In einer Zeit, in der Europa den Glauben an Freiheit und Demokratie verloren hatte, gehörte der österreichische Ökonom Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) zu den wenigen Intellektuellen, die das Ideal des Liberalismus entschieden verteidigten. Sein Buch Liberalismus aus dem Jahre 1927 ist ein umfassendes Plädoyer für eine freiheitliche Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftsordnung, in dem Mises, der vor den Nazis ins amerikanische Exil fliehen mußte, vor allem die kaum wahrnehmbaren Bedrohungen aufzeigt, die sich aus der allmählichen Ausweitung jedweder Staatstätigkeit ergeben. Die Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung hat sich entschlossen, mit dem Nachdruck der Originalausgabe dieses Buches einen zu Unrecht vergessenen Klassiker wieder zugänglich zu machen. Die Ausgabe wurde mit einer neuen Einführung von Hans-Hermann Hoppe versehen.
Shortly after arriving in the United States, having fled a war-torn Europe, Ludwig von Mises sat down to complete his trilogy on economic systems. The result was this remarkably concise treatise, which tragically was not published until 1998. What Mises had foreseen was a world trapped between fully planned economies, which were clearly failing, and fully free markets, which were a casualty of depression and war. He warned that mixed systems give rise of political instability and economic stagnation, and proved that this was the case through a general model of interventionism and a specific analysis of price control, credit expansion, subsidies, welfare, corporatism, and the war economy. Particularly interesting is his discussion of the draft, which he sees as a species of socialism itself. A crucial book to understand in the post-socialist age. This book is not to be confused with his earlier book on price control entitled A Critique of Interventionism.The contents of this volume Introduction 1. The Problem 2. Capitalism or Market Economy 3. The Socialist Economy 4. The Capitalist State and the Socialist State 5. the Interventionist State 6. The Plea for Moral Reform I. Interference by Restriction 1. The Nature of Restrictive Measures 2. Costs and Benefits of Restrictive Measures 3. The Restrictive Measure as a Privilege 4. Restrictive Measures as Expenditures II. Interference by Price Control 1. The Statutory Law Versus Economic Law 2. The Reaction of the Market 3. Minimum Wages and Unemployment 4. The Political Consequences of Unemployment III. Inflation and Credit Expansion 1. Inflation 2. Credit Expansion 3. Foreign Exchange Control 4. The Flight of Capital and the Problem of "Hot Money" ISBN 1572460717 93 pp. (pb)
