Morgan Reynolds: "When the Bush administration took office in January, 2001, a downturn was already underway. The president and his coterie said so and blamed Clinton, but then hushed up. That was a mistake—a dose of truth about the economy would have worked better—but they learned an early lesson about psychology and confidence in Washington, D.C. Politics is all about (the) confidence (game) and prestige in the nation's capital."
It was Mises, before Hardin, who identified the problem of overutilization wrought by public property. The problem is not limited to land ownership, however. In banking, writes Philipp Bagus, common deposit ownership leads to credit expansion and finally the drive to centralized control of money and banking in the form of a central bank.
Britain is similar to America in that it is suffering from the same political and economic maladies that have befallen its transatlantic cousin. Indeed, faced with a burgeoning fiscal deficit, fiat money-precipitated economic imbalances and renewed imperialism, albeit at Washington's behest, the U.K.'s own variant of "War, Prosperity and Depression," underscores the sources of America's woes. Grant Nülle explains.
No institution has worked more consistently to obliterate property rights than the federal courts, making certain political groups very happy. Thus, it's no surprise that Democrats on Capital Hill are blocking the confirmation of a judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit who — wonder of wonders — believes in property rights.
When the Winter Olympics came to Salt Lake City last year, some of the dirt that visiting journalists dug up to soil Utah's good name was the issue of polygamy. Polygamy, the practice of having more than one spouse at the same time, especially wives, is against the law. But, should it be?
It's easy to be depressed when you look around and see the state of monetary affairs, writes Christopher Mayer. But as many historical vignettes show, we have one great force in our favor. The inability of governments to maintain fixed exchange rates in the face of opposing market forces is proof of the impotency government managers.
Why is it that a capitalist can apparently spend a certain amount of money on factors of production, combine them according to a technological recipe in order to yield a physical product, and then sell this product for more money than he originally spent on the inputs? One view says this is due to abstinence, but Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk provided the correction.
The services provided by the paparazzi are subject to market discipline, writes Erich Mattei. So long as they provide publishers and consumers what they want, freelance celebrity photography will continue to be in demand and people will be drawn to this line of work. And yet, about about ethics? What about criminality?
As all Austrians should be aware, recessions themselves only come about as a reaction to the unsustainable tempo of the preceding Boom, writes Sean Corrigan. Pursue inflationism, frustrate the market, extend socialism, adopt protectionism, embrace militarism, extirpate thrift, expropriate the Middle Classes, consume capital--and ignore the Austrians!--that is the way to turn a recession into a depression.
Politicians believe that the size of the economy is fixed and they only have to decide how to divide it up, writes Richard Teather. Austrian economists, with their focus on the real world and human nature, know better; wealth does not just exist, it has to be created, and the disincentive effects of government actions do not just distribute wealth—they actively destroy it.
