Weekend Edition Archives
Wages, Unemployment, and Inflation
Ludwig von Mises wrote, "There is only one way that leads to an improvement of the standard of living for the wage-earning masses, viz., the increase in the amount of capital invested. All other methods, however popular they may be, are not only futile, but are actually detrimental to the well-being of those they allegedly want to benefit. … Public opinion believes that the improvement in the conditions of the wage earners is an achievement of the unions and of various legislative measures. … As long as these fallacies prevail upon the minds of the voters, it is vain to expect a resolute departure from the policies that are mistakenly called progressive." FULL ARTICLE
Epistemological Relativism in the Sciences of Human Action
Ludwig von Mises writes: Whenever the distinction between rational and irrational is applied to ultimate ends, the meaning is that the judgments of value underlying the choice of the end in question meet with approval or disapproval on the part of the speaker or writer. Now the promulgation of judgments of value is not the business of a man in his capacity as a praxeologist, economist, or historian. It is rather the task of religion, metaphysics, or ethics. FULL ARTICLE
The Scope and Method of Catallactics
In this very important chapter of Human Action, Mises explains the subject matter of catallactics which is a subset of the field of praxeology; this is what most people have in mind when they talk of economics. Mises also discusses the specific method that the theoretical economist must use, namely imaginary constructions. Finally Mises describes some of the more important imaginary constructions, especially the evenly rotating economy. In essence, in this chapter Mises lays out the boundaries of his subject and describes the tools he will use to analyze it.
Robert Murphy has written a study guide for this chapter, available in HTML and PDF.
On the Impossibility of Limited Government
June 27, 2008 4:34 PM
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Isaiah's Job
June 20, 2008 12:27 PM
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Taking Money Back
June 13, 2008 3:21 PM
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Monetary Calculation as a Tool of Action
June 6, 2008 4:20 PM
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The Present State of Profit Theory: Asset or Liability?
May 30, 2008 12:46 PM
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Challenge to America: A Current Assessment of Our Republic
May 23, 2008 3:15 PM
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Benjamin M. Anderson Challenges the Philosophy of the Pseudoprogressives
May 16, 2008 4:01 PM
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Spotlight on Keynesian Economics
May 9, 2008 3:22 PM
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The Sphere of Economic Calculation
May 2, 2008 3:43 PM
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What is fascism?
April 25, 2008 3:33 PM
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The Political Economy of Moral Hazard
April 18, 2008 2:04 PM
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Hoover's Attack on Laissez-Faire
April 11, 2008 2:32 PM
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Valuation Without Calculation
April 4, 2008 1:13 PM
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John Lilburne: The First English Libertarian
March 28, 2008 5:37 PM
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Introduction to Strigl's Capital and Production
March 21, 2008 3:19 PM
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Setting the Stage for American History: Liberty vs Power in Europe and England
March 14, 2008 4:50 PM
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Exchange Within Society
March 7, 2008 2:55 PM
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John T. Flynn and the Myth of FDR
February 29, 2008 11:31 AM
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Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve: the Complete Transcript
February 22, 2008 4:05 PM
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The Epistemological Case for Capitalism
February 15, 2008 3:56 PM
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The Laissez-Faire Radical: A Quest for the Historical Mises
February 8, 2008 3:05 PM
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The Role of Ideas
February 1, 2008 4:20 PM
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The Revolution Was
January 25, 2008 3:03 PM
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Myth and Truth About Libertarianism
January 11, 2008 8:18 AM
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Human Society, by Ludwig von Mises
January 4, 2008 5:06 PM
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Carl Menger: Pioneer of "Empirical Theory"
December 28, 2007 4:15 PM
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Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
December 21, 2007 4:38 PM
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The Task Confronting Libertarians
December 14, 2007 5:51 PM
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Toward a Theory of Strategy for Liberty
December 7, 2007 5:12 PM
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Action Within the World
November 30, 2007 5:00 PM
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Control or Economic Law
November 23, 2007 4:32 PM
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The Theory of Education in the United States
November 16, 2007 4:13 PM
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Robert Nozick and the Immaculate Conception of the State
November 9, 2007 1:36 PM
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Time and Praxeology
November 2, 2007 4:58 PM
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Birth of a Movement
October 26, 2007 4:14 PM
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Mises in America
October 19, 2007 4:01 PM
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Anarchist's Progress
October 15, 2007 8:15 AM
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The One Lesson
October 12, 2007 9:14 AM
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A First Analysis of the Category of Action
October 5, 2007 4:19 PM
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The Betrayal of the American Right
September 28, 2007 1:52 PM
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The Right to Ignore the State
September 21, 2007 4:16 PM
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A Politically Incorrect Guide to Antitrust Policy
September 14, 2007 3:02 PM
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Mises in Wartime
September 7, 2007 2:13 PM
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The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics, by Ludwig von Mises
August 31, 2007 9:43 AM
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Albert Jay Nock's Laws of Political Process
August 24, 2007 1:29 PM
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Liberty Defined
August 17, 2007 1:47 PM
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Utilitarian Free-Market Economics
August 10, 2007 4:10 PM
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Uncertainty
August 3, 2007 4:08 PM
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Flying Solo: The Aviator and Libertarian Philosophy
July 27, 2007 5:24 PM
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On the Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns
July 20, 2007 4:42 PM
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The State versus Liberty
July 13, 2007 2:13 PM
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The Sciences of Human Action
July 6, 2007 3:25 PM
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The Enterprise of Customary Law
June 29, 2007 3:02 PM
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Can Governments Function Like Markets? Austrian Insights into Public-Choice Theory
June 22, 2007 4:43 PM
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Wresting Land from the Sea: An Argument Against Public Goods Theory
June 15, 2007 3:55 PM
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World War I as Fulfillment: Power and the Intellectuals
June 8, 2007 2:20 PM
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Economics and the Revolt Against Reason
June 1, 2007 2:49 PM
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The Truth About Tulipmania
May 25, 2007 3:56 PM
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Plunder or Enterprise: The World's Choice
May 18, 2007 4:02 PM
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Modern Historians Confront the American Revolution
May 11, 2007 3:32 PM
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The Fallacy of Collectivism
May 4, 2007 5:13 PM
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Beautiful Chaos
April 27, 2007 4:24 PM
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Natural and Neutral Rates of Interest in Theory and Policy
April 20, 2007 4:14 PM
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Can There Be a "Just Tax"?
April 13, 2007 1:29 PM
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Acting Man
April 6, 2007 1:38 PM
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The Misesian Case Against Keynes
March 30, 2007 4:10 PM
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The Mythology of Capital
March 23, 2007 4:35 PM
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Market Chosen Law
March 16, 2007 9:34 PM
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How and How Not to Desocialize
March 9, 2007 6:49 PM
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Capital Supply And American Prosperity
March 2, 2007 4:58 PM
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What the Social Classes Owe to Each Other
February 23, 2007 4:28 PM
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Reflections on the Pure Theory of Money of Mr. J.M. Keynes
February 16, 2007 6:26 PM
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Planned Chaos
February 2, 2007 4:10 PM
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The Factory System of the Early Nineteenth Century
January 26, 2007 4:29 PM
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The Living Reality of Military-Economic Fascism
January 19, 2007 4:26 PM
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Introduction to Natural Law
January 12, 2007 5:20 PM
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Nation and Nationality
January 5, 2007 4:39 PM
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Life, Liberty, and...
December 29, 2006 3:36 PM
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The European Miracle
December 22, 2006 3:35 PM
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The Conquest of the United States by Spain
December 15, 2006 4:00 PM
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The End of Socialism and the Calculation Debate Revisited
December 8, 2006 4:29 PM
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Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism
December 1, 2006 5:04 PM
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A Century of War
November 24, 2006 4:18 PM
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Globalization: The Long-Run Big Picture
November 17, 2006 4:22 PM
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New Light on the Prehistory of the Austrian School
November 10, 2006 4:18 PM
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The Return to Sound Money
November 3, 2006 3:30 PM
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Hyperinflation in Germany, 1914-1923
October 27, 2006 2:39 PM
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What Was Wrong With the Old World
October 20, 2006 3:07 PM
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The Hermeneutical Invasion of Philosophy and Economics
October 13, 2006 2:48 PM
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Profit and Loss
October 6, 2006 1:21 PM
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Ludwig von Mises: Scholar, Creator, Hero
September 29, 2006 3:25 PM
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The Truth About the "Robber Barons"
September 22, 2006 3:26 PM
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Prohibition and the Economists
September 15, 2006 3:32 PM
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Education: Free and Compulsory
September 8, 2006 3:08 PM
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The Principle of Sound Money
September 1, 2006 4:25 PM
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The Neglect of Bastiat's School by English-speaking Economists
August 25, 2006 3:46 PM
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Enterprising Education: Doing Away with the Public School System
August 18, 2006 4:05 PM
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Origins of the Welfare State in America
August 11, 2006 3:38 PM
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The Noneconomic Objections to Capitalism
August 4, 2006 4:10 PM
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The Market For Liberty
July 28, 2006 3:27 PM
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Natural Elites, Intellectuals, and the State
July 21, 2006 2:56 PM
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Classical Liberal Roots of the Marxist Doctrine of Classes
July 14, 2006 2:40 PM
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Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics
July 7, 2006 3:59 PM
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The Role of Doctrines in Human History
June 30, 2006 3:51 PM
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Martin Van Buren: The American Gladstone
June 23, 2006 1:00 PM
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The Philosophical Origins of Austrian Economics
June 16, 2006 3:42 PM
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Bureaucracy and the Civil Service in the United States
June 9, 2006 4:29 PM
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On Equality and Inequality
June 2, 2006 3:53 PM
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The Rhetoric of the Environmental Movement
May 26, 2006 4:34 PM
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Economics and Its Ethical Assumptions
May 19, 2006 3:28 PM
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The Libertarian Heritage: The American Revolution and Classical Liberalism
May 12, 2006 5:51 PM
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The Psychological Basis of the Opposition to Economic Theory
May 5, 2006 3:13 PM
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Times Are Hard: On the Causes of the Business Cycle
April 28, 2006 3:33 PM
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Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution , by Murray Rothbard
April 21, 2006 3:38 PM
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The Rocky Road of American Taxation
April 14, 2006 2:49 PM
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Rothbard's "Left and Right": Forty Years Later
April 7, 2006 3:58 PM
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The Foundations of Liberal Policy
March 31, 2006 4:13 PM
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The Production of Security by Gustave Molinari (1849)
March 24, 2006 3:57 PM
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Binary Economics: Paradigm Shift Or Cluster of Errors?
March 17, 2006 1:16 PM
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The Mantle of Science
March 10, 2006 4:52 PM
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What is Society?
March 3, 2006 3:38 PM
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The Sociology of Taxation
February 24, 2006 3:21 PM
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The Law (Stirling Translation, 1874)
February 17, 2006 3:05 PM
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It all began, as usual, with the Greeks
February 10, 2006 4:11 PM
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Beware the Alchemists
February 3, 2006 8:01 AM
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