Modern Americans live lives considerably less simple than that of Henry David Thoreau on Walden Pond. But Thoreau's insights in "Civil Disobedience," writes Gary Galles, are more important in our far more complex world.
In the midst of a recession, and with the credibility of central banking itself being called into question, what is a central banker to do? Why, blame executive pay, of course, and impugn the morality of anyone who might believe that Fed governors are a greater threat to economic stability than shareholders that make wage decisions.
The Socialist Calculation Debate did not end with the fall of the communist systems of the former U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe, writes William Anderson. Socialism is alive and well today, and is still wreaking havoc wherever it is implemented. But there is an intellectual antidote to socialism: Austrian economics.
In Zimbabwe, reparations are a transparent cover for one of the most monstrous governmental crimes of the last 10 years. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's land reforms have amounted to nothing more than a power grab by his government, which is starving a country that once was one of Africa's shining stars.
The Soviet system was a chaotic one that was destined not only to enslave and impoverish its people but also to degenerate and finally disintegrate. The Russian people have long experience in suffering poverty and hardship. Full of hope, they may yet find their way to comfort and ease--the way of freedom.
Nearly a lifetime ago, John Maynard Keynes launched his economic revolution, largely on the basis of his belief that interest rates do not do their job and that the market economy is inherently flawed by this shirking.
The alarm raised by mainstream economists that corporate cost cutting will undermine the real foundation of the economy is based on a flawed view of the essence of savings. On the contrary, writes Frank Shostak, cost cutting is an important means in correcting previous erroneous decisions so that real wealth can be generated again.
The current debate over Greenspan’s policy failures misses the crucial question, writes Robert Blumen: Could anyone, no matter how capable and well-informed, successfully perform the job that he is supposed to do? Were his errors sins of incompetence? Could a better man than Greenspan have done a better job?
Why do people walk up stairs but often stand still on escalators? Steven Landsburg and his mainstream colleagues were tripped up by calculating marginal benefits in terms of distance, and then erroneously thought the solution was to calculate it in terms of time. But there is nothing intrinsically valuable about height or time (or depth) as such. Robert Murphy explains.
The idea of resorting to work and entrepreneurialism as a means to material well-being has historically become a poor second to the idea of acquiring resources through theft. This robbery is always most effectively perpetrated when disguised and when legally underwritten by the threat of political violence–-i.e., when it is committed by the State.
