Mises Daily

With time rightly identified as a scarce resource, economic theory is needed to understand the interchange process. And there is no place for the "freeconomics" of Chris Anderson.

As readers will have anticipated, I think that Wood has once again imposed on history a philosophical view — in this instance, a theory of how intellectual influence works.

Again, this is not just about terminology. It is about the assumptions many people bring to the subject of economics as it affects ethics.

In sum, the real cause of continually rising food prices is the printing of money by world governments. And the real cause of actual food shortages is the prevention of profitable global trade in food by the ill-advised policies of the governments of the very people who are starving.

So there we have the connection between Rothbardian political analytics and the hottest movie in theaters today.

As with everything else in life, competition among conceptual frameworks is very healthy, since it can quickly highlight when an economist is likely abusing his favorite technique.

Such is not the stuff of shortages but of market prices coordinating the allocation of scarce resources exceptionally well — and in reality, not just theory.

This is the reason that libertarianism can't really be called a movement, and it's a good thing too. One man tried to buy it, control it, and turn it towards anti-intellectualism for a political purpose.

The real solution for health care insurance is therefore better education, both in terms of the history of governmental intervention in health care markets, and the theoretical concepts of Austrian economics that are indispensable to our understanding of historical facts.

There is a further problem: to concede that there are social problems that cannot be corrected without the state is to give up the entire argument over the future of liberty itself.