The Causes of the Economic Crisis and Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression
The unhampered market creates economic inequality. Free marketeers tend to concede this fact as an unfortunate defect in an otherwise laudable system. F.A. Hayek, however, in a chapter from The Constitution of Liberty, argued that inequality is fundamental to a society’s progress. Hayek explained how, by purchasing luxuries unimaginable to the average man, the rich unwittingly perform a vital public service.
II. The Nationality Principle in Politics
That politics should be national is a modern postulate.
Mises Daily Tuesday by Matt McCaffrey:
“The Mises fellowship has been the single most important influence in my development as a scholar,” writes Matt McCaffrey in his discussion on being an Austrian economist in academia today. “No other program could have given me the resources I needed to start my career.”
Writing on the Ferguson protests and riots, Darlena Cunha claimed in Time Magazine that the Tea Party “gets its name from a riot, The Boston Tea Party.” Cunha went on to then claim that the Ferguson riots are in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party, which celebrates its 241st anniversary this week.
In response, a number of conservative commentators denied Cunha’s claim (and many similar claims) that the two events are comparable.
When I went to the Oxford Union debates this past summer I was told by a veteran of the debates that I must have a joke in order to win over the audience. My attempt to win over the British audience was a success, but unfortunately my opening remarks are too close to the truth and in retrospect, are really not that funny:
As Charles Dickens himself admits, Ebenezer Scrooge is a thoroughly peaceful man, guilty of no true crime, who has robbed no one. Therefore, we must conclude that his wealth is a sign of his ability to please at least some people, and as Michael Levin notes: “Dickens doesn’t mention Scrooge’s satisfied customers, but there must have been plenty of them for Scrooge to have gotten so rich.”
Mises Daily Tuesday by Frank Shostak:
The laws of physics can never be absolutely established. For some other law may prove more elegant or capable of explaining a wider range of facts. Hypotheses must be constantly tested. Economics is not like this.
