The following is a remark that Ludwig von Mises made in his famous NYU seminar, as recorded in the notes of seminar attendee Bettina Bien Greaves on September 26, 1957:

In a speech discussing the future of liberal education, delivered on the occasion of his retirement as Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale, Donald Kagan struck a Rothbardian note:  

Why does a large portion of the population choose not to work when there are many jobs available? The answer is simple. If you can receive 2-3 times as much money from unemployment, disability, and/or welfare benefits (subsidized housing, food stamps, free cellphones, etc.) as you can from a temporary or part-time job, and live a life of leisure, why work? In 2011, the U.S.

Unlike clients of a government agency, customers of a commercial enterprise really are customers, representing potential profit, not cost. In contrast to the DMV sign I shared the other day, consider the sign below, spotted at a small restaurant (via Niels van der Linden).

Supply-side economist Nathan Lewis discusses the differences between Supply Side Economics and Austrian Economics (with respect to monetary policy) in Forbes. At first he goes on to attack the Austrians but ultimately he extends an olive branch in the form of the Classical pre-1913 Gold Standard.

Here is an early article by Murray Rothbard on government statistics. Someone needs to update and expand on these numbers.

George Selgin has written a response to my blog post criticizing his expression of support in a TV interview for quantitative easing (QE) and for a Fed target for nominal gross domestic product (NGDP). In it, he makes a number of fair points that deserve a reply.

In an interview on CNBC’s European Closing Bell show, George Selgin presents an eloquent and compelling defense of deflation that is caused by increasing productivity in the economy. He refers to this as “good deflation.” Indeed, Selgin argues that such deflation is “desirable,” because any attempt by the Fed to offset it by monetary expansion will create asset bubbles.

I spent a lovely morning at the local office of the Department of Motor Vehicles. These are uniformly horrible places with long waits, surly employees, and arcane rules and procedures, and it’s not unusual for “customers” to get angry as well as frustrated.