Oil prices have reached a 29-month high, reflecting a variety of factors including the prospects for war. At the same time, the Producer Price Index recorded a 1.6 percent jump in January, the biggest across-the-board increase since January 1990. Just as the script dictates, writes Lew Rockwell, cries of "gouging" are now heard across the land.
The anticipation surrounding the new movie "Gods and Generals" underscores the continuing fascination that Americans (and the world) have with the meaning of the Civil War. What continues to be missed are the economic roots of the North-South conflict—roots which represent deviations from the free-trade ideal.
Those who are in the news for pilfering the shuttle debris that rained down on Texas and Louisiana earlier are getting a bad rap, writes Christopher Westley. While the government can retrieve shuttle remains on public lands in any way it sees fit, it cannot violate the rights of property owners simply because they were unfortunate enough to wake up one morning and find government property on their land.
Homeschoolers—the largest group in the so-called school choice movement—still elicit scorn. The National Education Association, for instance, regularly passes an anti-homeschooling resolution at its annual convention. Now it's apparently Tinseltown's turn to bash the estimated 1.5 million homeschooled children in the United States.
It is slowly dawning on people that to understand George W., one must understand his religious impulses, which all evidence suggests are intensely important to him. His views are no different from that of the typical evangelical who absorbed his faith from the American Baptist culture. But they merit closer attention when they are held by an arrogant man with his finger on the button and who is contemplating total war.
Two and a half years into one of the most severe Bear Markets in History, the most striking feature of the typical economic discussion is the persistent state of denial about how perilous our situation truly is. Also notable is the unthinking promulgation of a species of economic fallacies which, though long since discredited, keep springing up like weeds to choke our reasoning.
"War," said Ludwig von Mises "is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror. Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things. Only economic action has created the wealth around us; labor, not the profession of arms, brings happiness. Peace builds, war destroys."
Nationwide, rose prices are often double on Valentine's Day from what they are on most other days of the year. Why are rose prices so high on Valentine's Day? And while we answer the question, let's be careful to keep cause and effect straight.
Bryan Caplan, in his widely circulated article, "Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist," seemingly has questioned the Austrian contention that choice implies preference. If it can be shown that we choose based on indifference and not preference, the Austrians be shown to be wrong. But can this be shown?
In tough times, people cling to the words of politicians and the statements of TV's talking heads—the two sources least likely to offer a broad perspective that yields answers. Jeffrey Tucker recommends five books for a clear a historical perspective, a theoretical explanation, a forecast for the future, and an agenda for change.
