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The Mises Reader

Unabridged

Shawn Ritenour

Editor

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Mises Institute, founded in 1982, is a teaching and research center for the study of Austrian economics, libertarian and classical liberal political theory, and peaceful international relations. In support of the school of thought represented by Ludwig von Mises, Murray N. Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt, and F.A. Hayek, we publish books and journals, sponsor student and professional conferences, and provide online education. Mises.org is a vast resource of free material for anyone in the world interested in these ideas. For we seek a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order.

For more information, see Mises.org, write us at info@mises.org, or phone us at 1.800.OF.MISES.

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Published 2016 by the Mises Institute. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.

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Mises Institute

518 West Magnolia Ave.

Auburn, Ala. 36832

mises.org

paperback edition: 978-1-61016-667-6

large print edition: 978-1-61016-668-3

epub: 978-1-61016-670-6

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Human Action

Epistemological Problems of Economics

1. The Basic Concept of Action and its Categorial Conditions

4. The Distinction Between Means and Ends: The “Irrational”

Human Action

1. Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction

2. The Prerequisites of Human Action

On Happiness

On Instincts and Impulses

Chapter 2: Action and Value

Epistemological Problems of Economics

1. The Delimitation of the “Economic”

2. Preferring as the Basic Element in Human Conduct

3. Eudaemonism and the Theory of Value

Human Action

1. Ends and Means

2. The Scale of Value

3. The Scale of Needs

4. Action as an Exchange

Theory and History

1. Judgments of Value and Propositions of Existence

2. Valuation and Action

3. The Subjectivity of Valuation

4. The Logical and Syntactical Structure of Judgments of Value

Chapter 3: Action in Time

Human Action

Chapter V: Time

1. The Temporal Character of Praxeology

2. Past, Present, and Future

3. The Economization of Time

4. The Temporal Relation Between Actions

Chapter VI: Uncertainty

1. Uncertainty and Acting

2. The Meaning of Probability

3. Class Probability

4. Case Probability

5. Numerical Evaluation of Case Probability

Chapter 4: Society, Exchange, and the Division of Labor

Human Action

1. Autistic Exchange and Interpersonal Exchange

2. Contractual Bonds and Hegemonic Bonds

Socialism

1. The Nature of Society

2. The Division of Labour as the Principle of Social Development

3. Organism and Organization

4. The Individual and Society

5. The Development of the Division of Labour

6. Changes in the Individual in Society

7. Social Regression

8. Private Property and Social Evolution

Human Action

1. Human Cooperation

3. The Division of Labor

4. The Ricardian Law of Association

Current Errors Concerning the Law of Association

5. The Effects of the Division of Labor

6. The Individual Within Society

Chapter 5: Capitalism: The Market Economy

Interventionism: An Economic Analysis

2. Capitalism or Market Economy

Economic Policy

“Capitalism”

Chapter 6: Emergence of Indirect Exchange

Human Action

The Epistemological Import of Carl Menger’s Theory of the Origin of Money

Chapter 7: Economic Calculation

Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth

2. The Nature of Economic Calculation

Human Action

1. Monetary Calculation as a Method of Thinking

2. Economic Calculation and the Science of Human Action

Chapter 8: Profit and Loss

Planning for Freedom

“Profit and Loss”

Section A: “The Economic Nature of Profit and Loss”

1. The Emergence of Profit and Loss

2. The Distinction Between Profits and Other Proceeds

3. Non-Profit Conduct of Affairs

4. The Ballot of the Market

5. The Social Function of Profit and Loss

6. Profit and Loss in the Progressing and in the Retrogressing Economy

7. The Competition of Profit and Loss

Section B: “The Condemnation of Profit”

2. The Consequences of the Abolition of Profit

3. The Anti-Profit Arguments

4. The Equality Argument

5. Communism and Poverty

Human Action

8. Entrepreneurial Profit and Loss

Chapter 9: The Nature of Money

The Theory of Money and Credit

1. The General Economic Conditions for the Use of Money

2. The Origin of Money

3. The “Secondary” Functions of Money

Money, Method, and the Market Process

“Senior’s Lectures on Monetary Problems”

“The Position of Money among Economic Goods”

1. Monetary Services and the Value of Money

2. Money Supply and Money Demand: The “Velocity of Circulation” of Money

3. Fluctuations in the Value of Money

4. Money Substitutes

Chapter 10: Monetary Theory and Policy

Selected Writings of Ludwig von Mises

“The Main Issues in Present-Day Monetary Controversies”

Introductory Remarks

I. The Purchasing Power Controversy

A. Is Money “Neutral”?

B. Are Changes in the Purchasing Power of Money Measurable?

C. Is It Possible to Adjust Monetary Manipulation to a Nonarbitrary Standard?

D. The Case Against Flexible Foreign Exchange Parities

E. The Case for the Gold Standard

II. The Credit Controversy

A. The Banking Principle

B. The Currency Principle

C. Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle

D. The Socialists’ Rejection of Austrian Theory

E. Salvation Through Credit Manipulation

III. The Foreign Exchange Controversy

A. Purchasing Power Parity Theory

B. Balance of Payment Theory

C. The Requirements of Foreign Exchange Stability

The Theory of Money and Credit

Chapter 7: The Concept of the Value of Money

1. Subjective and Objective Factors in the Theory of the Value of Money

2. The Objective Exchange Value of Money

Chapter 8: The Determinants of the Objective Exchange Value or Purchasing Power of Money

1. The Dependence of the Subjective Valuation of Money on the Existence of Objective Exchange Value

2. The Necessity for a Value Independent of the Monetary Function Before an Object Can Serve as Money

3. The Significance of Preexisting Prices in the Determination of Market Exchange Ratios

4. The Applicability of the Marginal-Utility Theory to Money

Money, Method, and the Money Process

“The Non-Neutrality of Money”

Economic Policy

“Inflation”

Chapter 11: Time and Time Preference

Human Action

1. Perspective in the Valuation of Time Periods

2. Time Preference as an Essential Requisite of Action

Some Applications of the Time-Preference Theory

Chapter 12: The Interest Rate

Human Action

1. The Phenomenon of Interest

2. Originary Interest

Chapter 13: The Business Cycle

Interventionism: An Economic Analysis

2. Credit Expansion

The Causes of the Economic Crisis and Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression

“Monetary Stabilization and Cyclical Policy”

1. The Banking School Fallacy

2. Early Effects of Credit Expansion

3. Inevitable Effects of Credit Expansion on Interest Rates

4. The Price Premium

5. Malinvestment of Available Capital Goods

6. “Forced Savings”

7. A Habit-Forming Policy

8. The Inevitable Crisis and Cycle

Chapter 14: Labor Productivity, Wages, and Unemployment

Planning for Freedom and Sixteen Other Essays and Addresses

“Wages, Unemployment and Inflation”

1. Wages Ultimately Paid By the Consumers

2. What Makes Wages Rise

3. What Causes Unemployment

4. Credit Expansion No Substitute for Capital

5. Inflation Cannot Go On Endlessly

6. The Policy Of The Unions

7. The Purchasing Power Argument

8. Wage Raises As Such Not Inflationary

9. The Dilemma of Present-Day Policies

10. Insincerity In The Fight Against Inflation

11. The Importance of Sound Monetary Policies

Human Action

3. Wages

4. Catallactic Unemployment

Chapter 15: The Hampered Market Economy

Planning for Freedom and Sixteen Other Essays and Addresses

“Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism”

1. Socialism

2. Interventionism, Allegedly a Middle-of-the-Road Policy

3. How Interventionism Works

4. How Price Control Leads to Socialism

5. The Zwangswirtschaft Type of Socialism

6. German and British Experience

7. Crises and Unemployment

8. Two Roads to Socialism

9. Foreign Exchange Control

10. Progressive Taxation

11. The Trend Toward Socialism

12. Loopholes Capitalism

13. The Coming of Socialism is Not Inevitable

Chapter 16: Price Controls

Planning for Freedom

“Inflation and Price Control”

1. The Futility of Price Control

Economic Policy

“Interventionism”

Chapter 17: Keynes and Keynesianism

Planning for Freedom and Sixteen Other Essays and Addresses

“Lord Keynes and Say’s Law”

I

II

III

IV

“Stones into Bread, The Keynesian Miracle”

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

Human Action

The Chimera of Contracyclical Policies

Chapter 18: Economic Progress

Economic Policy

“Foreign Investment”

Human Action

9. Entrepreneurial Profits and Losses in a Progressing Economy

Chapter 19: The Importance of Liberty

Liberty and Property

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

Money, Method, and The Market Process

“The Idea of Liberty Is Western”

II

III

IV

V

Chapter 20: Economic Method

Money, Method, and The Market Process

“Social Science and Natural Science”

I

II

III

IV

V

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

Some Preliminary Observations

3. On Economics

4. The Starting Point of Praxeological Thinking

Chapter 2. The Activistic Basis of Knowledge

5. The Two Branches of the Sciences of Human Action

6. The Logical Character of Praxeology

Chapter 4. Certainty and Uncertainty

1. The Problem of Quantitative Definiteness

9. The Examination of Praxeological Theorems

Chapter 7. The Epistemological Roots of Monism

4. The Case of the Sciences of Human Action

5. The Fallacies of Positivism

Chapter 8. Positivism and the Crisis of Western Civilization

1. The Misinterpretation of the Universe

2. The Misinterpretation of the Human Condition

Chapter 21: Appreciations

Economic Freedom and Interventionism

“Man, Economy, and State”

“The Economist Eugen v. Böhm-Bawerk: on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of His Death”

Bibliography

Index

The Mises Reader Unabridged

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