I have long been a fan of libertarian sci-fi author L. Neil Smith. I’ve read perhaps eight or ten of his novels, my favorites being The Probability Broach and The Gallatin Divergence, both of which I highly recommend. The only one of his I disliked–and I disliked it a lot–was Hope, co-authored with Aaron Zellman.

Kudos to the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation for a brilliant and hard-hitting short video demolishing the perennial economic fallacy that minimum wage laws benefit low-skilled workers. It is perfect for introducing the topic to a Principles of Economics class.

On Reddit, some concerned soul pointed out that, “Boycotting BP hurts the local station owner a lot more than BP corporate,” citing a NPR story.

Of course, most BP boycotters would be pained to realize that it also would likely hurt the Gulf clean-up itself.

From the outset, many questioned the practicality of the socialists’ solution. After you equalize incomes, who will take out the garbage? Yet almost no one questioned the socialists’ idealism.

[The Review of Austrian Economics, 1990]

Introduction

For several generations now there has existed an interpretation of modern history conditioning and shaping the views held by nearly all educated people on the great issue of socialism versus the market economy.

The ever-active Cobden Center (doing wonderful work!) has reviewed Thomas Woods’s Meltdown.

Whenever the government causes a mess, chances are high that it will accuse speculators of being responsible.1 In the recent financial crisis, speculators and their financial instruments have been under attack again. Some famous investors have even supported governments’ attacks on speculators.

[This talk was first given at the SIX Swiss Exchange Bond Event, 2010.]

Henry Ford is alleged to have said that “it is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”