Over the years, there has been much discussion of Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz as being a “parable of populism.” Reading Quentin P. Taylor’s Money and Politics in the Land of Oz , in the Independent Institute’s fine publication, The Independent Review , sparked me to dig into some of the more interesting theories on this. According to Henry
One reason I so loved Murray Rothbard was his ability to pick out that which was blindly hailed by the mainstream, critically examine it, and produce unique and honest insight as to the real nature of such. In his Economic Thought Before Adam Smith , in an essay titled “Physiocracy in mid-eighteenth century France,” he presents some great insight
There are a legion of stories of the demise of accounting in corporate America running around out there—loose and undaunted, and perhaps somewhat exaggerated. As one corporate accounting bungle after another makes its way to the top of the headlines, the media reports on them as if detailing out a home brewing recipe. Accounting snafus are not
Oftentimes, Peter Drucker’s philosophy on business ethics and corporate social responsibility has been misrepresented to attempt to support the modern, Ivy League-MBA version of the stakeholder theory. Drucker is most certainly not perfect, but always interesting. Indeed he placed emphasis on normative standards within business practice,
Maybe. On behalf of the Free Enterprise Fund, Mr. Starr is challenging the burdensome and tyrannical Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Of course, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is an absolute monster given that it has the powers of subpoena and disciplinary action. Starr & Company are challenging the powers of this board as a violation of “the
My article “ Shareholder, not Stakeholder ,” which argued against the collectivist notion of “the stakeholder,” brought forth much disagreement, especially from the bohemian business types. Regarding this same topic, there is this magnificent Norman Barry piece on the stakeholder fallacy in the Freeman . He notes: The business ethicists’ current
New House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulatory monster at the top of her list of things to tackle in January 2007. Well wait, isn’t this exactly what the Dems are in favor of? A massive regulatory state that hogties big business? Not if your most financially supportive constituents are being hurt by such
From a pre-junk bond demotion piece on GM , sent to me by Robert Blumen : GM reached a watershed in its four-decade decline in market share. After losing two percentage points of share over the past year to log in at 25.6%, GM has reached the point at which it actually consumes more cash than it brings in making cars, for the first time since
I’m not on board the anti-Splenda train. Here’s an article that tweaked my tweakables in regards to those who have a love-hate relationship with statism (mine is all hate). Splenda is bad, according to Dr. Mercola , a guy whose work I find very interesting, and often, I agree with his assessments on health and nutrition. So yes, Splenda is made up
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.