About this episode

Timothy Terrell discusses the impossibility of rational economic calculation under socialism as articulated by Mises in 1920.

Timothy Terrell revisits Mises's 1920 bombshell: under socialism, rational economic calculation isn't just hard—it's impossible. Without market prices for the means of production, a central planner is blind, unable to tell whether he's creating wealth or destroying it. Terrell traces the argument from Soviet railroads and steel-bodied fighter jets to a strikingly modern target: the U.S. government's central planning of the American West. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 21, 2026. Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

People in this episode

Guest: Timothy Terrell

Topics covered

• socialism
• economic calculation
• central planning
• market prices
• Austrian School
• Mises Institute

Keywords

• socialism
• economic calculation
• central planning
• market prices
• Austrian School
• Mises Institute
• Timothy Terrell

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mises Institute

Books & works: Mises's 1920 bombshell

Places: U.S., Auburn, Alabama

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• From Spoiled Sons of Liberty to Surveillance Leviathan: America’s Six Republics and the Myth of Eternal Union · July 21, 2026
• Austrian Capital Theory · July 21, 2026

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