Americans certainly love college sports, particularly football and basketball. After all, what is better than cheering on student athletes competing for the love of the game? Unfortunately, behind this facade the National Collegiate Athletic Association and university athletic programs are simultaneously running two seemingly diametrically opposed rackets; one taking advantage of the players and the other ostensibly giving them unfair benefits.
A recent article at US News and World Report by Pat Garofalo quotes Associated Press writer Christopher Rugaber who says that “US states that boosted their minimums at the beginning of the year, the number of jobs grew an average of 0.85 percent from January through June.
Scarcity is an important aspect of our lives as it affects us everyday, although many people may overlook it when they generally enjoy high standards of living. But scarcity makes itself obvious to high-income people at times, as it will in September, for example, when people will line up for hours to get their hands on the iPhone 6. Ludwig von Mises explained the situation well in Human Action:
Ron Paul and Mark Spitznagel share a passion for non-interventionism, free markets, and Austrian economics. Congressman Paul served many years as a US Representative from Texas, spanning 1976 to 2013, and was a Republican presidential candidate in 2008 and 2012. He has written extensively on liberty and politics, including The Revolution: A Manifesto and End the Fed. Spitznagel is the founder of Universa Investments, an investment advisor that specializes in tail-hedging, and is the author of The Dao of Capital, for which Paul wrote the Foreword.
On my first day back in the classroom this fall, I was reminded that entrepreneurial alertness applies to ideas and insights as well as profits.
Since the opening chapter of the course’s economics principles text calls Adam Smith the father of economic science, I told my class that he actually had multiple precursors in the study of economics. I mentioned the Spanish scholastics as an example. And having his precursors in mind primed me to discover another one I had been completely unaware of.
In the most fundamental sense we are all, with each of our actions, always and invariably profit-seeking entrepreneurs.
Thanks to translator Matin Pedram, Rothbard’s Power and Market is now available in a Persian translation.
As has been done for several years, the Mises Institute hosted our annual Auburn University Economics Graduate Student Reception on Friday at our campus next to Auburn University. It was organized by Jonathan Newman (Summer Fellow 2014, Mises U Alum, and Economics Doctoral Student at Auburn).
