Archive for Bettina Bien Greaves
Contributing editor Bettina Bien Greaves was a longtime FEE staff member, resident scholar, and trustee. She attended Ludwig von Mises’s New York University seminar for many years and is a translator, editor, and bibliographer of his works.
Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973): A Prophet Without Honor in His Own Land
Mrs. Greaves, Resident Scholar at The Foundation for Economic Education, attended Professor Mises’ seminar at New York University for many years and knew both him and Mrs. Mises well. The remarks attributed to Professor Mises in direct quotation marks are based on his own writings, interviews, and notes taken at his seminar and lectures. An [...]
1Jan1995 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: The Ghost of the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane by William Holtz
The Ghost of the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane by William Holtz University of Missouri Press, 1993 • 425 pages. $29.95 Rose Wilder Lane was born on December 5, 1886. She was a fascinating person. For most of her life she eked out a precarious livelihood as a free-lance author, journalist, ghostwriter, and novelist. [...]
1Sep1994 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | ContinuedPerspective: A Word From the Guest Editor
For many years I have been on the Foundation’s staff. When people asked me what I did, I would tell them, “I read, I write, and I look things up.” That about covers it. Occasionally I edited an article for The Freeman. But this is the first time I have actually edited an entire issue. [...]
1Sep1994 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy War?
Mrs. Greaves, a long-time member of FEE’s senior staff, is now its Resident Scholar. Her late husband, Percy L. Greaves, Jr., served as Chief of the Minority Staff to the Joint Congressional Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack (1945-1946). Mrs. Greaves is completing the book he was writing when he died, The [...]
1Apr1994 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 1 comment | ContinuedHow Much Money?
Do we need more money as the population increases? Do we need more money as production expands? That would seem logical. But is it? What individuals really want is not more money, but more purchasing power. Money itself isn’t wealth. Look at Germany in 1923. The Germans had plenty of paper money then–billions and billions [...]
1Mar1994 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | ContinuedPerspective: The Education of a Politician
For 24 years George McGovern was in political office as a U.S. Congressman and Senator, and was also an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for President. Then in the hopes of realizing “a longtime dream” he invested in “a combination hotel, restaurant and public conference facility—complete with an experienced manager and staff,” only to have his hopes [...]
1Oct1992 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy Communism Failed
Three years after the Russian Revolution, an Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, argued that Communism would fail and explained why. Communism, or socialism, couldn’t succeed, Mises wrote in 1920, because it had abolished free markets so that officials had no market prices to guide them in planning production. Mises was relatively unknown when he made his controversial forecast, but he acquired some international renown later as the leading spokesman of the Austrian (free market) school of economics.
1Mar1991 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 40 comments | ContinuedPerspective: Arguments and Facts
“[T]he capacity for individual human action derives from the challenge and strength of free enterprise.” Those are the words of Vladislav Starkov, editor of the largest-selling publication in the world, when interviewed by London-based journalist Gitta Sereny (The Independent, July 1, 1990). In 1978, Starkov became editor of Argumenty i Fakty (Arguments and Facts), a [...]
1Jan1991 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 1 comment | ContinuedConsumer Sovereignty
From time to time, insightful economists have described the operations of a market economy. Many have noted that no central planner is needed to tell producers what to produce, when to produce, how much to produce, and what quality to produce. Adam Smith, often called the “first economist,” pointed out in 1776 that the butcher, the baker, and the brewer are guided as if by “an invisible hand.” Frederic Bastiat remarked in 1845 that Parisians need not fear starving the next day, but could sleep peacefully in their beds, confident that the city would be provisioned during the night.
1Jun1990 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 1 comment | ContinuedHenry Hazlitt: A Man for Many Seasons
Editors’ Note: November 28 marks the 95th birthday of the noted author and economist Henry Hazlitt, who has served with great distinction as a Trustee of The Foundation for Economic Education since FEE was founded in 1946, and whose personal papers and library are now housed at FEE. To mark Mr. Hazlitt’s birthday, we are [...]
1Nov1989 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 13 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Ludwig von Mises: Scholar, Creator, Hero by Murray N. Rothbard
The Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn University. Auburn, Alabama 36849 • 1988 • 87 pp., $8.00 paperback. Also available from The Foundation for Economic Education. The great Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, died in 1973. A generation of young students has come of age since then. These new students know Mises only by name and [...]
1Nov1988 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 12 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Marva Collins Way by Marva Collins and Civia Tamarkin
Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., distributed by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York 10010 • 1982 • 227 pp., $6.95 paper. Marva Collins may not be a “super-teacher” as some have claimed. But she must have boundless energy. She also has a profound love of reading, a sincere interest in history, an infatuation with [...]
1May1988 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 3 comments | ContinuedPerspective: Give Thanks for Freedom
The Pilgrims are usually credited with having celebrated the first Thanksgiving in this hemisphere. and rightly so. However, the custom of giving thanks became nationwide only much later. Our first President, George Washington, was grateful for the Constitution. In his view, it offered an opportunity for the new nation to start afresh. On October 3, [...]
1Nov1987 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: After Apartheid: the Solution For South Africa by Frances Kendall and Leon Louw
ICS Press • 243 Kearney Street, San Francisco, California 94108 • 250 pages • $17.95 hardcover. South Africa’s situation is desperate. English, Afrikaners, blacks, coloreds, Indians, and other minorities are fearful. Many blacks, resenting the restrictions imposed on them, resort to violence. In view of the fact that so much power is centralized, the demand [...]
1Jun1987 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Rivalry and Central Planning: The Socialist Calculation Debate Reconsidered by Don Lavoie and National Economic Planning: What is Left? by Don Lavoie
Rivalry and Central Planning: The Socialist Calculation Debate Reconsidered by Don Lavoie Cambridge University Press, 32 E. 57th St., NY 10022 • 208 pages. $34.50 National Economic Planning: What is Left? by Don Lavoie Ballinger Publishing Co., Cambridge, MA 02138 • 291 pages, $25.00 cloth; Cato Institute, 224 Second Street, SE, Washington, D.C. 20003, [...]
1Apr1986 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 1 comment | ContinuedA Page on Freedom: Number 26
Production Is a Team Effort From the mine to the auto, the farm to the grocer, the lab to the hospital, production is a team effort, not a class struggle. Workers and managers are teammates in a common enterprise. Everyone gains if the operation functions smoothly; everyone loses if it is disrupted. Everyone depends on [...]
1Dec1985 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Meaning of Liberalism from the new preface
Mrs. Greaves, a member of FEE’s Senior Staff, attended Mises’ NYU Seminar for many years. She is also the translator of the Mises works included in On the Manipulation of Money and Credit. The Term “liberalism,” from the Latin “liber” meaning “free,” referred originally to the philosophy of freedom. It still retained this meaning in [...]
1Nov1985 | Bettina Bien Greaves | 0 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
