Mises Institute

This, of course, is great news for the Austrian School, where anyone in the world can do what Gordon Tullock did and become his own economist by reading Human Action! The University of Michigan students who spontaneously began chanting when Ron Paul showed up there in 2012 to campaign for the Republican nomination were not chanting "Game theory! Game theory!" They were chanting "End the Fed! End the Fed!" because they had read some of the works of Austrian economists.

Hoxie visited New York, and asked Johnson to come to his hotel for the evening. Hoxie "was frightening in his appearance." He told Johnson that he was finished. "I can see now, all my work has been bunk. All my writing, every lecture I have ever given, has been bunk." When asked for the reason, Hoxie continued, "I've come to see through Veblen. How could a man be so great a scientist and such a damn fool?" Hoxie concluded that "Veblen knew his equations didn't solve, but he used them just the same." Johnson closes his narrative by writing "I left him, promising to visit him in Chicago and renew the discussion. But before I could get around to a Chicago trip Hoxie killed himself."

In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises transforms the law of comparative advantage from a tool used to analyze international trade questions to a tool used at every level of trade. He renames it the "law of association." By applying the law of association to trade at every level (from individuals to general markets to international markets), Mises shows the necessity of free markets for human flourishing. The law of association may be the most difficult economic law to understand because sometimes it leads to counterintuitive conclusions. For example, if a person wants bread, it might be economically better for him to specialize in something else and trade for bread even if he is better at making bread than everyone else.

To understand Mises's position on ethics, it is essential to bear in mind that he is a psychological hedonist. He thinks everyone is always motivated by pleasure and pain, a view that comes straight from Epicurus. We seek pleasure and avoid pain. You might object that this is obviously false. Don't we do things very frequently like go on restrictive diets, exercise, study subjects that aren't fun, and so on? Mises's answer is that even though we are motivated by pleasure and pain, it doesn't follow that we are motivated by what will give us the most pleasure, or the least pain, at a given moment. We can be motivated by our wish for the most pleasure, or the least pain, over a long period of time.

In this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken looks at Rothbard’s essay “Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation State.” The essay provides some key insights into the nature of the nation-state, its origins, and implications for modern-day topics like immigration, citizenship, and national borders.

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Murray Rothbard argues that the nation-state’s boundaries—invariably acquired by force—deserve no more sanctity than any other product of conquest. He proposes radical decentralization through secession, down to the neighborhood level, as the path to genuine nations formed by consent rather than coercion.

Mark Thornton opens this episode with a strategic assessment of the war’s economic fallout: not the headlines, but the second- and third-order effects that are only now becoming visible. Oil production facilities across the Gulf have been destroyed, disrupted, or shut down, and restarting them is not a matter of flipping a switch. Some older wells will need to be redrilled entirely. Meanwhile, the disruption to fertilizer production threatens the next crop season and potentially longer-term food prices worldwide

Mark also provides a skyscraper curse update: the Jeddah Tower, once expected to reach record height in early 2027, has been pushed further out as Saudi finances and Gulf logistics are redirected toward reconstruction. The commodity super cycle thesis, he argues, remains fully intact despite the gold correction.

The second half features a detailed interview from Palisades Gold Radio in which Mark unpacks these themes further, covering the Austrian micro approach versus the Keynesian macro framework, why the stock market can hit all-time highs while the real economy deteriorates, and why the world is slowly but steadily moving back toward commodity money.

2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/issuesfree

Register for our upcoming Mises Circle, Why Is the Healthcare System Broken?, June 27 in Windham, New Hampshire: https://mises.org/events/why-healthcare-system-broken-mises-circle-new-hampshire

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To complain against the state’s actions, argues Hobbes, is to ultimately complain against yourself because you originally authorized the state through social contract and the state represents you!

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/hobbess-state-why-are-you-hitting-yourself

Entrepreneurship is a voluntary undertaking that causes change by providing value. No force, no threats, and no coercion are involved. It is market action fully in line with our libertarian ideals. And it provides alternatives, and produces variety.

Original article: https://mises.org/misesian/how-change-world-entrepreneurship-versus-politics

2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/AudioFree

California has been seen as the nation’s “Promised Land” for many years, but in the past 25 years, people have left due to high housing costs and high taxes. The state’s future is about to become a lot worse, as socialists are rising in power here.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/where-california-went-wrong

2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Anatomy of the State through May 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/AudioFree