On Friday, July 30, the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank president, James Bullard, speaking on CNBC television, said that the Fed must weigh medium-term inflation risks against near-term deflation risks. For most economists and commentators, a general fall in prices, which they label deflation, is a terrible thing. They hold that a fall in prices generates expectations for a further decline in prices. As a result of this, consumers postpone their buying of goods at present because they expect to buy these goods at lower prices in the future.

Robert A. Lawson and I just published our paper “Human Rights and Economic Liberalization” in Business and Politics. The paper can be downloaded here. Here’s the abstract:

Using several case studies and data from the Economic Freedom of the World annual report and from the CIRI Human Rights Data Project, we estimate the effect of human rights abuses on economic liberalization. The data suggest that human rights abuses reduce rather than accelerate the pace of economic liberalization.

Watch Importation, Copyright, and the First-Sale Doctrine

The “Omega Seamaster Ploprof 1200m” wristwatch

Ohio law requires new drivers under the age of 18 to complete a state-approved driver education course consisting of “a minimum of 24 hours of classroom instruction and 8 hours behind the wheel.” So it should come as no surprise that there are a host of private companies providing state-approved driver training. But what are these companies really providing – selling – and what is the consumer really buying?

[Murray Rothbard • History of Money and Banking • Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute • 490 pages]
 

From the WSJ, growth is lower than expected and retroactively revised downward.

Barron’s notes the growing intensification of the great debate of our time between the Austrians and Keynesians. Randall W. Forsyth calls it “the great economics smackdown.”

IT MAY NOT RANK with the Hatfields and the McCoys, but there’s a battle raging. It’s the Austerians vs. the Keynesians.