312 terms of the Austrian tradition in economics and its philosophy: the English term and its German original, an explanation, and a passage from the English original by Mises, Rothbard, Hoppe, Menger, Bastiat or Read, with a link to the text.
Praxeologos
Knowledge that derives from experience; the opposite of a priori.
In the original“There is no means to abstract from a historical experience a posteriori any theories or theorems concerning human conduct and policies.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 3. The A Priori and Reality · mises.org ↗
Knowledge or a proposition that precedes experience and cannot be refuted by it; for Mises and Hoppe, the foundation of praxeology.
In the original“No special experience is needed in order to comprehend these theorems, and no experience, however rich, could disclose them to a being who did not know a priori what human action is.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 10. The Procedure of Economics · mises.org ↗
The person who acts; the subject of praxeology.
In the original“For acting man only those teachings are of real importance which result in precepts for action, not those doctrines which are purely academic and do not apply to conduct within the frame of social cooperation.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, IX. The Role of Ideas · 2. World View and Ideology · mises.org ↗
The indisputable proposition that human beings act; the principle from which the whole of praxeology is logically deduced.
In the original“As in the case of the action axiom, this knowledge is not derived from observation: there is only verbal behavior to be observed and prior reflective cognition is required in order to interpret such behavior as meaningful arguments.”
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Economic Science and the Austrian Method, On Praxeology and the Praxeological Foundation of Epistemology · III · mises.org ↗
A proposition whose truth follows from the analysis of its concepts (e.g. a definition); the opposite of a synthetic proposition.
Related wording in the original“This theorem is a tautology, its deduction results in an analytic judgment.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 3. The A Priori and Reality · mises.org ↗
The constant relation of cause and effect; for Mises, a category of the mind that every action presupposes.
In the original“There is, apart from formal logic, no such thing as a set of “methodological” rules applicable both to cognition by means of the category of causality and to that by means of the category of finality.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIII. The Data of the Market · 1. The Theory and the Data · mises.org ↗
The assumption that all other factors remain unchanged, so that the effect of a single change can be isolated.
In the original“Other things being equal, however, it is possible that one of the methods will prove more productive; thus, it may be that the actor can complete the task in less time if he works on it continuously.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 1 — Fundamentals of Human Action · 9. The Formation of Capital · mises.org ↗
The logical derivation of conclusions from axioms; the method of praxeology.
In the original“In the physical sciences, the premises are only hypothetical, and logical deductions are made from them.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 1 — Fundamentals of Human Action · Appendix A: Praxeology and Economics · mises.org ↗
The view that all events, and therefore human choices too, are predetermined by prior causes.
In the original“This unbroken determinism, which is the epistemological starting point of all that the experimental natural sciences do and teach, is not derived from experience; it is a priori.”
Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, The Epistemological Roots of Monism · 1. The Nonexperimental Character of Monism · mises.org ↗
A general and necessary relation that holds a priori for every action; not an empirical generalization.
In the original“One of the most important economic laws, therefore, is: Every supply of money is always utilized to its maximum extent, and hence no social utility can be conferred by increasing the supply of money.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 4. Utility of the Stock of Money · mises.org ↗
The philosophical view that all knowledge comes from experience; Hoppe and Mises reject it for economics.
In the original“There is no doubt that empiricism and pragmatism are right as far as they merely describe the procedures of the natural sciences.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 2. The Formal and Aprioristic Character of Praxeology · mises.org ↗
An imaginary construction of Mises: an economy in which the same data repeat endlessly, with no uncertainty, profit or loss. It serves to isolate pure interest and final prices.
In the original“In this evenly rotating economy, 418 ounces are earned and then spent, with no net “hoarding” or “dishoarding,” i.e., no net additions or subtractions from the cash balance over the period as a whole.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Production: The Rate of Interest and Its Determination · 4. The Time Market and the Production Structure · mises.org ↗
Concerning the situation before action, that is, expected magnitudes (e.g. ex ante saving or ex ante profit); the opposite of ex post.
In the original“Ex ante is his position when he must decide on a course of action; it is the relevant and dominant consideration for human action.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 5. The Marginal Utility of Money · mises.org ↗
Concerning the situation after action, that is, realized magnitudes (e.g. ex post saving or ex post profit); the opposite of ex ante.
In the original“Ex post is his recorded observation of the results of his past action.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 5. The Marginal Utility of Money · mises.org ↗
The possibility that a proposition is refuted by experience (Popper); praxeological propositions are not subject to it.
In the original“On the other hand, falsification of records by managers and the pervasive opportunity for bribery may be used to establish some form of limited market.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 5 — Binary Intervention: Government Expenditures · 3. Resource-Using Activities: Socialism · mises.org ↗
The view that there are no timeless economic laws and that economics is historically relative; the school Menger opposed in the Methodenstreit.
In the original“In the eyes of those influenced by historicism, the market economy is the social order of an inferior stage of human evolution which the inescapable process of progressive perfection will eliminate in order to establish the more adequate system of socialism.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Five Social Cooperation Without a Market XXV. THE IMAGINARY CONSTRUCTION OF A SOCIALIST SOCIETY · 1. The Historical Origin of the Socialist Idea · mises.org ↗
Purposeful behavior: man’s conscious effort to bring the state of affairs closer to his ends. A central concept of Mises.
In the original“What counts in human action is not truth as it may appear to an omniscient being, but the opinions of people liable to error.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 7. Good Will · mises.org ↗
A conceptual tool that describes the characteristic features of a phenomenon (Weber); Mises distinguishes it from praxeological concepts.
In the original“An ideal type is not a class concept, because its description does not indicate the marks whose presence definitely and unambiguously determines class membership.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 9. On Ideal Types · mises.org ↗
A conceptual “model” (e.g. the evenly rotating economy) used to analyze the working of the market logically.
In the original“Even imaginary constructions which are inconceivable, self-contradictory, or unrealizable can render useful, even indispensable services in the comprehension of reality, provided the economist knows how to use them properly.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Four Catallactics or Economics of the Market Society XIV. THE SCOPE AND METHOD OF CATALLACTICS · 2. The Method of Imaginary Constructions · mises.org ↗
The fundamental category of action: the actor chooses means in order to attain ends.
In the original“Men have never doubted that even in the state of emotion means and ends are pondered and that it is possible to influence the outcome of this deliberation by rendering more costly the yielding to the passionate impulse.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 2. The Prerequisites of Human Action · mises.org ↗
Mises’ view that the sciences of human action and the natural sciences require different methods.
In the original“But as long as we do not know how external facts—physical and physiological—produce in a human mind definite thoughts and volitions resulting in concrete acts, we have to face an insurmountable methodological dualism.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 3. Human Action as an Ultimate Given · mises.org ↗
The principle that social phenomena are explained by tracing them back to the actions of individuals. Nations, states and other collectives are real, but they act only through the actions of individuals; their study therefore starts from what individuals do and from the meaning they attach to their actions.
In the original“For a social collective has no existence and reality outside of the individual members’ actions.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. II, §4 “The Principle of Methodological Individualism” · mises.org ↗
The view that all sciences, the social sciences included, must follow the method of the natural sciences; the opposite of dualism.
In the original“The panmechanistic world view is committed to a methodological monism; it acknowledges only mechanistic causality because it attributes to it alone any cognitive value or at least a higher cognitive value than to teleology.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 6. The Alter Ego · mises.org ↗
The plain state of rest is the momentary pause in exchange when no exchange is left that would benefit both parties; the final state of rest is the point toward which the market would tend if the data stayed constant.
In the original“In plain language, this means that when extra penalties are placed upon man’s efforts he will generally slacken them; but in some cases, he will work harder to try to offset the burdens.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 8. Binary Intervention: Taxation · mises.org ↗
The view that different groups (classes, races) have a different logical structure of thought; Mises refutes it.
In the original“This brand of polylogism is in agreement with fashionable, although mistaken, tendencies in present-day empiricism.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, III. Economics and the Revolt Against Reason · 4. Racial Polylogism · mises.org ↗
The methodological view that only empirically verifiable knowledge is scientific; the great adversary of praxeology.
In the original“As far as the objections of empiricism, behaviorism, and positivism are directed against any variety of the soul-theory, they are of no avail for our problem.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 6. The Alter Ego · mises.org ↗
The general theory of human action: the a priori science that deduces its conclusions from the axiom that man acts. Economics is its most fully developed branch. Its theorems do not depend on the particular content of an action, or on its place and time; they hold for every action as such.
In the original“Praxeology is a theoretical and systematic, not a historical, science.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. II, §1 “Praxeology and History” · mises.org ↗
A proposition from which a conclusion is deduced; in praxeology, the few universally known premises (such as the action axiom) from which economic theorems are derived.
In the original“The first premise is valid (but only in an ordinal sense), but the second and third are nonsensical.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Binary Intervention: Taxation · 7. Canons of “Justice” in Taxation · mises.org ↗
Behavior directed by a purpose; Human Action defines action as “purposeful behavior.”
In the original“Conscious or purposeful behavior is in sharp contrast to unconscious behavior, i.e., the reflexes and the involuntary responses of the body’s cells and nerves to stimuli.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 1. Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction · mises.org ↗
A proposition that is not merely analytic (a tautology) but adds knowledge and is at the same time true a priori; for Hoppe, the axioms of praxeology.
In the original“Synthetic a priori propositions are those whose truth-value can be definitely established, even though in order to do so the means of formal logic are not sufficient (while, of course, necessary) and observations are unnecessary.”
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Economic Science and the Austrian Method, Praxeology and Economic Science · mises.org ↗
The explanation of phenomena by purposes; human action is teleological.
In the original“Teleology is found wanting as soon as the question is raised of what moves the prime mover.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 6. The Alter Ego · mises.org ↗
A mental construction that examines logically the consequences of assumptions (e.g. models of the economy).
Describes the mechanism · the term itself is not in this passage“The use of imaginary constructions to which nothing corresponds in reality is an indispensable tool of thinking.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Three Economic Calculation XI. VALUATION WITHOUT CALCULATION · 2. The Barter-Fiction of the Elementary Theory of Value and Prices · mises.org ↗
Knowledge of human valuations, ideas and motives, which history and the everyday understanding of others make use of; Mises distinguishes it from praxeology.
In the original“Thymology is a branch of history or, as Collingwood formulated it, it belongs in “the sphere of history.” It deals with the mental activities of men that determine their actions.”
Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, The Activistic Basis of Knowledge · 8. The Thymological Method · mises.org ↗
The point beyond which analysis cannot proceed, such as the individual’s value judgments and ideas; for Mises, the limit of scientific explanation.
In the original“Reason is an ultimate given and cannot be analyzed or questioned by itself.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, III. Economics and the Revolt Against Reason · 6. The Case for Reason · mises.org ↗
The understanding of the meaning that actors attach to their action; for Mises, the method of history.
In the original“The scope of understanding is the mental grasp of phenomena which cannot be totally elucidated by logic, mathematics, praxeology, and the natural sciences to the extent that they cannot be cleared up by all these sciences.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 7. The Scope and the Specific Method of History · mises.org ↗
The dissatisfaction that prompts action; the actor expects action to remove it.
In the original“His uneasiness is caused by the awareness of the fact that other people are in want.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Four Catallactics or Economics of the Market Society XIV. THE SCOPE AND METHOD OF CATALLACTICS · 3. The Pure Market Economy · mises.org ↗
A personal appraisal that something is better or worse; distinguished from factual propositions.
In the original“Value judgments are necessarily always subjective, whether they are passed by one man only or by many men, by a blockhead, a professor, or a statesman.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 15. The Chimera of Nonmarket Prices · mises.org ↗
The principle that science passes no value judgments on the ends of acting individuals (Weber, Mises).
Describes the mechanism · the term itself is not in this passage“It is futile to approach social facts with the attitude of a censor who approves or disapproves from the point of view of quite arbitrary standards and subjective judgments of value.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Introduction · 1. Economics and Praxeology · mises.org ↗
Necessarily true; certain with logical certainty. Mises uses it for the theorems deduced from the category of action, in contrast to the merely probable knowledge we can have of empirical reality and of future events.
In the original“Apodictic certainty is only within the orbit of the deductive system of aprioristic theory. The most that can be attained with regard to reality is probability.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. VI, §1 “Uncertainty and Acting” · mises.org ↗
In Kant: the moral command that binds unconditionally.
In the original“They believe they can construct a socialist commonwealth on the basis of the Categorical Imperative alone.”
Ludwig von Mises, Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, 4. Responsibility and Initiative in Communal Concerns · mises.org ↗
The philosophical study of knowledge and its limits.
In the original“The epistemology of biology is outside of the scope of our inquiries. [21] See below, pp. 252–256. [22] See below, pp. 233–235 and 241–245. [23] See below, pp. 131–133. [24] Cf.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 11. The Limitations on Praxeological Concepts · mises.org ↗
Man’s capacity to choose and to act.
In the original“In referring to the free will we are pointing out that in the production of events something can be instrumental about which the natural sciences cannot convey any information, something that the natural sciences cannot even notice.”
Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, Necessity and Volition · 4. Free Will · mises.org ↗
The theory of the interpretation of texts and of human actions.
In the original“Today it is with us everywhere under the names of hermeneutics, rhetoric, deconstructionism, and epistemological anarchism.”
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Economic Science and the Austrian Method, On Praxeology and the Praxeological Foundation of Epistemology · II · mises.org ↗
Immediate knowledge. In Kant, Anschauung: empirical or pure intuition.
In the original“Metaphysicians were eager to discover by intuition moral precepts, the meaning of historical evolution, the properties of soul and matter, and the laws governing physical, chemical, and physiological events.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 2. The Formal and Aprioristic Character of Praxeology · mises.org ↗
The study of aggregate magnitudes; misleading, in the Austrian view.
In the original“The behavior of aggregates, such as the aggregate demand for money and aggregate supply, has been constructed out of their individual components.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 13. The Fallacy of the Equation of Exchange · mises.org ↗
The view that all phenomena derive from matter.
In the original“Even many of those who passionately attack Marxism on account of its materialism and atheism are under the sway of the ideas developed in the Communist Manifesto and in the program of the Communist International.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXVIII. The Place of Economics in Learning · 4. Economics and the Universities · mises.org ↗
Modeling with mathematical tools; misleading, in the Austrian view, because it relies on constants.
In the original“The main deficiency of mathematical economics is not the fact that it ignores the temporal sequence, but that it ignores the operation of the market process.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 5. Logical Catallactics Versus Mathematical Catallactics · mises.org ↗
The view that reason is a source of knowledge independent of experience.
In the original“The scientific theory as developed by the social philosophy of eighteenth-century rationalism and modern economics does not resort to any miraculous interference of superhuman powers.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Two Action Within the Framework of Society VIII. HUMAN SOCIETY · 2. A Critique of the Holistic and Metaphysical View of Society · mises.org ↗
The belief that the method of the natural sciences applies to every field.
Describes the mechanism · the term itself is not in this passage“Materialism and panphysicalism proclaim mechanicalism as the essence of all knowledge and the experimental and mathematical methods of the natural sciences as the sole scientific mode of thinking.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 6. The Alter Ego · mises.org ↗
A proposition that is true solely by virtue of its form.
In the original“This theorem is a tautology, its deduction results in an analytic judgment.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 3. The A Priori and Reality · mises.org ↗
In Kant: reality as it is, independently of our experience.
No verified English passage yet. The term a Kantian term; none of the English originals used by the site contains it.
In Kant: concerning the a priori conditions that make experience possible.
No verified English passage yet. The term not found in the English texts of the listed books. The books that use the term are linked below.
In Kant, Verstand (understanding, the faculty of concepts and categories) is distinguished from Vernunft (reason, the faculty of ideas and of inference).
In the original“The reason is that the existing capital structure and acquired skills and locations of the labor force are initially maladjusted to the newly prevailing equilibrium configuration of the data.”
Ludwig von Mises, Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, Mises vs. the Hayekians · mises.org ↗
An ethical theory that judges acts by their consequences for welfare.
In the original“It is true that the writings of many earlier champions of Eudaemonism, Hedonism, and Utilitarianism are in some points open to misinterpretation.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 2. The Prerequisites of Human Action · mises.org ↗
Goods that satisfy wants directly; goods of the first order.
In the original“More consumer goods mean a higher standard of living for the public; more capital goods mean sustained and increased living standards in the future.”
Murray N. Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?, Money in a Free Society · 8. the “proper” Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
The difference between the highest sum a buyer would pay and the price he actually pays; Rothbard and Mises reject it as a measurable magnitude, because utility cannot be measured.
In the original“So far we have discussed price discrimination by sellers in consumers’ markets, where consumer surpluses are tapped.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 10 — Monopoly and Competition · 6. Multiform Prices and Monopoly · mises.org ↗
Rothbard’s principle that only actual choice reveals an individual’s preferences; only such choice can ground the theory of utility and welfare.
No verified English passage yet. The term Rothbard develops it in “Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics” (1956), which is not among the site’s texts. The books that use the term are linked below.
A state of balance; in Mises and Rothbard, a hypothetical limiting state (the evenly rotating economy) in which no further change takes place.
In the original“In any equilibrium situation, net saving is zero by definition (since net saving means a change in the level of gross saving over the previous period of time), and net income equals consumption and consumption alone.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 8 — Production: Entrepreneurship and Change · 2. The Effect of Net Investment · mises.org ↗
The value of a good as a means of obtaining other goods through exchange, as against the value of its direct use (Menger).
In the original“For him, the exchange-value is the only important factor, and his interest lies solely in maximizing his money income from the stock and therefore in attaining the highest money prices in the sale of each good.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 3 — The Pattern of Indirect Exchange · 7. Maximizing Income and Allocating Resources · mises.org ↗
Anything the actor considers a suitable means of attaining an end.
In the original“Capital goods are produced goods that must be combined still further with other factors in order to provide the consumers’ good—the good that finally yields the ultimate satisfaction to the consumer.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 8. Welfare Comparisons and the Ultimate Satisfactions of the Consumer · mises.org ↗
Goods that serve in the production of other goods (Menger).
In the original“The prices of the goods of higher orders are ultimately determined by the prices of the goods of the first or lowest order, that is, the consumers’ goods.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 3. The Prices of the Goods of Higher Orders · mises.org ↗
The attribution of the value of a product to the factors that contributed to it.
In the original“It will be seen that value imputation is easy for isolated Crusoe-type actors, but that special conditions are needed to enable the value-imputing process, as well as the factor-allocating process, to take place in a complex economy.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 1 — Fundamentals of Human Action · 7. Factors of Production: Convertibility and Valuation · mises.org ↗
The comparison or summing of the subjective utilities of different people, which the Austrians hold to be impossible, because utility cannot be measured.
In the original“Interpersonal utility comparisons, the “compensation principle,” the “social welfare function,” are typical examples.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Conclusion: Economics and Public Policy · 2. Implicit Moralizing: The Failures of Welfare Economics · mises.org ↗
Each additional unit of the same good serves a less important end, and so has a smaller marginal value.
In the original“This fundamental law of economics has been derived from the fundamental axiom of human action; it is the law of marginal utility, sometimes known as the law of diminishing marginal utility.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 1 — Fundamentals of Human Action · 5. Further Implications · mises.org ↗
The principle that adding more of one factor to a fixed quantity of others yields diminishing returns.
In the original“According to the law of returns, there is an optimum of proportions of factors, given other factors, in the production of any given product.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 1. Imputation of the Discounted Marginal Value Product · mises.org ↗
The addition to the product that is due to the last unit of a factor of production.
In the original“If the marginal productivity of labor is so low that a worker can only earn in ten hours wages which are substandard when compared with American wages, one does not benefit the laborer by decreeing the eight-hour day.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIX. Restriction of Production · 2. The Prize of Restriction · mises.org ↗
The value of the last (marginal) unit of a supply of a good, as the acting individual appraises it; it falls as the supply increases. It is not a measured quantity: the individual does not add up units of utility but ranks the uses that a unit of the supply would serve, and gives up the least important of them first.
In the original“When faced with the problem of the value to be attached to one unit of a homogeneous supply, man decides on the basis of the value of the least important use he makes of the units of the whole supply; he decides on the basis of marginal utility.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. VII, §1 “The Law of Marginal Utility” · mises.org ↗
The value of the best alternative given up when something is chosen.
In the original“This is the opportunity cost of the firm’s using the product, since it equals the value product that is forgone through failure to use the factor unit elsewhere.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 2. Determination of the Discounted Marginal Value Product · mises.org ↗
Utility is only ordinal, that is, a ranking of preferences (first, second, third), not cardinal, that is, a measurable quantity that can be added or divided.
In the original“Utility theory is not concerned with psychology or the internal operations of the mind, but is part of a separate science based on the logical consequences of the simple existence of action.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 9. Some Fallacies Relating to Utility · mises.org ↗
The apparent paradox that water, though indispensable, is worth less than diamonds; it is resolved by marginal utility, since choices concern specific units and not whole classes of goods.
In the original“This mode of speaking in terms of classes of wants becomes intelligible only if we remember the role played in the history of economic thought by the alleged paradox of value.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, VII. Action Within the World · 1. The Law of Marginal Utility · mises.org ↗
The choice of one thing over another, which shows itself only in action.
In the original“If the time-preference rate is 10 percent, purchasing the aforementioned good for 59.4 ounces, holding it, and renting it out for 10 years to acquire 100 ounces does not constitute a monetary profit.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 7. The Prices of Durable Goods and Their Services · mises.org ↗
The subjective benefit of action, which is not necessarily monetary; monetary profit is only one form of it.
In the original“This was also called attempting to “maximize psychic revenue” or “psychic income.” This is a praxeological truth, a general law holding for all human action, with no qualification whatsoever.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 3 — The Pattern of Indirect Exchange · 7. Maximizing Income and Allocating Resources · mises.org ↗
The insufficiency of means in relation to ends; the precondition of economic action.
In the original“The natural scarcity of the means of sustenance forces every living being to look upon all other living beings as deadly foes in the struggle for survival, and generates pitiless biological competition.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIV. Harmony and Conflict of Interests · 2. The Limitation of Offspring · mises.org ↗
Value is not inherent in goods; it arises from the appraisals of acting individuals.
In the original“N the frame of Ricardian economics the idea of rent was an attempt at a treatment of those problems which modern economics approaches by means of marginal-utility analysis.[1] Ricardo’s theory appears rather unsatisfactory when judged from the point of view of present-day insight; there is no doubt that the method of the subjective-value theory is far superior.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXII. The Nonhuman Original Factors of Production · 1. General Observations Concerning the Theory of Rent · mises.org ↗
Uncertainty about the future; an element of every action and the source of entrepreneurial profit.
In the original“Uncertainty, indeed, is a fundamental feature of all human action, and uncertainty about changing prices and changing value scales are aspects of this basic uncertainty.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 5. The Marginal Utility of Money · mises.org ↗
The capacity of a good to satisfy a want, as the actor appraises it.
In the original“Utility theory is not concerned with psychology or the internal operations of the mind, but is part of a separate science based on the logical consequences of the simple existence of action.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 9. Some Fallacies Relating to Utility · mises.org ↗
The individual actor’s appraisal of the value of a good.
In the original“Of course, where valuations are changing, as they almost always are in a changing world, markets for old stock will again be continuing.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 3. Determination of Supply and Demand Schedules · mises.org ↗
The importance an actor attaches to a good as a means to his ends.
In the original“This value is, of course, unmeasurable in money terms, and necessarily differs for each individual, since there can be no comparison between the value scales of two or more persons.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 5 — Production: The Structure · 5. Cost · mises.org ↗
The branch that assesses economic situations with respect to “social welfare”; Rothbard reconstructed it on the basis of demonstrated preference.
In the original“Lerner, The Economics of Control, Principles of Welfare Economics (New York, 1944), pp. 307–308. [3] Cf. above, pp. 536–537. [4] Cf. above, pp. 518–520.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXII. Confiscation and Redistribution · 3. Confiscatory Taxation · mises.org ↗
The stock of means of production accumulated through saving, which raises the productivity of labor.
In the original“As capital goods also are exchanged and as such exchanges are effected under the same conditions as the exchange of all other goods, here too indirect exchange and the use of money become peremptory.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVIII. Action in the Passing of Time · 9. Money and Capital; Saving and Investment · mises.org ↗
The growth of the stock of capital through saving.
In the original“Its capital accumulation and investments are founded upon the expectation that no such expropriation will occur.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXII. Confiscation and Redistribution · 1. The Philosophy of Confiscation · mises.org ↗
The shrinking of the stock of capital when worn-out capital goods are not replaced; society then lives on its capital, not on its income.
In the original“On the contrary, one must realize that under modern conditions the forces driving toward capital consumption are more likely to prevail under inflationary conditions than those driving toward capital accumulation.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 5. The Effects of Changes in the Money Relation Upon Originary Interest · mises.org ↗
The increase in the capital value of an asset; for Rothbard, a form of entrepreneurial profit, not an income that can be taxed neutrally.
In the original“As in the case of ground land, the permanent resource belongs to the first finder and first user, and often some of these initial capital gains are absorbed by interest on the capital originally invested in the business of resource-finding.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 6. The Depletion of Natural Resources · mises.org ↗
Produced means of production that are not consumed directly (machines, tools, intermediate products).
In the original“Capital goods are produced goods that must be combined still further with other factors in order to provide the consumers’ good—the good that finally yields the ultimate satisfaction to the consumer.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 8. Welfare Comparisons and the Ultimate Satisfactions of the Consumer · mises.org ↗
The present value of an asset, that is, the discounted sum of its expected future returns; capitalization is its calculation.
In the original“The capital value of the firm is increased at any given time by new investment and is maintained by the reinvestments of the owners after the finished product is sold.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Production: The Rate of Interest and Its Determination · 8. The Joint-Stock Company · mises.org ↗
The theory that trade benefits both parties when each country specializes in what it does at the lowest opportunity cost; in Mises, the “law of association.”
In the original“This important principle—that exchange may beneficially take place even when one party is superior in both lines of production—is known as the law of association, the law of comparative costs, or the law of comparative advantage.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 2 — Direct Exchange · 3. Exchange and the Division of Labor · mises.org ↗
The decline in the value of capital goods through wear and use, and the sum that must be set aside to replace them so that capital is not consumed.
In the original“In the case of capital goods it is also true that the limitations of available labor supply will often make idle those goods which are expected to yield a lesser return as compared with other capital that can be employed by labor.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 10 — Monopoly and Competition · 3. The Illusion of Monopoly Price · mises.org ↗
The value of a factor’s marginal product, discounted by the rate of interest for the time until the product is sold; on the market the price of the factor tends to equal it.
In the original“Thus, if the DMVP of a factor is six gold ounces, and if the factor is employed on a process practically instantaneous with consumption, its MVP will be six.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 2. Determination of the Discounted Marginal Value Product · mises.org ↗
Reducing a future value to its present value by means of the rate of interest; the prices of factors are discounted values of their future product.
In the original“The fact that complete discounting never takes place is due to the presence of uncertainty, and the result is a continual accretion of entrepreneurial gains through rising capital values of land.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 8 — Production: Entrepreneurship and Change · 3. Capital Values and Aggregate Profits in a Changing Economy · mises.org ↗
The specialization of people in different tasks; a source of social cooperation and of wealth.
In the original“As far as there is division of labor, everybody is affected by a drop in the amount other people contribute to supplying the market.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIX. Restriction of Production · 3. Restriction as a Privilege · mises.org ↗
Gross investment is the whole money expenditure on factors of production at all stages; net investment is what remains above the replacement of the capital being used up.
In the original“The larger gross investment fund is absorbed, so to speak, by higher prices of high-order capital goods and by the consequent new stages of turnover of these goods.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 8 — Production: Entrepreneurship and Change · 2. The Effect of Net Investment · mises.org ↗
Gross rent is the price of a factor’s services per unit of time; net rent is what remains after the cost of maintenance and replacement has been deducted.
In the original“The fact that the natural resources cannot be reproduced means that they earn a net rent and that their rent is not absorbed by land and labor factors that go into their production.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 6. The Depletion of Natural Resources · mises.org ↗
In Rothbard: land in its natural state, as site and resource, without the improvements, which are capital goods.
In the original“Ground land, then, is “capitalized” just as are capital goods, shares in capital-owning firms, and durable consumers’ goods.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 5. Capitalization and Rent · mises.org ↗
The difference in value between present and future goods; not the “price of money” but a reflection of time preference.
In the original“Suppose the interest rate is 5 percent; Jones can buy a certain combination of factors for 100 ounces; he believes that he can use this agglomeration to sell a product after two years for 120 ounces.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 8 — Production: Entrepreneurship and Change · 1. Entrepreneurial Profit and Loss · mises.org ↗
The allocation of means to productive processes that will yield returns in the future.
In the original“Additional investment is the corollary of the restriction of consumption imposed upon that part of the population which consumes the much greater part of the annual produce of the economic system.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 5. The Effects of Changes in the Money Relation Upon Originary Interest · mises.org ↗
Time not devoted to labor; related to the Aristotelian notion of scholē.
In the original“Leisure is the one good that is produced almost instantaneously, while berries have a very short production period.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 1 — Fundamentals of Human Action · 9. The Formation of Capital · mises.org ↗
The marginal physical product is the quantity of product that one more unit of a factor adds; the marginal value product is the money value of that quantity.
In the original“The marginal value product is the monetary revenue that may be attributed, or “imputed,” to one service unit of the factor.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 1. Imputation of the Discounted Marginal Value Product · mises.org ↗
The rate of interest that reflects time preference and real saving (Wicksell, Mises); credit expansion pushes the market rate below it.
In the original“The third component of the natural rate of interest is the purchasing-power component, correcting for general PPM changes because of the inevitable time lags in production.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 5. The Demand for Money · mises.org ↗
Labor and land (natural resources), that is, the factors of production that have not themselves been produced.
In the original“Higher costs of production mean that more labor and more material factors of production must be expended in order to achieve the same effect which the adversary, producing the proper product, attains with a lower expenditure.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXIV. The Economics of War · 3. War and Autarky · mises.org ↗
Interest as a pure phenomenon of time preference, apart from credit risk or inflation. It shows up in the market as the discount of future goods against present goods. It is a ratio between prices rather than a price in its own right.
In the original“Originary interest is the ratio of the value assigned to want-satisfaction in the immediate future and the value assigned to want-satisfaction in remote periods of the future.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XIX, §2 “Originary Interest” · mises.org ↗
Goods available now as against goods or claims that will be available later; their exchange, with present goods preferred, gives rise to interest.
In the original“The suppliers of present goods on the time market are clearly the capitalists, who save from their possible consumption and invest their savings in future goods.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Production: The Rate of Interest and Its Determination · 4. The Time Market and the Production Structure · mises.org ↗
An attitude that gives weight to the present or to the future; Hoppe links present-orientedness to the high time preference that democracy fosters.
Related wording in the original“His definitions of class center on the different attitudes toward the present and the future: upper- and middle-class members tend to be future-oriented, purposeful, rational, and self-disciplined.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, Why the Welfare Crisis? · mises.org ↗
The component of the market rate of interest that compensates for expected changes in the purchasing power of money.
In the original“If the price premium is correctly calculated, neither the creditor’s nor the debtor’s position is affected by intervening changes in purchasing power.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 3. The Price Premium as a Component of the Gross Market Rate of Interest · mises.org ↗
Goods or productive factors (land, labor, capital goods) that take part in production.
In the original“The valuation of factors of production is derived from actors’ evaluation of their products (lower stages), all of which eventually derive their valuation from the end result—the consumers’ good.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 1 — Fundamentals of Human Action · 3. Further Implications: The Means · mises.org ↗
Goods that serve in the production of other goods, that is, means of production or goods of a higher order, as distinct from consumers’ goods, which satisfy wants directly.
In the original“Those producers’ goods which are nearest to the production of a consumers’ good are ranged in the second order, and accordingly those which are used for the production of goods of the second order in the third order and so on.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, IV. a First Analysis of the Category of Action · 1. Ends and Means · mises.org ↗
An economy in which capital per head grows (progressing), stays the same (stationary) or shrinks (retrogressing).
In the original“The course of a progressing inflation is this: At the beginning the inflow of additional money makes the prices of some commodities and services rise; other prices rise later.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 8. The Anticipation of Expected Changes in Purchasing Power · mises.org ↗
The rate of interest that remains once the premiums for risk and for expected changes in purchasing power have been removed from the market rate; it expresses time preference.
In the original“How the agio, or pure interest rate, is determined in the particular time-exchange markets, will be discussed below.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 5 — Production: The Structure · 7. Present and Future Goods: The Pure Rate of Interest · mises.org ↗
Production that uses intermediate capital goods and therefore takes more time but yields more.
Related wording in the original“In referring in his explanation to the technological superiority of more time-consuming, roundabout processes of production, he avoids the crudity of the naïve productivity fallacies.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XIX. The Rate of Interest · 2. Originary Interest · mises.org ↗
Abstaining from the consumption of present goods so that they can be devoted to production.
In the original“Savings and investment are needed in order to permit any consumption at all, since very little consumption could be obtained with no production processes or capital structure at all—perhaps only the direct picking of berries.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 3. The Source of Factor Incomes · mises.org ↗
Factors of production useful for only one product (specific) as against factors with many alternative uses (nonspecific).
In the original“The specific mark of our case is that it is an attempt to elucidate a complicated state of affairs by resorting to an analogy borrowed from a branch of higher mathematics, the calculus of probability.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, VI. Uncertainty · 5. Numerical Evaluation of Case Probability · mises.org ↗
The temporal arrangement of the stages of production (Hayek’s triangles).
In the original“The structure of production is now lengthened even though the second net may be no more productive than the first.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 8 — Production: Entrepreneurship and Change · 4. Capital Accumulation and the Length of the Structure of Production · mises.org ↗
The market in which present goods are exchanged for future goods (the market for intertemporal exchange); the loan market is only one part of it.
In the original“On the time market, we are considering all factors in the aggregate; the interest rate of the time market permeates all particular aspects of the present-future market, including all purchases of land and labor services.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Production: The Rate of Interest and Its Determination · 4. The Time Market and the Production Structure · mises.org ↗
The preference for present goods over an equal quantity of the same goods available in the future. Time preference explains the existence of interest: future goods are valued at a discount against present goods.
In the original“Time preference is a categorial requisite of human action.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XVIII, §2 “Time Preference as an Essential Requisite of Action” · mises.org ↗
How high the time preference of an individual or a society is: the higher it is, the more immediate consumption is preferred to saving and investment; a central concept in Rothbard and in Hoppe (Democracy).
In the original“If the time-preference rate is 10 percent, purchasing the aforementioned good for 59.4 ounces, holding it, and renting it out for 10 years to acquire 100 ounces does not constitute a monetary profit.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 7. The Prices of Durable Goods and Their Services · mises.org ↗
Money deposited with banks.
In the original“If paper notes or bank deposits are used as “money substitutes,” does this mean that the effective money supply in the economy has increased even though the stock of gold has remained the same?”
Murray N. Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?, Money in a Free Society · 12. Money Warehouses · mises.org ↗
Notes issued by a bank and payable to the bearer in money; when they are not fully covered by money, they are fiduciary media.
In the original“The national banknotes and checkbook money are redeemable in money-substitutes issued by the international bank.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 19. The Gold Standard · mises.org ↗
The exchange of goods without money.
In the original“In the case of barter, this conclusion is evident; the various producer-consumers either determine their mutual exchange rates voluntarily in the free market, or else the ratios are set by violence.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 10 — Monopoly and Competition · 1. The Concept of Consumers’ Sovereignty · mises.org ↗
Written orders to pay a given sum on a given date, used in trade as an instrument of credit.
In the original“In previous sections we saw that bills of exchange are not money-substitutes, but credit instruments.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 11. Monetary Attributes of Goods · mises.org ↗
A monetary system of gold and silver with a legally fixed exchange ratio (bimetallism) or with a free ratio set by the market (parallel standard); bimetallism sets Gresham’s law in motion.
In the original“If the bimetallism is worldwide, then silver disappears into the “black market,” and official or open exchanges are made only with gold.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 5. Triangular Intervention: Price Control · mises.org ↗
The sum of money an actor holds for future payments.
In the original“Their cash holding is not merely a residuum, an unspent margin of their wealth.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 3. Demand for Money and Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
The state bank that monopolizes the issue of money and acts as lender of last resort.
In the original“The central bank is always accorded a great deal of prestige by its creator government.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 11. Binary Intervention: Inflation and Business Cycles · mises.org ↗
Credit granted out of newly created fiduciary media (circulation credit) as against credit granted out of real saving (commodity credit).
In the original“A theory of indirect exchange and all further theories built upon it—as the theory of circulation credit—are applicable only to the interpretation of events within a world in which indirect exchange is practiced.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action · 10. The Procedure of Economics · mises.org ↗
Money that is also a commodity with a non-monetary value (gold, silver).
In the original“The outflow of commodity money is thus not the effect of an unfavorable balance of payments, but the effect of a government interference with the price structure.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 13. The Size and Composition of Cash Holdings · mises.org ↗
Issuing counterfeit money or counterfeit receipts for money; Rothbard likens credit expansion and fiat money to legalized counterfeiting.
In the original“Counterfeiting is evidently but another name for inflation—both creating new “money” that is not standard gold or silver, and both function similarly.”
Murray N. Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?, Government Meddling with Money · 1. the Revenue of Government · mises.org ↗
The creation of new money through loans without corresponding real saving.
In the original“If the credit expansion consists merely in a single, not repeated injection of a definite amount of fiduciary media into the loan market and then ceases altogether, the boom must very soon stop.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 6. The Gross Market Rate of Interest as Affected by Inflation and Credit Expansion · mises.org ↗
Debasement: the reduction of the precious metal in coins, or more generally of the quality of money, by the issuer. Devaluation: the official reduction of a currency’s value against gold or other currencies.
In the original“They keep balances with the banks of those countries in which the danger of confiscation or currency devaluation is for the moment less than in other countries.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 17. Secondary Media of Exchange · mises.org ↗
A decrease in the quantity of money; in the Austrian scheme it is not inherently harmful.
In the original“Deflation and contraction are less likely to spread havoc than inflation and expansion not merely because they are only rarely resorted to.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 7. The Gross Market Rate of Interest as Affected by Deflation and Credit Contraction · mises.org ↗
A deposit that can be withdrawn at any moment; the basis of the debate on fractional reserves.
In the original“The demand deposit is not tangibly held by the owner, but can be transferred to anyone he desires by written order to the bank.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 6. The Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
The wish of actors to hold cash balances.
In the original“The total demand for money on the market consists of two parts: the exchange demand for money (by sellers of all other goods that wish to purchase money) and the reservation demand for money (the demand for money to hold by those who already hold it).”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 2. The Money Relation: The Demand for and the Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
Hayek’s proposal to abolish the state monopoly of issuing money and to let private currencies compete.
No verified English passage yet. The term Hayek’s proposal; not discussed in the listed books. The books that use the term are linked below.
The price of one currency in terms of another.
In the original“This exchange rate is set between the margins fixed by the cost of transporting money—the “gold import” and “gold export” points.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 9. Interlocal Exchange · mises.org ↗
The central banking system of the United States (1913).
In the original“No, because the Fed has a monopoly on the printing of cash, and it could—and would—simply redeem its demand deposit by printing whatever Federal Reserve Notes are needed.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 9 Inflation and the Business Cycle: The Collapse of the Keynesian Paradigm · The Federal Reserve and Fractional Reserve Banking · mises.org ↗
Money with no intrinsic value, imposed by state power as legal tender.
In the original“Fiat money is a money consisting of mere tokens which can neither be employed for any industrial purposes nor convey a claim against anybody.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 9. The Specific Value of Money · mises.org ↗
Money substitutes, such as banknotes and demand deposits, that are not fully covered by money held in the bank’s reserves. Issuing them is credit expansion. Unlike fully covered money certificates, fiduciary media add to the supply of money in the broader sense, so they affect prices and, for a time, the rate of interest.
In the original“If the money reserve kept by the debtor against the money-substitutes issued is less than the total amount of such substitutes, we call that amount of substitutes which exceeds the reserve fiduciary media.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XVII, §11 “The Money-Substitutes” · mises.org ↗
Banking in which cash reserves are smaller than the liabilities payable on demand (deposits).
In the original“Having investigated the consequences of credit expansion, we must discuss the important question: If fractional-reserve banking is legal, are there any natural limits to credit expansion by the banks?”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 11. Binary Intervention: Inflation and Business Cycles · mises.org ↗
Banking without a central bank.
In the original“Free banking is the only method available for the prevention of the dangers inherent in credit expansion.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 12. The Limitation on the Issuance of Fiduciary Media · mises.org ↗
A monetary system in which money is defined as a fixed weight of gold.
In the original“The gold standard is certainly not a perfect or ideal standard.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 19. The Gold Standard · mises.org ↗
A system in which currencies are tied to the dollar, which is covered in gold.
In the original“The result was a pyramiding of U.S. on gold, of British pounds on dollars, and of other European currencies on pounds—the “gold-exchange standard,” with the dollar and the pound as the two “key currencies.””
Murray N. Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?, The Monetary Breakdown of the West · 3. Phase III: the Gold Exchange Standard (britain and the U.s.) 1926–1931 · mises.org ↗
“Bad” money drives out “good” money when their exchange ratio is fixed by law.
In the original“Bad money, says Gresham’s Law, drives good money out of the country.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 13. The Size and Composition of Cash Holdings · mises.org ↗
Holding money (increasing one’s cash balance) instead of spending it; for Mises and Rothbard it is not a “threat” but a form of the demand for money.
In the original“What is called hoarding is a height of cash holding which—according to the personal opinion of an observer—exceeds what is deemed normal and adequate.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 3. Demand for Money and Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
Exchange through an intermediate medium (money), not directly.
In the original“The subject matter of the theory of indirect exchange is the study of the ratios of exchange between the media of exchange on the one hand and the goods and services of all orders on the other hand.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 1. Media of Exchange and Money · mises.org ↗
In the Austrian view, an increase in the quantity of money (and not the rise in prices, which is its consequence).
In the original“Like any inflation, it is a process of redistribution, whereby the inflators, and the part of the economy selling to them, gain at the expense of those who come last in line in the spending process.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 11. Binary Intervention: Inflation and Business Cycles · mises.org ↗
A means of payment that the law obliges creditors to accept in settlement of debts.
In the original“If these things are really dealt with by people as money-substitutes and are therefore money-substitutes and equal in purchasing power to the respective amount of money, the only effect of the legal tender quality is to prevent malicious people from resorting to chicanery for the mere sake of annoying their fellow men.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 19. The Gold Standard · mises.org ↗
A good acquired not for direct consumption but for later exchange against other goods.
In the original“A medium of exchange is a good which people acquire neither for their own consumption nor for employment in their own production activities, but with the intention of exchanging it at a later date against those goods which they want to use either for consumption or for production.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 3. Demand for Money and Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
The central bank’s policy concerning money and credit.
In the original“As far as monetary policy is concerned they voluntarily become satellites of a foreign power.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXI. Currency and Credit Manipulation · 3. The Evolution of Modern Methods of Currency Manipulation · mises.org ↗
The unit of weight or denomination of money (monetary unit) and the unit in which prices and accounts are expressed (unit of account).
In the original“There are monetary units and there are measurable physical units of various economic goods and of many—but not of all—services bought and sold.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Three Economic Calculation XI. VALUATION WITHOUT CALCULATION · 4. Economic Calculation and the Market · mises.org ↗
The generally accepted medium of exchange; a good that emerged spontaneously on the market.
In the original“One says money is scarce if there prevails a tendency toward a rise in the rate of interest for short-term loans, and one says money is plentiful if the rate of interest for such loans is decreasing.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 3. Demand for Money and Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
Money substitutes fully (100 per cent) covered by money in the issuer’s reserves.
In the original“Issuing money-certificates is a ruinous business if not connected with issuing fiduciary media.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 12. The Limitation on the Issuance of Fiduciary Media · mises.org ↗
The relation between the demand for and the supply of money, which determines its purchasing power (Mises).
In the original“But if the money relation is sensibly altered and a general rise or fall in the prices of all commodities and services is expected, one tendency carries on.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 3. The Price Premium as a Component of the Gross Market Rate of Interest · mises.org ↗
Claims redeemable in money on demand that circulate as money (deposits, banknotes).
In the original“As for uncovered money-substitutes, since they are essentially a phenomenon of the hampered rather than the free market, factors governing their supply will be further discussed below, in chapter 12.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 6. The Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
The total quantity of money in an economy.
In the original“The increasing money supply is only a social waste and can only advantage some at the expense of others.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 11. Binary Intervention: Inflation and Business Cycles · mises.org ↗
The idea of a money that does not affect relative prices and the distribution of wealth; Mises rejects it as impossible.
In the original“The notion of a neutral money is no less contradictory than that of a money of stable purchasing power.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 5. The Problem of Hume and Mill and the Driving Force of Money · mises.org ↗
Statistical notions of the “average” of prices and of measuring the purchasing power of money; the Austrians regard them as misleading, because prices do not move uniformly.
In the original“There is no “price level,” and there is no way that the exchange-value of money is manifested except in specific purchases of goods, i.e., specific prices.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 14. The Fallacy of Measuring and Stabilizing the PPM · mises.org ↗
The quantity of goods that one monetary unit can buy.
In the original“The purchasing power of money is therefore determined by two factors: the total demand schedule for money to hold and the stock of money in existence.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 3. Changes in the Money Relation · mises.org ↗
The tendency of the exchange rate between two currencies to equalize their purchasing power; for Mises, a consequence of market exchange and not a mechanical rule.
In the original“The purchasing-power parity theory of foreign exchange is merely the application of the general theorems concerning the determination of prices to the special case of the coexistence of various kinds of money.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 15. Interlocal Exchange Rates · mises.org ↗
The theory that the price level depends on the quantity of money.
In the original“It was guided by contradictory ideas concerning money’s neutrality; it tried to refute the quantity theory of money by referring to a deus ex machina, the much talked about hoards, and it misconstrued entirely the problems of the rate of interest.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 12. The Limitation on the Issuance of Fiduciary Media · mises.org ↗
The fee or profit of the sovereign, or of the mint, from coining money.
In the original“Seigniorage was a monopoly price, and it imposed a special burden on the conversion of bullion to coin; gratuitous coinage, on the other hand, overstimulated the manufacture of coins from bullion, and forced the general taxpayer to pay for minting services utilized by others.”
Murray N. Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?, Government Meddling with Money · 3. Compulsory Monopoly of the Mint · mises.org ↗
Money whose quantity the state cannot increase at will, as a rule commodity money such as gold; Mises sees the sound-money principle as an institution that protects liberty.
In the original“When in the course of the nineteenth century some of these debtor nations adopted a sound money policy, their firms and citizens could contract foreign debts in terms of their national currency.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXI. Currency and Credit Manipulation · 4. The Objectives of Currency Devaluation · mises.org ↗
An international reserve asset of the IMF.
In the original“But the SDRs, combatted intensely as they have been by Western Europe and the “hard-money” countries, have so far been only a small supplement to American and other currency reserves.”
Murray N. Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?, The Monetary Breakdown of the West · 6. PHASE VI: THE UNRAVELING OF BRETTON WOODS, 1968–1971 · mises.org ↗
Money in the form of precious metal (gold or silver coins); a “suspension of specie payments” means that banks stop redeeming their notes in metal.
In the original“For, after all, no fractional-reserve banks are really sound, and if the public can be led to believe that, say, an 80-percent-specie reserve is sound, it can believe the same about 60-percent- or even 10-percentreserve banks.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 11. Binary Intervention: Inflation and Business Cycles · mises.org ↗
The average number of times a monetary unit changes hands in a given period; Mises and Rothbard reject it as a mechanistic notion of the quantity theory.
In the original“In analyzing the equation of exchange one assumes that one of its elements—total supply of money, volume of trade, velocity of circulation— changes, without asking how such changes occur.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 2. Observations on Some Widespread Errors · mises.org ↗
The receipt that a money warehouse (bank) issues for gold or money deposited with it for safekeeping; issued without cover, it is a “false” receipt.
In the original“All the warehouse receipts are money certificates, 100-percent reserve has been maintained, and no invasion of the free market has occurred.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 6. The Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
A non-Austrian theory that attributes fluctuations in investment to changes in consumer demand; Rothbard refutes it.
In the original“The essence of the acceleration principle is the relationship between the increased demand and the low level of replacement demand for a durable good.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 18. The Fallacy of the Acceleration Principle · mises.org ↗
The Mises–Hayek theory that cycles result from the artificial lowering of the rate of interest through credit expansion.
In the original“Actually, Hayek’s Austrian business cycle theory swept the younger economists in Britain precisely because it alone offered a satisfactory explanation of the Great Depression of the 1930s.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 9 Inflation and the Business Cycle: The Collapse of the Keynesian Paradigm · mises.org ↗
The phase of false prosperity brought about by credit expansion.
In the original“The course of the boom is not substantially affected by the fact that at its eve there are unused capacity, unsold surplus inventories, and unemployed workers.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 9. The Market Economy as Affected by the Recurrence of the Trade Cycle · mises.org ↗
The periodic alternation of upswing (boom) and crisis or recession. In the Austrian theory it is caused by credit expansion.
In the original“But a business cycle research institute is of no help in endeavors to avoid the recurrence of depressions.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXVIII. The Place of Economics in Learning · 1. The Study of Economics · mises.org ↗
The phase of correction in which the malinvestments are revealed.
In the original“The depression, on the other hand, is the way back to a state of affairs in which all factors of production are employed for the best possible satisfaction of the most urgent needs of the consumers.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 9. The Market Economy as Affected by the Recurrence of the Trade Cycle · mises.org ↗
Named after Richard Cantillon: new money benefits first those who receive it first. Because new money enters the economy at particular points and spreads step by step, prices and incomes do not rise together. Early receivers spend it before prices have adjusted, while late receivers face higher prices before their own incomes rise.
In the original“As happens when new specie enters the market, the issue of “uncovered” money-substitutes also has a diffusion effect: the first receivers of the new money gain the most, the next gain slightly less, etc., until the midpoint is reached, and then each receiver loses more and more as he waits for the new money.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State, ch. 12, §11 “Binary Intervention: Inflation and Business Cycles” · mises.org ↗
Keynesian tools: the relation of consumption to income, and the coefficient by which an increase in spending is supposed to multiply income; Rothbard rejects them.
In the original“Thirdly, the consumption function is necessarily an ex ante relation; it is supposed to tell how much consumers will decide to spend given a certain total income.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 17. Further Fallacies of the Keynesian System · mises.org ↗
The final, runaway phase of a continuing inflation. Once the public realizes that the increase in the quantity of money will not stop, people hurry to get rid of money by buying anything at all. Prices soar and the currency collapses (Mises).
In the original“The panic of the currency catastrophe, the crack-up boom, is not only characterized by a tendency for prices to rise beyond all measure, but also by a rise beyond all measure of the positive price premium.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XX, §3 “The Price Premium as a Component of the Gross Market Rate of Interest” · mises.org ↗
The reduction in some people’s consumption caused by credit expansion, which shifts resources into investment.
In the original“Forced saving and, to an even greater extent, regular voluntary saving may have provided new capital goods which were not totally squandered through malinvestment and overconsumption as induced by the boom.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 6. The Gross Market Rate of Interest as Affected by Inflation and Credit Expansion · mises.org ↗
The theory that government spending and deficit budgets promote employment and prosperity.
In the original“The (implicit) foundation of Keynesianism is the assertion that at a certain level of total social income, total social expenditures out of this income will be lower than income, the remainder going into hoards.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 5. The Demand for Money · mises.org ↗
A Keynesian notion: the wish to hold money rather than interest-bearing assets, which for Keynes determines the rate of interest; Rothbard shows that the rate of interest is determined by time preference.
In the original“Therefore, the elaborate attempts of the Keynesians to demonstrate that free-market expenditures will be limited—that consumption is limited by the “function,” and investment by stagnation of opportunities and “liquidity preference”—are futile.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 5. The Demand for Money · mises.org ↗
Investment directed into processes of production that do not correspond to actual preferences and savings.
In the original“The erroneous belief that the essential feature of the boom is overinvestment and not malinvestment is due to the habit of judging conditions merely according to what is perceptible and tangible.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 6. The Gross Market Rate of Interest as Affected by Inflation and Credit Expansion · mises.org ↗
The theorem that the purchasing power money first had derives from the demand for it as a commodity before it became money. Each day’s purchasing power of money can be traced back, step by step, to the moment when the good was valued only for its non-monetary uses.
In the original“Now, the regression theorem aims at interpreting the first emergence of a monetary demand for a good which previously had been demanded exclusively for industrial purposes as influenced by the exchange value that was ascribed to it at this moment on account of its nonmonetary services only.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XVII, §4 “The Determination of the Purchasing Power of Money” · mises.org ↗
Supply creates its own demand; production finances consumption.
No verified English passage yet. The term not found in the English texts of the listed books (Democracy is excluded). The books that use the term are linked below.
An agreement among producers to restrict output or prices.
In the original“A cartel action, if it is a voluntary one, cannot injure freedom of competition and, if it proves profitable, benefits rather than injures the consumers.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 10 — Monopoly and Competition · 2. Cartels and Their Consequences · mises.org ↗
The theory of market exchanges, a branch of praxeology. Mises defines its field as the market phenomena, that is, the actions carried out on the basis of monetary calculation.
In the original“The subject matter of catallactics is all market phenomena with all their roots, ramifications, and consequences.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XIV, §1 “The Delimitation of Catallactic Problems” · mises.org ↗
The rivalry of actors in the effort to serve consumers.
In the original“Under “competition,” if one firm is seen to be making great profits in a particular productive process, other firms rush in to take advantage of the anticipated opportunities, and the profits disappear.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 10 — Monopoly and Competition · 3. The Illusion of Monopoly Price · mises.org ↗
In the market economy, consumers ultimately decide what is produced. By buying or refraining from buying, they determine which entrepreneurs make profits and which make losses, and so, indirectly, the prices of the factors of production too.
In the original“The consumers determine ultimately not only the prices of the consumers’ goods, but no less the prices of all factors of production.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XV, §4 “The Sovereignty of the Consumers” · mises.org ↗
The analysis of the action of an isolated individual (Robinson Crusoe), from which Rothbard starts in order to explain the categories of action before exchange.
In the original“The application of these principles was confined, however, to “Crusoe economics,” where the actions of isolated individuals are considered by themselves.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 2 — Direct Exchange · 1. Types of Interpersonal Action: Violence · mises.org ↗
The table of the quantities demanded or supplied at each price (schedule) and its graphic representation (curve).
In the original“A change in the demand schedule is due purely to a change in the relative utility-rankings of the two goods (the purchase-good and the sale-good) on the value scales of the individual buyers on the market.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 2 — Direct Exchange · 9. Continuing Markets and Changes in Price · mises.org ↗
The increase in the production of goods due to capital accumulation.
In the original“As we have mentioned, the selfsame liberals who claim that we have entered the “postscarcity” age and are in no further need of economic growth, are in the forefront of the complaint that “capitalist greed” is destroying our scarce natural resources.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 13 Conservation, Ecology, and Growth · Conservation of Resources · mises.org ↗
The voluntary transfer of goods to mutual benefit.
In the original“Interpersonal exchange is called indirect exchange if, between the commodities and services the reciprocal exchange of which is the ultimate end of exchanging, one or several media of exchange are interposed.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 1. Media of Exchange and Money · mises.org ↗
The quantity of one good exchanged for one unit of another; the “price” in direct exchange.
In the original“The exchange ratio, the price, is not the product of an equality of valuation, but, on the contrary, the product of a discrepancy in valuation.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 2. Valuation and Appraisement · mises.org ↗
Benefits or costs that one person’s action brings to third parties without exchange; for Mises and Rothbard, negative externalities are a matter of defining and protecting property rights.
In the original“The case of external economies is not simply the inversion of the case of external costs.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIII. The Data of the Market · Economies · mises.org ↗
The price that would prevail in the final state of rest; an imaginary construction that is never reached in reality.
In the original“This final price is characterized by the fact that all those eager to earn wages get a job and all those eager to employ workers are able to hire as many hands as they want.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIX. Restriction of Production · 3. Restriction as a Privilege · mises.org ↗
Someone who benefits from a good without paying for it; the argument used to justify state provision of “public goods.”
In the original“If this subsidy takes place, it is obvious that the recipients are no longer free riders: indeed, they are simply being coerced into buying benefits for which, acting by free choice, they would not have paid.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · Appendix B: “Collective Goods” and “External Benefits”: Two Arguments for Government Activity · mises.org ↗
Smith’s metaphor for the spontaneous coordinating function of the market.
In the original“Costs are not fixed by some Invisible Hand, but are determined precisely by the total force of entrepreneurial demand for factors of production.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 9 — Production: Particular Factor Prices and Productive Incomes · 3. Entrepreneurship and Income · mises.org ↗
Knowledge is dispersed throughout society and cannot be centralized (Hayek).
In the original“With brilliant insight, Mises demonstrates that, even with Hayekian knowledge problems thus banished from consideration, the planners would still be unable to calculate the optimal or any pattern of deployment for the factors of production.”
Ludwig von Mises, Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, Mises vs. the Hayekians · mises.org ↗
An association of wage earners that seeks higher wages through collective pressure; for Mises, wages that unions impose above the market level cause unemployment.
In the original“The labor unions are practically free to prevent by force anybody from defying their orders concerning wage rates and other labor conditions.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXX. Interference with the Structure of Prices · 3. Minimum Wage Rates · mises.org ↗
Natural resources as a factor of production.
In the original“Since land is a form of investment on the market just as are shares of a firm, its future rents will be capitalized so that land will tend to earn the same uniform interest rate as any other investment.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 9 — Production: Particular Factor Prices and Productive Incomes · 6. A Summary of the Market · mises.org ↗
The producer whose costs are only just covered by the market price; he is the first to stop producing when the price falls or when the state imposes a maximum price below the market price. That is why, for Mises, price control brings less, not more, of the good to market.
In the original“And on the other hand some of the producers, those producers of milk who are producing at the highest cost—that is, the marginal producers—are now suffering losses, because the price which the government has decreed is lower than their costs.”
Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy, Interventionism · III. · mises.org ↗
The sum of voluntary exchanges; a process, not a place.
In the original“In the market economy, net incomes are derived from wages, interest, ground rents, and profit; and in so far as taxes strike at the earnings from these sources, attempts to earn these incomes will diminish.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 8. Binary Intervention: Taxation · mises.org ↗
A system of social organization based on private property and free exchange.
In the original“In the market economy, net incomes are derived from wages, interest, ground rents, and profit; and in so far as taxes strike at the earnings from these sources, attempts to earn these incomes will diminish.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 8. Binary Intervention: Taxation · mises.org ↗
A legal floor under wages.
In the original“When a minimum wage law is effective, i.e., where it imposes a wage above the market value of a grade of labor (above the laborer’s discounted marginal value product), the supply of labor services exceeds the demand, and the “unsold surplus” of labor services means involuntary mass unemployment.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 5. Triangular Intervention: Price Control · mises.org ↗
Exclusive control; for Rothbard, only when it is imposed through a state privilege.
In the original“Monopoly prices are only prices at which it is more advantageous for the monopolist to restrict the total amount to be sold than to expand his sales to the limit which a competitive market would allow.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 6. Monopoly Prices · mises.org ↗
The extra income gained by the holder of a monopoly privilege, or by the owner of a unique factor, when he restricts supply to obtain a higher price.
In the original“His monopoly gain is an added income to his monopolized product; whether for an individual or for a cartel, it is this product which earns more income through restriction of its supply.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 10 — Monopoly and Competition · 3. The Illusion of Monopoly Price · mises.org ↗
The price that results from restricting supply; for Mises and Rothbard, a concept that applies only under a monopoly privilege.
In the original“Monopoly prices are only prices at which it is more advantageous for the monopolist to restrict the total amount to be sold than to expand his sales to the limit which a competitive market would allow.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 6. Monopoly Prices · mises.org ↗
The exchange ratio at which an exchange takes place; a historical fact, not an “objective” quantity.
In the original“The actual market prices, on the contrary, are the only ones that ever exist, and they are the resultants of actual market data (consumer demands, resources, etc.) that themselves change continually.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 5 — Production: The Structure · 8. Money Costs, Prices, and Alfred Marshall · mises.org ↗
Legally imposed limits on prices; they lead to shortages or surpluses.
In the original“If maximum rents are decreed not only for already available rental space, but also for buildings still to be constructed, the construction of new buildings is no longer remunerative.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXX. Interference with the Structure of Prices · 2. The Market’s Reaction to Government Interference · mises.org ↗
Selling the same good at different prices to different buyers.
In the original“And the meaning of price discrimination against sellers is that a buyer would be able to pay less for the same good than the seller can earn elsewhere (cost of moving, etc., omitted).”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 10 — Monopoly and Competition · 6. Multiform Prices and Monopoly · mises.org ↗
Neoclassical models of competition, with many identical producers or with “differentiated” products; Rothbard rejects them in favor of competition as a process.
In the original“The level of the pure rate of interest is determined by the market for the exchange of present goods against future goods, a market which we shall see permeates many parts of the economic system.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Production: The Rate of Interest and Its Determination · 2. The Determination of the Pure Rate of Interest: The Time Market · mises.org ↗
A theoretical model of a market without intervention.
In the original“To be rich, in a pure market economy, is the outcome of success in filling best the demands of the consumers.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XV. The Market · 4. The Sovereignty of the Consumers · mises.org ↗
Payment for the use of land or of another means of production.
In the original“If rents are earned by a durable factor, they can be and are “capitalized” on the market, i.e., they have a capital value equivalent to the discounted sum of their expected future rents.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 9 — Production: Particular Factor Prices and Productive Incomes · 6. A Summary of the Market · mises.org ↗
The demand of the owner of a stock to keep part of it rather than sell it (reservation demand); together with the buyers’ demand it makes up the total demand to hold the stock.
In the original“The sources of a reservation demand by the seller are two: (a) anticipation of later sale at a higher price; this is the speculative factor analyzed above; and (b) direct use of the good by the seller.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Prices and Consumption · 3. Determination of Supply and Demand Schedules · mises.org ↗
A shortage or a surplus caused by controlled prices.
In the original“If this surplus is curtailed by restricting the working hours, the wage earner is relieved of a part of his toil and trouble, his wages remain unchanged, and the employer is deprived of a part of his unfair profit.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIX. Restriction of Production · 2. The Prize of Restriction · mises.org ↗
The order that results from human action without central planning (Hayek).
In the original“Some market-oriented economists have even abandoned modern economic theory altogether for the less rigorous rhetoric and metaphors of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” and Hayek’s “spontaneous order.””
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Introduction to the Second Edition of Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market · mises.org ↗
The organized market in which shares are bought and sold; it continuously appraises the capital of firms.
In the original“But since the operations of the stock market and the loan market are essentially the same, it is obvious that there is no difference in causal explanation between short-run and long-run interest rates.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Production: The Rate of Interest and Its Determination · 11. The Time Structure of Interest Rates · mises.org ↗
The market forces that determine prices.
In the original“The market supply and demand schedules are themselves determined by the minimum selling prices and maximum buying prices of all the individuals in the market.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 2 — Direct Exchange · 5. Determination of Price: Equilibrium Price · mises.org ↗
The compulsory taking of property by the state.
In the original“A neutral mode of taxation is conceivable that would not divert the operation of the market from the lines in which it would develop in the absence of any taxation.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXVIII. Interference by Taxation · 1. The Neutral Tax · mises.org ↗
The absence of employment, voluntary or compulsory (because of minimum wages).
In the original“The technological unemployment motif is encouraged by the use of the term “labor-saving devices” for capital goods, which to some minds conjure up visions of laborers being simply discarded.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 9 — Production: Particular Factor Prices and Productive Incomes · 2. Land, Labor, and Rent · mises.org ↗
The market without violent intervention by the state or anyone else; the opposite of the hampered market economy.
In the original“In the market economy, net incomes are derived from wages, interest, ground rents, and profit; and in so far as taxes strike at the earnings from these sources, attempts to earn these incomes will diminish.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 8. Binary Intervention: Taxation · mises.org ↗
The price of labor; determined by marginal productivity.
In the original“Wages are not paid for labor expended, but for the achievements of labor, which differ widely in quality and quantity.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, VII. Action Within the World · 3. Human Labor as a Means · mises.org ↗
The title of Mises’ book on the psychological causes of the aversion to capitalism.
In the original“Newcomers to his ideas would do well, however, to start with some of his simpler books such as Bureaucracy, or The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality.”
Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy, Introduction · mises.org ↗
Profiting from price differences between markets.
In the original“As a result of the arbitrage of the entrepreneurs, the tendency is always toward the ERE; in consequence of ever-changing reality, changes in value scales and resources, the ERE never arrives.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 8 — Production: Entrepreneurship and Change · 1. Entrepreneurial Profit and Loss · mises.org ↗
Administration that has no profit-and-loss account and operates by rules.
In the original“And in the meantime the State erects a bureaucracy whose living is acquired by feeding off the confiscation of one group and the encouraged mendicancy of another.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Antimarket Ethics: A Praxeological Critique · 8. Charity and Poverty · mises.org ↗
A system based on private ownership of the means of production and on the free market.
In the original“Capitalism is, when seen sub specie aeternitatis, a passing phenomenon, an ephemeral stage of historical evolution, just the transition from precapitalistic ages to a postcapitalistic future.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XV. The Market · 3. Capitalism · mises.org ↗
The use of money prices to compare costs and revenues. It is impossible without private ownership of the means of production, because without it there are no market prices for the factors of production. This is the core of Mises’ argument against socialism (Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, 1920).
In the original“Economic calculation is calculation in terms of money prices.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XI, §2 “The Barter-Fiction of the Elementary Theory of Value and Prices” · mises.org ↗
The acting individual who takes on the uncertainty of the future, aiming at profit. In catallactic theory the term names a function rather than a social class: since every action deals with an uncertain future, the entrepreneurial element is present in every action.
In the original“The term entrepreneur as used by catallactic theory means: acting man exclusively seen from the aspect of the uncertainty inherent in every action.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XIV, §7 “The Integration of Catallactic Functions” · mises.org ↗
The function of anticipating the future and bearing risk on the market.
In the original“Where capitalistic entrepreneurship is allowed to function freely, the fighting forces will always be so well equipped that the biggest armies of the backward peoples will be no match for them.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIV. Harmony and Conflict of Interests · 2. The Limitation of Offspring · mises.org ↗
The principle that cooperation is beneficial even for the less productive partner.
In the original“Ricardo’s law of association has long since discarded this mistaken interpretation of the inequality of men.[17] It is nonsensical to fight the racial hypothesis by negating obvious facts.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, III. Economics and the Revolt Against Reason · 6. The Case for Reason · mises.org ↗
The penalty for mistaken anticipation.
In the original“Then the losses resulting are to be debited to the entrepreneur’s personal insufficiency, i.e., either to his lack of technological ability or to his lack of the ability to hire adequate helpers.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XV. The Market · 8. Entrepreneurial Profit and Loss · mises.org ↗
Calculation in money prices; the tool of economic calculation.
In the original“Monetary calculation is the main vehicle of planning and acting in the social setting of a society of free enterprise directed and controlled by the market and its prices.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XIII. Monetary Calculation as a Tool of Action · 1. Monetary Calculation as a Method of Thinking · mises.org ↗
The basis of the market and of economic calculation.
In the original“Private ownership of the means of production is especially disliked in those fields in which limited-space monopoly emerges even if the company does not charge monopoly prices and even if its business yields only small profits or results in losses.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 6. Monopoly Prices · mises.org ↗
The difference between revenue and costs; the reward for correct anticipation.
In the original“The profit is practically costless, because, while all other people must either sell goods and services and buy or mine gold, the government or the commercial banks are literally creating money out of thin air.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 11. Binary Intervention: Inflation and Business Cycles · mises.org ↗
In Mises: the pioneering entrepreneur who launches new ventures.
In the original“Besides, the entrepreneurs are contributing a share to the rise in the prices of consumers’ goods as they too, deluded by the illusory gains which their business accounts show, are ready to consume more.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle · 6. The Gross Market Rate of Interest as Affected by Inflation and Credit Expansion · mises.org ↗
Cooperation through the division of labor; the foundation of society and civilization.
In the original“It is true that social cooperation is a blessing for man; it is true that man could work his way up from barbarism and the moral and material distress of his primitive state only within the framework of society.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Two Action Within the Framework of Society VIII. HUMAN SOCIETY · 2. A Critique of the Holistic and Metaphysical View of Society · mises.org ↗
The inability of socialist planning to calculate rationally without market prices.
In the original“(7) In the 1930s, Hayek and the British Misesian Lionel (later Lord) Robbins made a fateful and wholly unwarranted concession to those who contended that the methods of mathematical economics could be successfully bent to yield a solution for the socialist calculation problem.”
Ludwig von Mises, Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, Mises vs. the Hayekians · mises.org ↗
Action that aims to profit from changes in prices.
In the original“This speculation is not simple wickedness, however; it has a definite function, namely, that of allocating the scarce depletable resource to those uses at those times when consumer demand for them will be greatest.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Production: General Pricing of the Factors · 6. The Depletion of Natural Resources · mises.org ↗
In Rothbard: intervention that involves no exchange (e.g. personal violence).
In the original“Widely disparate types of autistic intervention are: homicide, assault, and compulsory enforcement or prohibition of any salute, speech, or religious observance.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 2 — Fundamentals of Intervention · 1. Types of Intervention · mises.org ↗
In Rothbard: state intervention that imposes an exchange between the state and a citizen.
In the original“Highway robbery and taxes are examples of binary intervention, as are conscription and compulsory jury service.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 2 — Fundamentals of Intervention · 1. Types of Intervention · mises.org ↗
The centralized direction of production by state power.
In the original“It is economic calculation that makes this marvel possible; in contrast, central planning, such as is attempted under socialism, is deprived of accurate pricing, and therefore cannot calculate costs and prices.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 10 The Public Sector, I: Government in Business · mises.org ↗
The Marxist idea that history is a struggle of economic classes; Mises shows that interests on the market are harmonious, and Hoppe describes the real class conflict, between taxpayers and tax-consumers.
In the original“In their eyes the class struggle is good only because it is the device by means of which the “productive forces,” those mysterious forces directing the course of human evolution, are bound to bring about the “classless” society in which there will be neither classes nor class conflicts. [9] The thorough exposure of this delusion is provided by the proof of the impossibility of economic calculation under socialism.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIV. Harmony and Conflict of Interests · 5. The Conflicts of Our Age · mises.org ↗
Compulsory military service; for Rothbard, a form of forced labor.
In the original“Directly, conscription is a method by which the government can commandeer labor at far less than market wage rates—the rate it would have to pay to induce the enlistment of a volunteer army.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 3 — Triangular Intervention · 3. Product Control: Grant of Monopolistic Privilege · mises.org ↗
Intellectuals who legitimize state power in exchange for posts, prestige and privileges (Rothbard).
In the original“This is not to say that all intellectuals everywhere have been “court intellectuals,” servitors and junior partners of power.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 3 The State · The State and the Intellectuals · mises.org ↗
A system of favoritism and political privilege.
No verified English passage yet. The term the word does not occur in the English texts of the listed books. The books that use the term are linked below.
For Hoppe, the process opposite to civilization: the rise in time preference, the fall in saving and the erosion of property, law and morals that the state, and above all democracy, brings about.
No verified English passage yet. The term occurs only in Democracy — The God That Failed, which is excluded from the English site.
In Hoppe: the regime of mass political participation, which widens public control.
In the original“The democracy of the market consists in the fact that people themselves make their choices and that no dictator has the power to force them to submit to his value judgments.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI. Prices · 9. Consumption as Affected by Monopoly Prices · mises.org ↗
The transition from monarchy to democracy, which in Hoppe’s view raises time preference and exploitation.
No verified English passage yet. The term occurs only in Democracy — The God That Failed (excluded).
Oppenheimer’s distinction: acquiring wealth by production and voluntary exchange (economic means) as against seizing it by violence (political means); the state is the organization of the political means.
In the original“This is the method which Oppenheimer termed “the political means” to wealth.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Anatomy of the State, What the State Is · mises.org ↗
The ideal of making people equal in income, wealth or conditions of life by state means; Rothbard and Hoppe regard it as a “revolt against nature.”
In the original“Egalitarianism is, therefore, a literally senseless social philosophy.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Antimarket Ethics: A Praxeological Critique · 5. The Impossibility of Equality · mises.org ↗
In Rothbard and Hoppe: taking resources from producers by the political means (taxation, privileges); distinct from the Marxist theory of exploitation, which Mises rejects.
In the original“X’s exploitation gain, in short, is clear and obvious to everyone.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 7 — Conclusion: Economics and Public Policy · 3. Economics and Social Ethics · mises.org ↗
Trade without state restrictions.
In the original“People often refer to the dictum of an anonymous American quoted by Tooke: “Free trade in banking is free trade in swindling.” However, freedom in the issuance of banknotes would have narrowed down the use of banknotes considerably if it had not entirely suppressed it.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVII. Indirect Exchange · 12. The Limitation on the Issuance of Fiduciary Media · mises.org ↗
The apparatus through which state power is exercised.
In the original“Governments which are eager to keep up the outward appearance of freedom even when curtailing freedom disguise their direct interference with consumption under the cloak of interference with business.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Six The Hampered Market Economy XXVII. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE MARKET · 6. Direct Government Interference with Consumption · mises.org ↗
The activity of the state as an “entrepreneur”; without profit and loss it cannot engage in economic calculation.
In the original“And if government ownership is good and even preferable in schooling, why not for other educational media, e.g., newspapers—or for other important social services?”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 9. Binary Intervention: Government Expenditures · mises.org ↗
A state prohibition or restriction of competition in an industry for the benefit of certain producers; for Rothbard, the only real form of monopoly.
In the original“The difference is indeed great, but it stems from a fact we have reiterated many times: that the State is a compulsory monopoly in which payment is separated from receipt of service.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Antimarket Ethics: A Praxeological Critique · Appendix: Professor Oliver on Socioeconomic Goals · mises.org ↗
A market economy whose working is obstructed by the interventions of the authorities.
In the original“The system of the hampered market economy or interventionism aims at preserving the dualism of the distinct spheres of government activities on the one hand and economic freedom under the market system on the other hand.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Six The Hampered Market Economy XXVII. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE MARKET · 2. The Intervention · mises.org ↗
The policy that restricts the free market by government orders and prohibitions without abolishing private property: a supposed “third system” between the market economy and socialism. Economics does not ask whether such measures are just. It asks whether they achieve the ends their advocates seek.
In the original“With regard to interventionism it has only one question to ask and to answer: How does it work?”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, ch. XXVII, §1 “The Idea of a Third System” · mises.org ↗
The policy of non-intervention by the state in the economy.
In the original“Yet laissez-faire without rights is a contradiction in terms; the laissez-faire position is based on and derived from man’s rights, and can endure only when rights are held inviolable.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 13 Conservation, Ecology, and Growth · Pollution · mises.org ↗
The state that is supposedly limited to protecting life and property; Hoppe argues that such a state cannot stay limited.
In the original“In contrast, it is the seemingly far more realistic conservative believer in “limited government” who is the truly impractical utopian.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 15 A Strategy for Liberty · Are We “Utopians”? · mises.org ↗
Schemes, such as that of Oskar Lange (1936–1937), that keep common ownership of the means of production but ask managers to imitate the market with prices set by the center; for Mises, such prices do not permit economic calculation, because they do not arise from exchange between owners.
In the original“(6) From the Misesian point of view, moreover, the shortcomings of the prices of market socialism do not stem from the fact that such prices are supposed to be treated as “parametric” by the managers, as has been curiously argued recently by some of Mises’s followers.”
Ludwig von Mises, Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, Mises vs. the Hayekians · mises.org ↗
An economic policy that promotes exports and the accumulation of gold.
In the original“Fascinated by the propaganda of Neo-Mercantilism, people apply idioms which are in contrast to the principles they take as guides in their acting and to all the characteristics of the social order in which they are living.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XV. The Market · 14. The “Volkswirtschaft” · mises.org ↗
The system that supposedly combines the market with state control; for Mises it is interventionism, which is not a stable third system.
In the original“In order to comprehend the working of interventionism and of the mixed economy it is necessary to clarify two points:”
Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos, 1 The Failure of Interventionism · mises.org ↗
The state’s claim to be the only legitimate agent of violence and coercion in a territory.
In the original“Empirically, the vast bulk of interventions are performed by States, since the State is the only organization in society legally equipped to use violence and since it is the only agency that legally derives its revenue from a compulsory levy.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 2. A Typology of Intervention · mises.org ↗
The transfer of a private firm or an industry into state ownership.
In the original“It was long supposed that the labor theory of value was indispensable to socialism, so that the demand for the nationalization of the means of production should have an ethical basis.”
Ludwig von Mises, Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, 3. Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth · mises.org ↗
A tax that would leave the market’s allocation of resources untouched; Rothbard shows that no tax can be neutral.
In the original“The very idea of a neutral tax is as unrealizable as that of neutral money.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXVIII. Interference by Taxation · 1. The Neutral Tax · mises.org ↗
The state’s exclusive right to exploit an invention; Rothbard regards it as a grant of monopoly privilege, unlike copyright arising from contract.
In the original“Some defenders of patents assert that they are not monopoly privileges, but simply property rights in inventions or even in “ideas.” But, as we have seen, everyone’s property right is defended in libertarian law without a patent.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 10 — Monopoly and Competition · 7. Patents and Copyrights · mises.org ↗
Organized groups that ask the state for privileges at the expense of everyone else.
In the original“The paramount role that economic ideas play in the determination of civic affairs explains why governments, political parties, and pressure groups are intent upon restricting the freedom of economic thought.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXVIII. The Place of Economics in Learning · 7. Economics and Freedom · mises.org ↗
Hoppe’s distinction: the monarch, as “owner” of the state, has a lower time preference than the temporary democratic caretaker, who exploits the state for as long as his term lasts.
No verified English passage yet. The term occurs only in Democracy — The God That Failed (excluded).
The policy of protecting domestic production from foreign competition by tariffs, quotas and bans.
In the original“Protectionism is indispensable where there is no domestic free trade.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIV. Harmony and Conflict of Interests · 5. The Conflicts of Our Age · mises.org ↗
Goods held to be non-excludable, so that the state supposedly has to provide them; Rothbard and Hoppe reject the distinction.
In the original“The “collective goods” argument is, on its face, even more scientific; the economist simply asserts that some goods or services, by their very nature, must be supplied “collectively,” and “therefore” government must supply them out of tax revenue.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · Appendix B: “Collective Goods” and “External Benefits”: Two Arguments for Government Activity · mises.org ↗
The compulsory transfer of income or wealth from some people to others through taxation and state benefits.
In the original“Confiscation and Redistribution 1 The Philosophy of Confiscation 2 Land Reform 3 Confiscatory Taxation Confiscatory Taxation and Risk-Taking Chapter XXXIII.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Contents · mises.org ↗
The principle that power is bound by general laws.
In the original“As Jevons stated: “It used to be held as a general rule of law, that any present grant or assignment of goods not in existence is without operation,” and this general rule need only be revived and enforced to outlaw fictitious money-substitutes.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 11 — Money and Its Purchasing Power · 6. The Supply of Money · mises.org ↗
The group that controls the state apparatus and lives by the political means.
In the original“Needham charged indignantly that the “civilization which Professor Wittfogel is so bitterly attacking was one which could make poets and scholars into officials.” What matter the totalitarianism so long as the ruling class is abundantly staffed by certified intellectuals!”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 3 The State · The State and the Intellectuals · mises.org ↗
Henry George’s proposal to replace all taxes with a single tax on the value of land; Rothbard examines and rejects it.
In the original“The essence of the single tax scheme is to tax ground rent only and to leave all capital goods free from tax.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 4 — Binary Intervention: Taxation · 6. The Incidence and Effects of Taxation · mises.org ↗
The theory that the state rests on a (hypothetical) agreement among citizens; Rothbard and Hoppe observe that no one ever signed such a contract.
In the original“In Western Europe, as in many other civilizations, the typical model of the origin of the State was not via a voluntary “social contract” but by the conquest of one tribe by another.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 3 The State · The State and the Intellectuals · mises.org ↗
For Hoppe, the form of socialism that formally keeps private property but redistributes income through taxes and benefits.
No verified English passage yet. The term only passing mentions of the party in the English texts; no defining passage. The books that use the term are linked below.
A system of state ownership of the means of production; for Mises, impossible for lack of economic calculation.
In the original“Socialism is bound to come “with the inexorability of a law of nature.”[3] Only morons can be so stupid as to question whether what is bound to come is more beneficial than what preceded it.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Five Social Cooperation Without a Market XXV. THE IMAGINARY CONSTRUCTION OF A SOCIALIST SOCIETY · 2. The Socialist Doctrine · mises.org ↗
Socialism that formally keeps private property while the state sets prices, wages and production; Mises contrasts it with socialism of the Russian (managerial) pattern.
In the original“Then the planned economy, socialism of the German Zwangswirtschaft pattern, is substituted for the market economy.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXX. Interference with the Structure of Prices · 2. The Market’s Reaction to Government Interference · mises.org ↗
The community in which all the means of production belong to the whole and their use is decided by a special organ of the community; for Mises, economic calculation is impossible in it.
In the original“But as long as a socialist commonwealth is still in a position to calculate on the ground of prices determined on foreign markets, it can also utilize a quasi-managerial hierarchy to some extent.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXXVI. The Crisis of Interventionism · 3. The End of Interventionism · mises.org ↗
The transfer of the means of production from private ownership to the ownership of the community; for Mises, if groups of workers became owners of their means of production, that would be syndicalism, not socialization.
In the original“The “socialization” of individual plants, shops, and farms—that is, their transfer from private into public ownership—is a method of bringing about socialism by successive measures.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XV. The Market · 1. The Characteristics of the Market Economy · mises.org ↗
The organization that claims the monopoly of legitimate violence in an area and is financed by compulsory taxation.
In the original“Thus, while the state of technology is ultimately a very important consideration, at no given time does it play a direct role, since the narrower limit on production is always the supply of capital.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 9 — Production: Particular Factor Prices and Productive Incomes · 6. A Summary of the Market · mises.org ↗
The ideology that hands over more and more of the functions of society and the economy to the state.
In the original“It is precisely statism that is bringing back the rule of the jungle—bringing back conflict, disharmony, caste struggle, conquest and the war of all against all, and general poverty.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Antimarket Ethics: A Praxeological Critique · 10. Back to the Jungle? · mises.org ↗
Shifting is the transfer of the burden of a tax from the person who pays it to others; incidence is where the burden finally falls.
In the original“With regard to contingencies the expected incidence of which is too rare and too irregular to be dealt with in this way by individual firms of normal size, concerted action on the part of sufficiently large groups of firms takes care of the matter.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XV. The Market · 8. Entrepreneurial Profit and Loss · mises.org ↗
The distinction drawn by Calhoun and Rothbard: society is divided into those who pay taxes and those who live on them.
In the original“But this is inherently impossible, as we have already seen from Calhoun’s demonstration that the community is inevitably divided into taxpayers and tax-consumers, who, of course, cannot be said to pay taxes at all.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State, ch. 12, 7. Binary Intervention: The Government Budget · mises.org ↗
Hoppe’s definition of the state: a territorial monopoly of ultimate decision-making (jurisdiction) and of taxation; Rothbard speaks of a monopoly of ultimate decision-making.
In the original“Even more important is the factor of ultimate-decision-making ability, which cannot be enlarged to the extent that management can.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 9 — Production: Particular Factor Prices and Productive Incomes · 3. Entrepreneurship and Income · mises.org ↗
In Rothbard: the state imposes an exchange or a restriction between two private persons.
In the original“The former type of triangular intervention is called a price control, because it deals specifically with the terms, i.e., the price, at which the exchange is made; the latter may be called product control, as dealing specifically with the nature of the product or of the producer.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 5. Triangular Intervention: Price Control · mises.org ↗
Interference in the market by force or the threat of force; a general category that includes autistic, binary and triangular intervention.
In the original“Yet there is an important connection between the two, for we have seen that a free market tends to lead to abundance for all of its participants, and we shall see below that violent intervention in the market and a hegemonic society tend to lead to general poverty.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 5 — Production: The Structure · 4. Joint Ownership of the Product by the Owners of the Factors · mises.org ↗
A state that redistributes income for social protection.
In the original“A fascinating gauge of whether or to what extent government is helping or hurting the poor in the “welfare state” is provided by an unpublished study by the Institute for Policy Studies of Washington, D.C.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 8 Welfare and the Welfare State · What Can Government Do? · mises.org ↗
Competing private providers of security and justice in a society without a state (Molinari, Rothbard, Hoppe).
In the original“The only “private governments” are those people and organizations aggressing against persons and property that are not part of the official State dominating certain territory.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 6 — Antimarket Ethics: A Praxeological Critique · 11. Power and Coercion · mises.org ↗
Aggression is the initiation or threat of physical violence against the person or property of another; the non-aggression axiom (principle), which forbids it, is the central axiom of libertarianism.
In the original“If mankind does not return to the ideas today disparaged as “orthodox,” “Manchester philosophy,” and “laissez faire,” the only method to prevent a new aggression is to render the Germans innocuous by depriving them of the means of waging war.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, IX. The Role of Ideas · 2. World View and Ideology · mises.org ↗
The view that all services, defense included, can be provided by a private market.
No verified English passage yet. The term the word does not occur in the English texts of the listed books. The books that use the term are linked below.
The absence of state power.
In the original“In the first place, we must recognize that there is at present no overall world court or world government enforcing its decrees; yet while we live in a state of “international anarchy” there is little or no problem in disputes between private citizens of two countries.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 12 The Public Sector, III: Police, Law, and the Courts · The Courts · mises.org ↗
The grounding of the ethics of property in the framework inherent in all argumentation (Hoppe).
No verified English passage yet. The term Hoppe’s argument is not stated in the English texts of the listed books. The books that use the term are linked below.
The liberal tradition of Locke, Smith, Bastiat and Mises.
In the original“In fact, the great libertarian Spencer himself is a fascinating illustration of just such a change in classical liberalism (and his case is paralleled in America by William Graham Sumner).”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 1 The Libertarian Heritage: The American Revolution and Classical Liberalism · Decay from Within · mises.org ↗
The use or threat of violence to force someone to act against his will.
In the original“Seemingly orderly, coercion is not only exploitative; it is also profoundly disorderly.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 12. Conclusion: The Free Market and Coercion · mises.org ↗
For Hoppe, the “free immigration” that the state imposes on public territory is not free movement but forced integration, because it bypasses the consent of property owners.
No verified English passage yet. The term occurs only in Democracy — The God That Failed (excluded). The books that use the term are linked below.
Acquiring ownership of an unowned resource by being the first to use or transform it (Locke, Rothbard, Hoppe). The homesteader mixes his labor with unused land and so becomes its legitimate owner, just as a producer owns what he makes.
In the original“The homesteader is just as legitimately the owner of the property as the sculptor or the manufacturer; he is just as much a “producer” as the others.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, ch. 2 “Property and Exchange”, section “Property Rights” · mises.org ↗
Compulsory labor on another’s behalf; Rothbard includes conscription and other state obligations in it.
In the original“While conscription into the armed forces is a blatant and aggravated form of involuntary servitude, there is another, far more subtle and therefore less detectable form: the structure of the army itself.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 5 Involuntary Servitude · The Army · mises.org ↗
A political philosophy grounded in the non-aggression principle.
In the original“Since libertarianism is nothing if not a party of change and of progress toward liberty, abandonment of that role meant the abandonment of much of their reason for existence—either in reality or in the minds of the public.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 1 The Libertarian Heritage: The American Revolution and Classical Liberalism · Resistance to Liberty · mises.org ↗
The absence of coercion by other people.
In the original“For since freedom of entry is restricted only to foreign firms, the higher returns accruing to firms newly protected by a tariff will attract more domestic capital to that industry.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 12 — The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market · 6. Triangular Intervention: Product Control · mises.org ↗
For Hoppe, the individuals who spontaneously acquire authority through their wealth, wisdom and judgment and serve as natural judges and arbitrators; democracy replaces them with politicians.
No verified English passage yet. The term occurs only in Democracy — The God That Failed (excluded).
A moral rule derived from the nature of man.
In the original“As the idea of natural law is quite arbitrary, such discussions are not open to settlement.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Six The Hampered Market Economy XXVII. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE MARKET · 3. The Delimitation of Governmental Functions · mises.org ↗
For Hoppe, the social order based exclusively on private property and voluntary relations, without a state; the alternative to both monarchy and democracy.
In the original“Liberalism’s plans for eternal peace—both in domestic and in foreign relations—are the outcome of an illusory rationalism contrary to the natural order.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part Two Action Within the Framework of Society VIII. HUMAN SOCIETY · 8. The Instinct of Aggression and Destruction · mises.org ↗
Rights that exist prior to the state.
In the original“The moral, natural-rights issue involved here is even clearer if we consider the case of animals.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 2 Property and Exchange · Property Rights · mises.org ↗
The right of exclusive control over scarce resources; the basis of social cooperation.
In the original“The meaning of private property in the market society is radically different from what it is under a system of each household’s autarky.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXIV. Harmony and Conflict of Interests · 4. Private Property · mises.org ↗
Hoppe’s society in which everyone, without exception, is subject to the same private law, and defense and justice are provided by competing insurers and arbitrators.
No verified English passage yet. The term occurs only in Democracy — The God That Failed (excluded). The books that use the term are linked below.
The rights of exclusive control over scarce resources; for Rothbard, all human rights are property rights.
In the original“Where property rights are fully defended, theft cannot be compounded in this manner.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 2 — Direct Exchange · 13. Enforcement Against Invasion of Property · mises.org ↗
The principle that punishment consists mainly in compensation of the victim by the offender.
In the original“The buyer would have to purchase at his own risk and make sure that the good is not stolen; if he nonetheless does buy stolen goods, he must try to obtain restitution from the thief, and not at the expense of the rightful owner.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 2 — Direct Exchange · 13. Enforcement Against Invasion of Property · mises.org ↗
The breaking away of regions from the state.
In the original“But if such a right of secession is denied, then the national democrat must concede that the more numerous population of other countries should have a right to outvote his country; and so he must proceed upwards to a world government run by a world majority rule.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 5 — Binary Intervention: Government Expenditures · 5. Democracy · mises.org ↗
The principle that every human being owns his or her own body. For Rothbard it is the basic axiom of the libertarian position on property: each person has the right to control his body free of coercive interference.
In the original“The right to self-ownership asserts the absolute right of each man, by virtue of his (or her) being a human being, to “own” his or her own body; that is, to control that body free of coercive interference.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, ch. 2 “Property and Exchange”, section “Property Rights” · mises.org ↗
The overuse of resources that belong to no one; Hoppe applies it to the “public” ownership of the state under democracy.
No verified English passage yet. The term occurs only in Democracy — The God That Failed (excluded).
Acts punished by law although they violate no one’s person or property (e.g. drug use, gambling).
In the original“Only we wish to break with all aspects of the liberal State: with its welfare and its warfare, its monopoly privileges and its egalitarianism, its repression of victimless crimes whether personal or economic.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 15 A Strategy for Liberty · Toward a Free America · mises.org ↗
Whatever is done without coercion, with the consent of all parties; the basis of market exchange.
In the original“The opposite of action is not irrational behavior, but a reactive response to stimuli on the part of the bodily organs and instincts which cannot be controlled by the volition of the person concerned.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Part One Human Action I. ACTING MAN · 4. Rationality and Irrationality; Subjectivism and Objectivity of Praxeological Research · mises.org ↗
The school of economic thought that began with Carl Menger (1871) and was continued by Böhm-Bawerk, Mises, Hayek and Rothbard.
In the original“This influence is partly responsible for the current myth among economists that the Austrian School is effectively dead and has no more to contribute and that everything of lasting worth that it had to offer was effectively stated and integrated in Alfred Marshall’s Principles.”
Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Chapter 5 — Production: The Structure · 8. Money Costs, Prices, and Alfred Marshall · mises.org ↗
The economic theory of Smith, Ricardo and Mill.
In the original“Classical economics erred when it assigned to land a distinct place in its theoretical scheme.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXII. The Nonhuman Original Factors of Production · 1. General Observations Concerning the Theory of Rent · mises.org ↗
The political tradition that Hoppe criticizes when it allies itself with the state and accepts when it defends property, the family and natural hierarchies.
In the original“In other words, the main thrust of Soviet conservatism today is to preserve what it already has at home and abroad, not to jeopardize it.”
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 14 War and Foreign Policy · Soviet Foreign Policy · mises.org ↗
The German school (Schmoller) that rejected economic laws.
In the original“The German Historical School was consistent in its radical condemnation of economics and in its endeavors to substitute wirtschaftliche Staatswissenschaften (the economic aspects of political science) for economics.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXX. Interference with the Structure of Prices · 1. The Government and the Autonomy of the Market · mises.org ↗
An American school (Veblen, Commons, Mitchell) that rejected economic theory in favor of describing institutions.
In the original“It is therefore permissible to use the term “Industrial Revolution” in the examination of the emotional connotations with which Fabianism, Marxism, the Historical School, and Institutionalism have loaded it.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XXI. Work and Wages · 9. The Labor Market · mises.org ↗
The simultaneous discovery of marginal utility by Menger, Jevons and Walras (1871–74).
In the English edition (editor’s introduction)“Every page of Rothbard’s treatise is imbued with a profound awareness that the causal-realist theoretical system that he was expounding was in the mainstream of an international economic tradition that originated in the Marginalist Revolution.”
Joseph T. Salerno, introduction to Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market · mises.org ↗
The dispute over method between Carl Menger and Gustav Schmoller in the 1880s: the Austrian economists defended economic theory against the German (Prussian) Historical School, which rejected universal economic laws in favor of historical description.
In the original“In the Methodenstreit between the Austrian economists and the Prussian Historical School, the self-styled “intellectual bodyguard of the House of Hohenzollern,” and in the discussions between the school of John Bates Clark and American Institutionalism much more was at stake than the question of what kind of procedure was the most fruitful one.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Introduction, §2 “The Epistemological Problem of a General Theory of Human Action” · mises.org ↗