In today’s Wall Street Journal, Edward Stringham reviews Locked In by John F. Pfaff:

​If asked to name the foremost critic of Marxism, most economists sympathetic to the free market would name Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, who in his treatise Capital and Interest and his separate brochure Karl Marx and the Close of His System demolished the labor theory of value, the linchpin of Marxist economics.

Many years ago, the mass circulation Reader’s Digest had a feature titled “Humor in These United States.” The following would have qualified for inclusion.

This week the American public was forced to come to grips with what Ron Paul and others had long warned: the deep state exists, it is a threat, and it will undermine anyone who stands in its way.

We previously mentioned the budding struggle between the Yellen and Trump factions relating to the strength of the dollar and monetary and fiscal policies. It is the monetary status quo versus the populist rhetoric, and the showdown is worldwide. CNBC:

I am participating in a Liberty Matters dialog on Israel Kirzner’s contributions to economics. The lead essay is by Peter Boettke, followed by responses by Mario Rizzo, Frederic Sautet, and myself. Boettke’s contribution, “Israel M. Kirzner on Competitive Behavior, Industrial Structure, and the Entrepreneurial Market Process,” provides an overview of Kirzner’s analysis of the market process and its significance for economic theory.

The Republicans have a problem. Healthcare prices are so swollen by government imposed monopolies that most people cannot possibly afford to pay the crazy bills without subsidies. What to do?

Example: my son recently went to an out-of-state emergency room for food poisoning. The bill came in at over $8,000. And how is this for fairness: our insurance company knocked it down to about $4,000. An uninsured person would have been liable for the full amount. Might even have faced bankruptcy for failure to pay it.

In 1982, Murray Rothbard published a lengthy article titled “Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution” which laid out a free-market, private-property-based approach to environmental issues. Discussing air pollution Rothbard concluded:

If A is causing pollution of B’s air, and this can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, then this is aggression and it should be enjoined and damages paid.