Ironies abound in the story of how China is considering a “U.S. style annual tax” based on home values. The driving motivation: raise revenue for local government and dampen the growing real estate bubble arising from speculative demand. Yes, taxes do that. But property taxes didn’t prevent the U.S.
The Teachers College of Columbia University publishes TCRecord, the online version of the Teachers College Record. For those who do not know, the Teachers College is one of the nerve centers of Progressive education. All the evil -isms of the day have a home there.
TCRecord sent out a recent email that included an article lamenting the supposed youth obesity crisis.
Of course, no crisis can exist without associated hyperbole. This, for example:
I’m looking at employment status of the civilian population by sex and age, not seasonally adjusted, March 2009 to March 2010
Overall: 9.0 to 10.2
Men over 16: 10.6 to 11.8
Men over 20: 9.9 to 11.2
Women over 16: 7.3 to 8.3
Women over 20: 6.9 to 7.1
Both sexes 16-19: 21.5 to 22.0
It’s a heck of a time to have raised minimum wages three years in a row.
[This article is excerpted from chapter 19 of Human Action: The Scholar’s Edition.]
[This article is excerpted from chapter 20 of Human Action: The Scholar’s Edition and is read by Jeff Riggenbach.]
The theory of the cyclical fluctuations of business as elaborated by the British Currency School was in two respects unsatisfactory.
[This article is excerpted from chapter 20 of Human Action: The Scholar’s Edition.]
In dealing with the consequences of credit expansion we assumed that the total amount of additional fiduciary media enters the market system via the loan market as advances to business. All that has been predicated with regard to the effects of credit expansion refers to this condition.
The seeming prosperity and glittering power of Spain in the 16th century proved a sham and an illusion in the long run. For it was fuelled almost completely by the influx of silver and gold from the Spanish colonies in the New World. In the short run, the influx of bullion provided a means by which the Spanish could purchase and enjoy the products of the rest of Europe and Asia; but in the long run, price inflation wiped out this temporary advantage.
[This article is excerpted from chapter 20 of Human Action: The Scholar’s Edition and is read by Jeff Riggenbach.]
[The Politics of Hunger: Allied Blockade of Germany, 1915-1919 • By C. Paul Vincent • Ohio University Press (1985) • 185 pages. This review was first published in the Review of Austrian Economics 3, no. 1.]
