What set in motion the explosive technological advance of the last 250 years was the world of ideas. Great thinkers began to understand the internal logic of the market economy and its potential for liberating mankind from poverty, dependency, and despotic rule.
It may seem paradoxical that we work so hard all year so we can sleep on the beach for a week, but there is a method to our madness. As we work harder, leisure time for others increases in both quality and quantity, and we can assume that everyone else is returning the favor. Everyone else, that is, except the government.
What may be the more important factor in manufacturing future Enrons is the role of government in fostering the boom-bust cycle. Enron, then, is just one casualty of many--albeit the largest so far--of massive credit expansion and of manipulation of interest rates by the central bank.
Mainstream economists are especially critical of Austrians for their lack of desire to incorporate mathematics in general, and multivariable calculus in particular, into their economic analysis. The criticism goes something like this: It does not matter whether or not mathematics is the most appropriate tool to describe economic human action. What matters is that most economists do use math, it has passed the "market test," and, therefore, it is the correct tool to use.
Hey, accountants are people, too, and they're not very happy ones these days. Arthur Andersen’s accountants--not unjustifiably--think that they are unfairly being made the scapegoats for much of Enron’s unreported sins, and the consequences could be devastating for the accounting concern’s survival.
While it is morally reprehensible to hate, in a true free market the freedom of citizens to associate with whom they wish must be upheld and private property rights must be enforced. There should be neither forced association nor forced disassociation. This is the social foundation of the free-market economy.
Typical Ph.D. economics student may be able to tell you lots about Kuhn-Tucker conditions, Hamiltonians, optimal control theory, undetermined coefficients, differential equations, and the like. They may speak fluently the language of mathematics and speak of sophisticated programs in GAUSS, SAS, and STATA. They may look at you with a curious bewilderment, however, upon the mention of Adam Smith. Perhaps you know of him.
A new study has been seized upon by proponents as a "proof text" against critics of living-wage laws. The success claimed for such policies by that study, however, is, in fact, far less than implied by the innumerable "Living Wage Laws Reduce Poverty" stories it has spawned. At most, the study only shows that some low-income workers may gain more than other low-income workers lose.
In the real world, human action can only manifest itself through material objects; man must utilize the resources that nature gives in order to employ means. If man desires to live, he must obtain food, shelter, and other physical necessities. On the most fundamental level, to exist in this universe, man must occupy space.
It is ironic that America is often derided by some critics for its rough-and-tumble capitalism--hence, these critics maintain, the need for government interventions of every kind. Reality, however, is quite different; America’s brand of capitalism seems to enjoy freshening the wells of failure. In America, if you’re big enough and rich enough, or if you have a world-class lobbying team, you can get the American taxpayer to underwrite your failures.
