I’m delighted to announce the publication of a new collection of papers on Austrian economics, The Economic Theory of Costs: Foundations and New Directions (Routledge, 2018).

Paul Waldman tries to defend the US Postal Services in this Twitter rant, but all he does is show the need for better economics education. He lists a bunch of things the post office does and deems it a “fricking marvel.” Well, nobody disputes that the post office does home pickup and delivery, charges prices independent of distance, and provides services in small towns and low-income areas.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
—The 4th Amendment to the US Constitution

In the preface to Ludwig von Mises’ Theory and History, Murray Rothbard refers to the book as his “fourth and last great work” as well as “the most neglected masterwork of Mises.” In it, Mises elaborates on the philosophy put forth in Human Action, where he details one of the two sciences of human action — praxeology.

The Federal Reserve’s decades long program of inflation, as the cure to fix all things wrong with economy, has made retirement a luxury fewer people can afford. It’s not a story that’s well known. That the retail world is being taken over by Jeff Bezos’s Amazon is common knowledge.

In the tradition of dimming debate, the chattering class has reduced systemic corruption in South Africa and the near collapse in Zimbabwe, respectively, to the shenanigans of two men: Jacob Zuma and Robert Mugabe.

Zuma, the President of South Africa, currently faces possible impeachment for corruption, while Robert Mugabe has now been forcibly “retired” after 30 years as President.

Inspired by the recent interest in the film Darkest Hour and Netflix’s The Crown, our friend C Jay Engel at Austrolibertarian was inspired to share the late great Ralph Raico’s thoughts on Winston Churchill.

From his essay Rethinking Churchill: 

Back in the wake of 9/11, it was harder to find a more pro-war member of the conservative establishment than Max Boot. Boot has now spent abour two decades advocating for non-stop global war in pursuit of an American empire than he he wholeheartedly endorses. 

Following the ideas of Keynes and Friedman, most mainstream economists associate economic growth with increases in the demand for goods and services.

Both Keynes and Friedman felt that The Great Depression of the 1930’s was due to an insufficiency of aggregate demand and thus the way to fix the problem is to boost aggregate demand.

For Keynes, this was achieved by having the federal government borrow more money and spend it when the private sector would not. Friedman advocated that the Federal Reserve pump more money to revive demand.