Praxeology

Recorded at Mises University 2006.

Prices are by definition determined by peoples' buying and selling or abstention from buying and selling.

In sum, protection and security contracts would come into existence. Furthermore, as a result of the continual cooperation of various insurers and arbitrators, a tendency toward the unification of property and contract law and the harmonization of the rules of procedure, evidence, and conflict resolution would be set in motion.

Praxeology tells us that human action is rational. The case being made for state action to remedy so-called irrationalities discovered by researchers in behavioral economics and finance has no logical justification.

Claims of ultimate ends, like happiness or well-being, are impossible, says Hobbes. In this life, the fact that you are still acting shows that you have not achieved any ultimate end. Does action really express dissatisfaction? You can act to keep something happening, rather than to try to change things.

The problem with this assumption is that it is quite impossible to construct a scale of measurement for human preferences — both for individuals and especially for groups of individuals.

Government involvement accounts for the internet's continuing problems, while the market should get the credit for its glories.

Roderick Long talks about value-subjectivism, and where Austrian economics is supposed to endorse a subjective sense of value.

May 8 marks the 1899 birth of Friedrich Hayek. Though best known as an economist, he was acclaimed for contributions in many fields.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe explains the neglected role of insurance in a free market economy. Any insurance involves the pooling of individual risks by the market, a task the state can only distort.