: A Dangerous Recommendation for High School Economics*
- Task Force Report
- Communist Bias
- Implementing the Task Force Report
- 40: Foreign Spokesmen for Freedom*
- 41: Freedom Has Made a Comeback*
- PART IV: Economics and Ideas
- 42: The Objectives of Economic Education*
- The Philosophical Problem Implied
- Marxism and “Progressivism”
- The Main Thesis of Progressivism
- 43: On Current Monetary Problems*
- 44: On the International Monetary Problem*
- Balance of Payments Doctrine
- International Exchange Ratios
- Inflation and Inflationism
- Inflation Cannot Last
- Appendix
- 45: Small and Big Business*
- Small Businesses
- Measures to “Help” Small Businesses
- Capitalism Is Mass Production
- Nationalization
- Post–World War I Germany
- Socialism in the United States and Great Britain
- “Social Control” or “Planning”
- Government Regulation
- Bureaucratic Management
- People as Consumers versus People as Voters
- 46: Economics as a Bridge for Interhuman Understanding*
- Conflict of Interest Philosophies
- Social Cooperation and the Division of Labor
- Critics of Liberalism
- Utilitarian Liberalism
- The Montaigne Fallacy
- Social Cooperation
- A Consumers’ Democracy
- The Conclusions of Economic Analysis
- 47: Economic Freedom in the Present-Day World*
- The Only Fact that Matters
- Big Business, Great Service
- Blessings of Capitalism
- Mistaken “Moderates”
- The Need for Sound Money
- Fables Can Cause War
- Dissenters’ Role
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