You be the judge. Here are some quotations from Hayek’s most famous book:
“We have progressively abandoned that freedom in economic affairs without which personal and political freedom has never existed in the past” (p. 67).
“[I]ndividualism [means] respect for the individual man qua man, that is, the recognition of his own views and tastes as supreme in his own sphere . . .” (p. 68).
Shawn Ritenour, author of Foundations of Economics, channels Mises to dispute the “sad narratives of the financial meltdown of 2008 and its aftermath .. that it was and remains the result of unbridled capitalism.
[From Reflections on America, 1984: An Orwell Symposium. Ed. Robert Mulvihill. Athens and London, University of Georgia Press, 1986.]
In “The Intellectuals and Socialism,” 1 Nobel laureate F.A Hayek shows how ideas gain acceptance in modern society. More importantly, he shows how to win the battle of ideas against supporters of big government. His thoughts provide us with an Independence Day meditation.
Joseph Salerno appeared on Russia Today’s TV show Prime Interest to discuss money, the Fed and the future economic crisis. He comes on at about the 3 minute mark. Link to show
A recent 60 Minutes piece by Lesley Stahl cut into an extremely urgent problem of our day: expensive sunglasses. The report identified a possible monopoly in the market for glasses, a firm called Luxottica, which owns almost all the leading brands of eyewear, four large retailers of glasses, and even a popular vision insurance provider.
I am wary of adding yet another conceptual margin for entrepreneurial action but I highly recommend a new (and for the moment, ungated) paper in the Scandinavian Economic History Review by the distinguished economic historian Joel Mokyr on “cultural entrepreneurship.” Starting from a broadly Schumpeterian perspective, Mokyr focuses on individuals who introduce and disseminate novel ideas:
Carol Connell, author of several insightful articles on Fritz Machlup (including “Fritz Machlup’s Methodology and The Theory of the Growth of the Firm” in the 2007 QJAE), has a new book, Reforming the World Monetary System: Fritz Machlup and the Bellagio Group. The book deals with Machlup’s attempts in the 1960s to organize a group of elite economists to make recommendations on in
