We try to make an occasional dent in the amount of junk in our house. It makes for a handful of decent experiments in everyday economics. Today, I shipped a box of about 3200 sports cards that I sold on eBay for $5.50 with $0 shipping. They cost over $13 to ship, and processing the echeck with PayPal cost $0.46.
This essay originally appeared as the introduction to History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II.
“Rothbard’s approach to monetary history does not focus on measurement but on motives.”
The Chronicle of Philanthropy makes a passing (and mostly implied) point that libertarians have been making for many decades, namely that the real philanthropy of business creators is not how much in company resources they give to charity but rather the way in which their enterprising commercial activities help society. It is a huge point with far-reaching implications, and it is odd how the Chronicle just mentions this point so casually:
The AP reported today that the homeownership rate declined to 65.1 percent during 2010, which is “the biggest drop since the Great Depression.” However, in order to return to a more normal rate of homeownership, the present rate needs to drop even more.
The Alabama Legislature and Gov. Robert Bentley are pounding their chests for passing the nation’s toughest immigration law, but the punk economy north of the border and expanding opportunities south of it were already slowing the rate of illegal immigration.
Fascism cartelizes the private sector and denies fundamental rights and liberties to individuals. This describes mainstream politics.
One of the benefits of the present depression is the fact that the voters are grumpier than usual. It’s hard to care about your carbon footprint when you don’t have a job, and it’s now even possible to criticize the federal reserve without being deemed insane. Yet now, even the most hallowed government-corporate scheme of all, taxpayer-funded sports facilities, are under attack.
