Mises’s Contribution to Understanding Business Cycles

In "The Theory of Money and Credit", Mises provided the basics for the long-sought explanation for that mysterious and troubling economic phenomenon — the business cycle, writes Murray Rothbard. This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Robert Hale.

How To Have Law Without Legislation

Rothbard explores Bruno Leoni’s call for a return to the ancient traditions and principles of "judge-made law" as a method of limiting the state and insuring liberty. This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Allan Davis.

Left, Right, and the Prospects for Liberty

For many who have read this book-length essay, it marked a turning point in a new understanding.

The mainstream will forever attempt to pigeonhole belief systems based on the left-right dichotomy. The right supposedly favors economic freedom plus militarism, while the left favors socialism plus peace. Rothbard says that this breakdown is not only incoherent, it has no support in the history of ideas.

In fact, Rothbard goes further to say that traditionally, the right has been the party of the establishment, of stasis, of the status quo, while the left in history has been the party of progress, freedom, and peace. These roles have periodically reversed based on the times and the country in question. But in these reversals, the intellectual coherence of these paradigms has gotten lost and confused.

Rothbard's broad look is a mind-opening experience. It has the effect of liberating you from the prevailing paradigm.

Rothbard's main task, however, is to provide a completely new and ideologically consistent lens with which to view history and current events.

"For the libertarian, the main task of the present epoch is to cast off his needless and debilitating pessimism, to set his sights on long-run victory and to set about the road to its attainment," he writes. "To do this, he must, perhaps first of all, drastically realign his mistaken view of the ideological spectrum; he must discover who his friends and natural allies are, and above all perhaps, who his enemies are. Armed with this knowledge, let him proceed in the spirit of radical long-run optimism that one of the great figures in the history of libertarian thought, Randolph Bourne, correctly identified as the spirit of youth."

30. Toward a Theory of Strategy for Liberty

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

29. Robert Nozick and the Immaculate Conception of the State

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

28. F.A. Hayek and The Concept of Coercion

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

27. Isaiah Berlin on Negative Freedom

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

26. Utilitarian Free-Market Economics

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

25. On Relations Between States

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

24. The Moral Status of Relations to the State

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

23. The Inner Contradictions of the State

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

22. The Nature of the State

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

21. The "Rights" of Animals

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

20. Lifeboat Situations

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

19. Property Rights and the Theory of Contracts

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

18. The Boycott

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

17. Bribery

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

16. Knowledge, True and False

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

15. "Human Rights" as Property Rights

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

14. Children and Rights

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

13. Punishment and Proportionality

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

12. Self-Defense

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

11. Land Monopoly, Past and Present

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

10. The Problem of Land Theft

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

9. Property and Criminality

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

8. Interpersonal Relations: Ownership and Aggression

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

7. Interpersonal Relations: Voluntary Exchange

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

6. A Crusoe Social Philosophy

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

5. The Task of Political Philosophy

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

4. Natural Law and Natural Rights

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

3. Natural Law versus Positive Law

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

2. Natural Law as 'Science'

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

1. Natural Law and Reason

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

Preface

Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

What Libertarians Should Learn From the Abolitionists

Libertarians must never compromise, even if it means accepting partial victories, writes Murray N. Rothbard. Murray Rothbard (1926–1995) was dean of the Austrian School. He was an economist, economic historian, and libertarian political philosopher. This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Clay Barnett.

4. The Decline of the Ricardian System, 1820-48 (continued)

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach

14. The Brilliance of Turgot (continued)

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume I'. Pages 385-412 in the text. Read by Jeff Riggenbach

14. After Mill: Bastiat and the French laissez-faire Tradition (continued)

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

14. After Mill: Bastiat and the French laissez-faire Tradition (continued 2)

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

14. After Mill: Bastiat and the French laissez-faire Tradition

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

13. The Marxian System, II: The Economics of Capitalism and its Inevitable Demise (continued)

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

13. The Marxian System, II: The Economics of Capitalism and its Inevitable Demise

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

12. The Marxian System, I: Historical Materialism and the Class Struggle (continued)

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

12. The Marxian System, I: Historical Materialism and the Class Struggle

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

11. Alienation, Unity, and the Dialectic

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

10. Marx's Vision of Communism (continued)

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

10. Marx's Vision of Communism

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

9. Roots of Marxism: Messianic Communism

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

8. John Stuart Mill and the Reimposition of Ricardian Economics

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach.

7. Monetary and Banking Thought, III: The Struggle Over the Currency School (continued 2)

From 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II'. Read by Jeff Riggenbach