Prices

We don't have capitalism in New Orleans or anywhere else, of course. Only government can grant monopoly privilege to put obstacles in the way of people getting what they need.

The U.S. subsidizes ethanol. Corn prices go up. The new prices hit Mexicans hard.

There is nothing inherently slimy about trading real estate, and certainly nothing warranting the state’s regulation of this market.

Beauty is in the eye of beholder and only an individual can make subjective valuation of a work of art based on the satisfaction that he derives from it.

It is private property and market prices or the law of the jungle, and no amount of fashionable cynicism about the market or romantic delusions about how nice life would be without it can obscure this fundamental choice.

The poor are able to acquire household items that in some cases no one, rich or poor, could have had even a generation ago, and on terms that no one else is willing to extend to them.

Government officials have the incentive and the ability to manipulate economic statistics. The lesson is: don't be fooled by government statistics.

I heartily await other fortunes that discuss capital theory, interest rates, the business cycle, and perhaps even price controls.

The various sources of error that come into play in the social sciences suggest that the error in economic observations is substantial. Morgenstern shows that the solution of a system of economic mathematical equations or econometric models is, due to the quality of the data, completely devoid of meaning.

Recorded at Mises University 2006.