Another Reason to End the Fed
Gasoline prices would be 27 percent lower today if the dollar had held its value relative to the euro over the last decade.
The Blessing and Curse of Banking
Fringe Benefits: A Threat to Progress
[The Writings of F.A. Harper, Volume 1 (1978)]
When you can’t use your income for things of your choice, its worth is lessened to you.
The greatest opportunity now for a quick increase in the worth of wages is to reduce the cost of governing ourselves so that more of the wage can be kept.
The Sphinx Speaks!
Why should we care about his predictions concerning the economy or his recommendations for how to end the slump? The answer, of course, is that the Federal Reserve has the power to destroy the world economy.
Cantillon, the Invisible Hands, and the Economic Crisis
This article in the Independent by Brendan Keenan addresses the issue of blame for the economic crisis. He just about gets it right. The Invisible Hand of government (aka Central Banks) was acting to deceive the Invisible Hand of the marketplace. This is the topic for my lecture for tomorrow’s conference at the Mises Institute.
Papola’s Second Masterpiece
This is brilliantly done. Topic for discussion: what is Papola (who, it is clear now, is a creative genius) trying to say by structuring the outcome of the fight the way he does?
The way Hayek’s “Who plans for whom?” question is worked in as a lyric is superb. The question is the topic of an entire chapter in Road to Serfdom, which is the subject of an upcoming Mises Academy course.
The Economics of Slushy Drinks
At $3 a pop, these little things seem like a rip-off. Yet consumers keep buying under the right conditions: mostly sports events for kids. What’s more, competition isn’t pushing the price down. Let us see how this all makes sense from an economic point of view.
Here, the State Is Nowhere to Be Seen
To Thoreau, the only true duty, which every man owed to himself, is living as deeply and honestly as possible. Politics is not part of that.
The Triumph of Technology over Government Planning
Technology is the enemy of bureaucrats and dictators. By freeing people from centralized control, technology gives them power over their own lives.
Why the Terrible Destruction of the Civil War?
It “was not inevitable,” writes Goldfield. Rather, it was “America’s greatest failure.”
