Planned Chaos.

VON MISES, Ludwig.

Item Number: 100134

Irvington-On-Hudson, New York: The Foundation For Economic Education, 1947.

First edition of the economist’s epilogue to his work Socialism. Octavo, original green cloth. Signed by Ludwig von Mises on the front free endpaper. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of shelfwear.

The title comes from Mises's description of the reality of central planning and socialism, whether of the national variety (Nazism) or the international variety (communism). Rather than create an orderly society, the attempt to central plan has precisely the opposite effect. By short-circuiting the price mechanism and forcing people into economic lives contrary to their own chosing, central planning destroys the capital base and creates economic randomness that eventually ends in killing prosperity.