Mises Institute

Epizode

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  The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland 29.07.2026 42min

  Reviewing Lawrence H. White’s Free Banking in Britain, Murray Rothbard dismantles the claim that Scotland enjoyed a century of successful free banking before the Peel Act of 1845. Drawing on Sydney Checkland’s history, he shows that the Scottish banks pyramided credit on the Bank of England rather than standing on their own specie, suspended payment alongside England from 1797 to 1821, and let reserves fall from 10–20 percent to as little as 1 percent, while depositors who asked for gold met argument, rebuff, and the threat of losing future credit. The rarity of bank failure that White counts as proof of success, Rothbard argues, is evidence of the opposite.
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  I Spent 28 Years Arresting Criminals. Rothbard Was Right All Along 29.07.2026 12min

  Murray Rothbard realized the present system of punishment for committing crimes is both inadequate and unjust. We need to move to a system of restitution. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/i-spent-28-years-arresting-criminals-rothbard-was-right-all-along
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  The Dupes of War 28.07.2026 10min

  No matter how legitimate the reasons might seem for going to war, the results are always horrific, and wars rarely, if ever, accomplish their stated purposes. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/dupes-war
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  Part III: A Böhm-Bawerkian Treatise, 1953–1955 27.07.2026 1h 20min

  Murray Rothbard’s project drastically changed in mid-1953. Unable to rely on Mises’s sparse treatment of production theory, Rothbard adopted his old Marshallian approach, focusing on an individual firm that faced fixed prices and restricted investment decisions. But he soon recognized the pitfalls of Marshallian partial equilibrium and discarded it for Austrian general equilibrium, emphasizing the Böhm-Bawerkian capitalist-entrepreneur’s ability to invest in multiple firms across the structure of production and influence market prices. In doing so, Rothbard finished the Böhm-Baverkian system by integrating the pure time preference theory of interest of Frank A. Fetter and Ludwig von Mises into the production structure analysis of Knut Wicksell and F. A. Hayek. This interrelatedness approach led Rothbard to differentiate between factor incomes, apply Mises’s theory of the impossibility of socialist economic calculation to a vertically integrated firm, and expose the flaws of neoclassical monopoly and competition theory. With these theoretical breakthroughs, by 1955 Rothbard moved beyond his initial goal of “bringing to the surface and clarifying” his mentor’s “edifice” to deducing the architectonic edifice of praxeological economic theory along the lines of Mises’s “great book” suggestion.
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  Ackowledgements 27.07.2026 2min

  This book has been several years in the making. Originally we envisioned it as a collection of letters and unpublished monographs from the Rothbard Papers at the Mises Institute. It was only in 2020 that we realized that a coherent narrative was needed to organize and bring to life the mass of correspondence and other writings. Over the next several years we wrote the manuscript and revised it as suggestions were made and new archival material was discovered.
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  Part II: A Misesian Textbook, 1949–1953 27.07.2026 1h 18min

  Murray Rothbard’s economic perspective changed significantly in 1949 when he met Ludwig von Mises and read his magnum opus, Human Action. With the financial support of the Volker Fund, Rothbard accepted Mises’s offer to write a textbook rendition of his treatise. Early on, Rothbard evinced a thorough understanding of Mises’s monetary transmission mechanism and praxeological method. This allowed him to further develop the theories of value and price formation the emerging neoclassical synthesis had neglected. In particular, Rothbard used the means-ends relationship to deduce the law of ordinal marginal utility rankings and contrasted it with modern theories of utility. He then showed how this law logically resulted in demand schedules that always sloped downward, which in turn led to a theory of pricing that explained the process of equilibration to the market clearing price. Finally, he extended his analysis to price formation in a monetary economy. In addition to exhibiting his own intellectual progress, Rothbard’s developments significantly advanced economic science because Mises assumed these logical deductions but never actually derived them.
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  Part V: Applying the Treatise, 1956–1962 27.07.2026 1h 13min

  The completion of the first draft of Man, Economy, and State enabled Murray Rothbard to move on to other activities and projects. He earned his doctorate in 1956 and reviewed papers and books for the Volker Fund, evaluating contemporary research using the body of economic theorems he had deduced. Focusing on the Chicago School, Rothbard criticized Israel Kirzner’s attempt to fuse Austrian insights with neo-Marshallian production theory as well as Milton Friedman and others’ neo-Fisherian monetary economics. Rothbard not only criticized new publications; he also continued to edit his treatise, adding new references and making other changes. In 1962, despite professional and institutional obstacles, Man, Economy, and State was finally published. With it, Rothbard greatly advanced the Austrian tradition and firmly positioned himself as Mises’s heir.
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  Part IV: The Rothbardian Theory of Interventionism, 1955–1956 27.07.2026 1h 6min

  Murray Rothbard used his general-equilibrium approach with its emphasis on economic interrelations to erect a systematic framework of interventionism. He started by elaborating further on the concept of the purely free market and developing a comprehensive welfare theory. He then proceeded to create a typology of government policy, formulate a novel theory of monopoly that distinguishes between a monopoly price and a free-market price, develop an original theory of backward tax imputation, and analyze the calculational chaos caused by government expenditure. The capstone of Rothbard’s analysis of interventionism was his integration of the Mises–Hayek theory of the business cycle into general economic theory. Rothbard was thus able to demonstrate how the boom could result only from credit expansion and not from an increase in the supply of commodity money such as gold. He also demonstrated how credit contraction during the bust promotes recovery. With these advances in the Austrian theory of the business cycle, Rothbard finally completed the monumental task of deducing the entire corpus of economic theory using the praxeological method.
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  Part I: Neoclassical Training, 1945–1949 27.07.2026 36min

  Murray Rothbard started his career with a foundational training in neoclassical economics. At Columbia University, he learned from highly regarded professors and demonstrated a thorough understanding of the positivist method, Keynesian and Marshallian economic theory, and institutional empirical analysis. Crucially, Rothbard perceived the fact that critical errors existed in these disparate strands of knowledge, although he could not yet articulate them. But the recognition itself motivated him to take the highly important step of contacting the free-market Foundation for Economic Education and the William Volker Fund, thereby discovering Austrian economics.
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  Introduction 27.07.2026 12min

  Murray N . Rothbard: The Making of an Austrian Economist is written for everyone interested in Rothbard’s economic theory and Austrian economics in general. We hope it will serve as a useful complementary volume to Man, Economy, and State by elucidating Rothbard’s many contributions and the process by which he developed an integrated structure of economic theory using the praxeological method.
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  Paradise Lost, Government Gained 27.07.2026 10min

  After defeating the British in the American Revolution, Americans had the opportunity to set the country on a long path of freedom. They chose to empower government, instead. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/paradise-lost-government-gained
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  Universal Principles of Liberalism and the Politics of Race 27.07.2026 8min

  In attempts to rectify what are seen as historical wrongs against certain groups of people, western governments have embarked on programs to engage in wrongs against other groups of people. The universal principles of liberalism are supplanted by policies sure to make matters worse. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/universal-principles-liberalism-and-politics-race
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  How Democratic Socialism Created California’s Housing Crisis 27.07.2026 12min

  The democratization of urban planning, the politicization of the environmental movement, and the no-growth movement came together to erect enormous barriers to housing construction in California. Original article: https://mises.org/misesian/how-democratic-socialism-created-californias-housing-crisis
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  Domestic Agorism: Eastern Europe’s Example of Libertarianism Without Academic Guidance 27.07.2026 9min

  The up and down experience with free markets in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Iron Curtain shows that free markets, while undermining the state, do not operate apart from state interference. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/domestic-agorism-eastern-europes-example-libertarianism-without-academic-guidance
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  The Making of an Austrian Economist 27.07.2026 45min

  Patrick Newman presents the book he and Joseph Salerno have written, Murray N. Rothbard: The Making of an Austrian Economist. He traces Rothbard’s path from a Columbia PhD steeped in the neoclassical synthesis, through his 1949 encounter with Mises and Human Action, to the writing of Man, Economy, and State—a project that began as a beginner’s textbook and grew into the treatise that stands beside Human Action at the core of the Austrian tradition. Along the way: Rothbard’s neglected theory of production, his reconstruction of welfare economics, and Mises’s own remarkable assessment of his heir. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 2026. Mises University is the world’s leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.
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  Stocks, Manure, Gold, and Socialism: Markets and Bad Ideas 25.07.2026 29min

  Mark Thornton opens with an update on the “Stocks versus Manure” prediction contest, where agricultural stocks are beating the S&P 500 year to date. He then joins Maggie Lake on Wealthion to discuss gold, silver, mining stocks, Kevin Warsh, Fed policy, interest rates, the dollar, and why the long-term thesis for precious metals rests on debt, deficits, monetary inflation, and financial repression. On Side B, Thornton appears on NTD to discuss the rising appeal of democratic socialism among younger Americans. He argues that young voters are reacting to real burdens—debt, unaffordable education, healthcare, housing, and Social Security promises—but are being drawn toward policies that cannot solve them. Mark also explains why socialism fails in theory and practice, from the calculation problem to incentives, and why education is essential to reversing the trend. 2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray's 100th birthday—and we're celebrating by giving away free copies of The Origins of the Federal Reserve through July 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/issuesfree 20% off listener offer on the insulated Minor Issues tumbler and three of Mark's books: https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumbler. Use coupon code Thornton. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues
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  Faculty Panel: Policy and History 25.07.2026 44min

  The Policy and History faculty panel takes student questions on the state of the movement and the prospects for freedom. Along the way the panelists remember Roger Garrison, the Auburn economist who drew several of them into Austrian economics and who passed away this past year; work through the newest ideas in the field; debate whether utilitarian or moral arguments win more converts; trace which pre-Austrian thinkers shaped the American founders; and close on the question that matters most to a room full of students — where, realistically, does hope for a freer society come from?
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  Faculty Panel: Theory and Method 25.07.2026 44min

  The Theory and Method faculty panel takes questions from Mises University students. They work through the tough theoretical ones (whether "supply-shock" inflation is really monetary, what Hayek got wrong about prices, how the mainstream's new "causal inference" differs from praxeological causation, whether transaction-cost economics fits an Austrian framework), then turn personal: the moment each of them discovered there was a way to do economics connected to the real world.
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  What Do Austrians Think of Equilibrium? 25.07.2026 46min

  What do Austrians think of equilibrium? Jonathan Newman's answer is "always and never." Rather than treating equilibrium as an unreachable ideal against which real markets are judged failures — the trap Mises warned against — he walks through a realistic market process asking at each step what has been settled and what remains open. That yields several distinct equilibrium constructs: the plane state of rest that occurs after every single exchange (where markets always clear), the Wicksellian state of rest where competitors' prices converge, and the final state of rest that the economy forever tends toward but never reaches. The payload is a quiet demolition of "sticky price" and "sticky wage" reasoning — and with it, the Keynesian account of depressions.
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  Interventionism and Inequality 25.07.2026 44min

  Mark Thornton turns Austrian analysis on economic inequality itself—not whether the pie is growing, but how government intervention re-slices it. Drawing on Rothbard’s distinction between specific and general factors of production, he shows the mechanism: any protection, license, tariff, or subsidy enriches the insiders of the favored industry while forcing the displaced resources out into the unprotected economy, where they compete down everyone else’s wages and returns. He works the logic through healthcare, and frames the whole thing around the rise of democratic socialism in America’s cities—arguing the young are right to be angry about the debt, Social Security, and unaffordable healthcare their elders voted in, even as the socialist cure would deepen the disease. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 24, 2026. Mises University is the world’s leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.