Mises Institute - Austrian Economics

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a Professor of Economics @UNLV, recently came under fire by his university's administration on the contentious 'academic freedom' issue! However, he is also a renowed Austrian school economist, a libertarian/anarcho-capitalist philosopher and the Editor of Journal of Libertarian Studies. He is also a student of the famous austrian economist Murray Rothbard, also a Professor of Economics @UNLV until his death in 1995. The writings of these two economists inspired me to explore Austrian economics and libertarian political theory. A good starting point in this endeavor was the Ludwig Mises Institute website - an invaluable resource of publications, biographies, research tools, etc.
Austiran school considers itself not as a field in economics that relies on mathematized models of the economy, but as an alternative way to look at it - more realistically and hence, socially scientific. Carl Menger's 'Principles of Economics' is considered the first formal publication for this school of thought and has since, influenced many thinkers. An important contribution later is Ludwig Von Mises's 'The Theory of Money and Credit' published in 1912 and his translated treatise 'Human Action' that followed. Mises is considered among the pioneers of free markets and along with F. A. Hayek, established the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research, and showed that the central bank is the source of the business cycle (Keynes later proved that the market itself is responsible for the business cycle). The first Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was shared by F. A. Hayek in 1974 (a link to his wonderful short speech at the ceremony) for this work and hence, sparked an interest in Austrian economics and free markets, which is on a clear upswing at present.

A good way to keep in touch with the work done by the researchers @Mises is through the Daily Articles page that delivers one article every day in your mailbox upon registration.

Some of the my favorite reads from this endless resource include..
'A Libertarian Case for Free Immigration' by Walter Block
'What Information Overload Can Teach Us' by Gary Galles
'What is the "Dark Side" and Why Do Some People Choose It?' by Mark Thornton
'A Reluctant Purist: Bhagwati on Trade' by David Cotton
'On Ricardo and Free Trade' by Richard C. B. Johnsson
'Mises Vs Marx: The Battle Continues' by Joseph Stromberg
'Why Professors Hate the Market' by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.