Prices

Wu has written an outline of international price theories that map the theoretical development of international economics. It is a major achievement.

Many governments — including the US — have often inhumanely forbidden families from supplying ransoms to kidnappers to save loved ones. The Obama administration recently, and correctly, suspended the practice of prosecuting families in these cases.

As news of Venezuela’s suffering keeps coming through, one cannot help but feel a certain sense of dread. All governments control the money supply to essentially the same extent that Maduro’s administration does. All around the world we have monetary socialism, where national currencies are subject solely to political power. And one cannot help but wonder (and fear) how many more such economic disasters it will take before it becomes clear that socialism of all shapes, sizes, and degrees, is unrealizable, unbearable, and unforgivable.  

Economist Jeffrey Sachs is complaining that some new drugs cost "too much." But after we sift through all the intellectual property rules, the FDA regs, and the government subsidies, it's impossible to guess what a "correct" price for the drugs might be.

When one CEO set his company's minimum wage at $70,000, some denounced the move as “socialism.” But the real situation is more complex than that, and we should look at how CEOs can use wages to achieve a variety of personal goals.

Modern health "insurance" is really just a wealth-transfer scheme that now ignores risk and true costs.

Learn the fundamentals of the Austrian school.

Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 23 July 2015.

Gold prices are subject to manipulation in a variety of ways from the private sector, central banks, and governments. To see how gold fits into markets, we must look to see how "official" and "unoffocial" prices for the yellow metal are being shaped.

Apart from driving up prices, one of the main problems of subsidized government loans is the fact that a student can get the same loan terms for a high-risk degree in art history as for a safer degree in engineering.