Forgive this superfluous post, but a friend just sent me this this picture from a golf shop sign in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in which the Mr. Niblick of Mashie & Niblick, looks surprisingly like Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk
The Free Market 24, no. 9 (September 2004) With the recent rate hike, the mainstream press obediently parrots the macroeconomic analysis offered by our friendly central planners at the Federal Reserve. The average citizen knows that he or she is not nearly smart enough to understand the complex interrelationships of various price indices, yield
With all due deference to the libertarian credentials of Karol Boudreaux, this suggestion seems to be a bad one. I was alerted to this article by a post at Cafe Hayek . The idea is devoid of any individual (actual) property rights claims and this should be the first caution light. That Boudreaux suggests as her model the Alaska Permanent Fund is
Apparently the UK paper The Guardian was trying to promote a Kerry win. Some of the reactions by upset Americans are funny, and also somewhat ironic given the US approach of “regime
At least two bloggers ( 1 and 2 ) have cheerfully cited Steve Landsburg’s article in praise of misers. Although it is refreshing anytime someone takes such an unconventional and pro-capitalist position, I’m afraid that I must be a Scrooge with the kudos. Landsburg’s main point—at least, the point to which he devotes the opening of his article, and
Last year my wife came across Jennifer Government in the airport bookstore and had to pick it up after glancing over the back cover. The description from Amazon (I hope this link works): In Max Barry’s twisted, hilarious vision of the near future, the world is run by giant American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French);
Lately a lot of people have been talking about Paul Samuelson’s Journal of Economic Perspectives article on globalization and free trade. The actual paper is available here through MIT. What’s funny is that (a) this paper has NOTHING to do with outsourcing--i.e. despite his verbal analysis, Samuelson’s model doesn’t even deal with outsourcing, let
This CNN article explains that the TSA has a test program in which it issues cards to frequent fliers who volunteer for a background check. This allows such fliers to bypass the usual airport searches. Right now the program is free, but the government may eventually charge a “modest fee” for participants. In a static cost-benefit analysis, this is
In this interesting Wired article (which I discovered at Marginalrevolution.com), we learn of a new approach to road design: Anarchy is good! The fewer road signs, the safer people drive. There are several lessons here for Austro-libertarians. First, this is precisely the kind of thing that would happen in a free market for roads; various
In the comments on a recent blog post, people questioned my assertion that anyone calling him or herself an Austrian economist needs to read Rothbard’s treatise cover to cover. (To clarify, I was saying anyone who wants to be an Austrian economist...) This raises an interesting question: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions to be an
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.