I grew up in East Germany - a similar economic environment as there was in the former Soviet Union. For (equally) poor East Germans, buying a new dryer would have been utterly impossible. Firstly, central planing never allocated enough resources to buy cloth dryers or virtually any other consumer product. Secondly, income levels were too low to afford a $500 cloth dryer.

[The Chris Christie bridge scandal has highlighted some of the pitfalls of political control of the highway system. In this selection from Chapter 21 of The Privatization of Roads and Highways, Walter Block discusses some issues related to the privatization of roads. Block address the issue of traffic congestion throughout the book.]

The Spectator reports on a new book by Andro Linklater that examines the history of landownership, and the modern break away from feudalism to ‘exclusive control of the ground.’

Already in mailboxes is the January edition of The Free Market, the Mises Institute’s monthly. In this issue, Ryan McMaken writes on the AMC show Hell on Wheels and the transcontinental railroads:

New from Associated Scholar Antony Mueller: Beyond Keynes and the Classics. Outline of the Goods Side/Money Side Model of the Business Cycle and Macroeconomic Configurations Antony P Mueller UFS - Federal University of Sergipe - Universidade Federal de Sergipe January 20, 2014

by Ron Paul

Appearing last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified that he could not say the threat from al-Qaeda is any less today than it was ten years ago. It was a shocking admission. Does he mean that the trillions of dollars spent fighting the war on terrorism have resulted in no gains? That those who urged us to give up some of our liberties to gain security have, as Benjamin Franklin warned, lost both?

In a perceptive comment on yesterday’s Daily, “Bernanke’s Legacy: A Weak and Mediocre Economy”, mkm writes: