What Is Your Plan for the Day After Tomorrow?
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s masterpiece celebrating capitalism and the individual, is a rare accomplishment. It still holds up, more than ever.
What’s Wrong with Government Debt
The problem with government budget deficits is not merely that they (typically) lead to higher interest rates and thus reduce private-sector investment and consumption spending.
The Socialism of Agri-Patents
Some bozo tried to patent a species in 1889, but the patent commissioner rejected it as “unreasonable and impossible.” Exactly. But this changed in stages, and only fairly recently. The current regime dates from the late 1980s. These patents handed the Left their best arguments.
More for Me Does Not Mean Better for Us
Union defenders have justified their position based on little more than the assertion that some union benefited them or some member of their family.
The Fed Extends and Pretends
Real estate mogul Sam Zell appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box yesterday morning, devoting some of his time to the state of the commercial real estate market.
Mortgage Delinquencies by Zip Code
The Wall Street Journal has an amazing table of percentage of mortgage loans that are 90 days+ past due by zip code, using numbers from CoreLogic Inc. for zip codes with more than 5,000 mortgages.
Zip codes in college towns like 36830 in Auburn AL, 1.84%, 65203 in Columbia, MO 1.20%, 77845 in College Station, TX 1.24%, 80301 in Boulder, CO 1.58%, 68516 in Lincoln, NE 1.30%
Pirates and Hayek
I appreciate everyone’s comments on my intro to my “Capitalism and Socialism” course; indeed, one of the first things we’re going to do is figure out exactly what we mean.
The Austrian School in Brief
The Austrian School of economics, also called the Viennese School of economics, was founded by Carl Menger in Vienna during the last third of the 19th century. Today, the tradition is larger and more vibrant than ever before.
Am I Being Too Kind to Marx?
I teach a course called “Classical and Marxian Political Economy.” We’re currently reading Adam Smith, and I made a reference to a couple of ideas that would appear later in Marx. I said in class that Marx was clearly a genius, and in reading his work it is clear that you are dealing with an incredible mind that was spectacularly wrong about a great many things. A student asked if we should reserve the word “genius” for those who got things right. Generally, when I refer to a historical figure as a genius I am thinking purely in terms of ability.
Trade is Made of Win, Part 1
The Institute for Humane Studies is putting together (and beta-testing) a series of short videos on basic principles of economics and the classical liberal tradition; they’re available at LearnLiberty.org. Here the first of my three “Trade is Made of Win” videos, which you might find useful if you’re teaching comparative advantage. In it, I explain how trade allows both buyers and sellers to get more for less effort. In short, buyers get lower prices and sellers get higher prices.
