Is the Need for Stimulus “Undeniable”?
Keynes never provided a well-thought-out argument, much less real evidence, for showing why stimulus would work.
The Use of Knowledge in Society
What is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order?
Why Austrian? Interview with Higgs
I immediately appreciated the realism of Austrian economics, which contrasts starkly with the often wildly unrealistic assumptions of neoclassical theory.
Best First Responder: Waffle House
Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s plan for New York City with hurricane Irene bearing down on the Big Apple was to evacuate residents and force businesses to close in low-lying areas. Move in with friends and relatives on higher ground and stay out of the way so government’s first responders handle real emergencies was his message. The result, as one of my friends who lives in Manhattan wondered,”they closed down the city because of a rainstorm?”
Steve Jobs and the Beautification of Capitalism
Steve Jobs was both singular and not unlike every entrepreneur who makes the world a more beautiful place.
The Value of Labor
[An Essay on Economic Theory (2010)]
The Labor of the Plowman Is of Less Value than that of the Artisan
Abstract: The opportunity cost of becoming a skilled worker includes both the direct expenses as well as the foregone labor during the training period or apprenticeship. As a result, skilled workers must be paid higher wages than unskilled workers.
TSA and Unproductive Labor
These abuses of civil liberties aside, what really stuck out about the TSA screening procedure was not the humiliating and dehumanizing nature of the process, but the complete waste of labor utility. The bureaucratic monster is wasting unthinkable amounts of money and time.
The Bureaucrat as a Voter
Representative democracy cannot subsist if a great part of the voters are on the government payroll.
The Indianapolis Monetary Convention
The presidential election of 1896 was a great national referendum on the gold standard. The Democratic Party had been captured, at its 1896 convention, by the Populist, ultra-inflationist, anti-gold forces, headed by William Jennings Bryan. The older Democrats, who had been fiercely devoted to hard money and the gold standard, either stayed home on election day or voted, for the first time in their lives, for the hated Republicans. The Republicans had long been the party of prohibition and of greenback inflation and opposition to gold.
The Revolt against Rationalism
The most remarkable fact in the history of our age is the revolt against rationalism, economics, and utilitarian social philosophy; it is at the same time a revolt against freedom, democracy, and representative government. It is usual to distinguish within this movement a left wing and a right wing. The distinction is spurious. The proof is that it is impossible to classify in either of these groups the great leaders of the movement.
