The Economics of Liberty

This collection of short, entertaining, and educational articles exposes how government interference with the economy violates individual liberty, leads to inefficiencies, and rewards special interests. This collection appeared in 1991 and it holds up very well. Some people swear that this is one of the best collections ever printed by the Mises Institute.

This is an excellent introduction to the Mises Institute way of understanding the world. It's not wonder that Roy Childs wrote of this book: "The great virtue of the volume is the excellent interaction between first principles and current events.... rational, zippy, to the point, informative with facts and figures, and based soundly on the first principles of liberty and the free market.... you can take your time reading them, using them as a 'bed book' that you can dip into at will, and learn a lot of information in a short time. And the book sizzles."

Contributors include Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, David Gordon, Robert Higgs, and Tom Bethell.

The contents of this volume include:

• Introduction (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)

• I. Economic Truth vs. Political Power
  • Outlawing Jobs: The Minimum Wage, Once More (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • The Scourge of Unionism (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Keynesianism Redux (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • The Keynesian Dream (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • The Free-Rider Confusion (Tom Bethell)
  • Property Rights, Taxation, and the Supply-Siders (Tom Bethell)
  • The Regulatory Attack on the Market (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Are Savings Too Low? (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • The "We" Fallacy (Sheldon L. Richman)
  • U.S. Trade Law: Losing Its Bearings (Alex Taborrok)
  • Statistics: Destroyed from Within? (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • The Truth About Economic Forecasting (Graeme B. Littler)
  • Michael R. Milken: Political Prisoner? (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • The Economic Wisdom of the Late Scholastics (Jeffrey A. Tucker)

• II. Debunking the Bankers
  • Bring Back the Bank Run! (James Grant)
  • Nick and Jim Dandy to the Rescue (Bradley Miller)
  • Q&A on the S&L Mess (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • Inflation Redux (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • Faustian Economics (John V. Denson)
  • A Gold Standard for Russia? (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • The Source of the Business Cycle (Jeffrey A. Tucker)
  • The Key to Sound Money (Edwin Vieira, Jr.)
  • Foreclose on the World Bank (E. Cort Kirkwood)

• III. Unmasking the Bureaucrats
  • Why Bureaucracy Must Fail (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Your Visit to Our Nation's Capital (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • The CAse Against NASA (Sheldon L. Richman)
  • Kemp at HUD: Should Free-Marketeers Be Optimistic? (Greg Kaza)
  • Government and Hurrican Hugo: A Deadly Combination (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • Big Government: An Unnatural Disaster (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • In Defense of Congress (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Exxon: Biggest Victim of the Alaskan Oil Spill (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • "Afraid to Trust the People With Arms" (Stephen P. Halbrook)

• IV. The Government Mess
  • Back to First Principles (Joseph Sobran)
  • Why Government Grows (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Our Tentative Economics Freedoms (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • The Great Society and 25 Years of Decline (William Murchison)
  • Civil Rights and the Politics of Theft (Joseph Sobran)
  • Triumph of Liberty? Not in the U.S. (Robert Higgs)
  • The Federal Agricultural Swamp (James Bovard)
  • Government Garbage (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Artistic "Entitlement" (Doug Bandow)
  • What To Do About Traffic Congestion (Walter Block)
  • Time for An American Perestroika (Robert Higgs)
  • Immigration and Private Property (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)

• V. Threats and Outrages
  • End the War on Drugs (Joseph Sobran)
  • Drugs and Adultery (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Would Legalization Increase Drug Use? (Lawrence W. Reed)
  • Mickey Leland: Humanitarian? (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Choice in Schooling (Sheldon L. Richman)
  • The High Court Stems the Tupperware Threat (Sheldon L. Richman)
  • Welcoming the Vietnamese (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • The Double Danger of AIDS (Richard Hite)
  • The Megaeconomic Threat (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Controlling the World Economy (Graeme B. Littler and Jeffrey A. Tucker)
  • The Dangers of "National Service" (Sheldon L. Richman)
  • The Mandated-Benefits Scheme (Sheldon L. Richman)
  • Animal Crackers (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Christian Economics (Carl C. Curtis, III)
  • Breaking Up the Opinion Cartel (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • Lyndon Baines Bush? (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • The Environmentalist Threat (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)

• VI. The Communist Crackup
  • Mises Vindicated (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • The Freedom Revolution (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • The Old Right Was Right (Sheldon L. Richman)
  • The Vanishing Spectre of Communism (Doug Bandow)
  • The Socialist Holocaust in Armenia (Llewellyn H. Rockwell)
  • How to Desocialize? (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • A Radical Prescription for the Socialist Bloc (Murray N. Rothbard)
  • Mises in Moscow! An Interview with an Austrian Economist From the U.S.S.R. (Jeffrey A. Tucker)
  • Cambodian Catharsis (Lawrence W. Reed)
  • Mises's Blueprint for the Free Society (Sheldon L. Richman)

• Appendix

• A Foreign Policy for a Free-Market America: Two Views
  • A New Nationalism (Patrick J. Buchanan)
  • America First, Once More (Bill Kauffman)