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. This important work was written decades after Mises's original essay on economic calculation and includes the broadest and boldest attack on all forms of state control.

The contents of this volume include:

Introductory Remarks:
1. The Failure of Interventionism
2. The Dictatorial, Anti-democratic and Socialist Character of Interventionism
3. Socialism and Communism
4. Russia's Aggressiveness
5. Trotsky's Heresy
6. The Liberation of the Demons
7. Fascism
8. Nazism
9. The Teachings of the Soviet Experience
10. The Alleged Inevitability of Socialism