Enduring the bureaucratic and regulation-ridden work environment, US truckers work tooth-and-nail to keep supply chains moving and on schedule. Because of regulatory interference, US trucking outfits are among the few remaining industries that are still largely run and/or owned by mom-and-pop operations. According to the American Trucking Association, nearly 70 percent of all goods moved in the US are transported on trucks.
I don’t follow the NFL, so I had no idea who Baltimore Ravens ex-player Ray Rice is until stories about him started appearing in my Facebook feed. Given that a lot of people watch ESPN, it’s now well known that Rice apparently (and allegedly) beat his now-wife (Janay Rice) unconscious in a hotel elevator. This wouldn’t be news at all, of course, if a famous person were not involved, and it would be just another story of domestic abuse.
Libertarians were virtually alone in opposing the planned expansions of government power in the wake of 9/11, and then as now, we saw the attacks for what they were: criminal attacks on human persons and property which nonetheless have not been set right or rendered impossible by more than a decade of nearly untrammeled government theft, war, regulation, and spying. An updated ‘9/11 Reader:’
We live at a time when politicians and bureaucrats only know one public policy: more and bigger government. Yet, there was a time when even those who served in government defended limited and smaller government. One of the greatest of these died one hundred years ago on August 27, 1914, the Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk.
Inflation, defined as an expansion of the supply of unbacked money, is an elementary evil, always and everywhere that it occurs.1 It is the ignored and core cause of numerous problems in the economy and in society, including:
1. Inflation Causes Booms and Busts
As we moved into the second half of 2014, I was eager to learn if marijuana legalization in Colorado was succeeding. At first there was little being reported, but eventually reports started appearing in the news. Business Insider reported that “Legalizing Weed in Colorado Is A Huge Success,” although they did temper their report with a “Down Side” as well.
As a frequent viewer of The History Channel I have come to appreciate several of its weekly programs, not only for their own sake, but for the many principles of economics demonstrated in each episode. I have written previously of the lessons from the pawn shop, describing a few notable economic concepts one learns from watching Pawn Stars and American Restoration. Another such television show is American Pickers.
