Why ObamaCare Will Fail: A Reading List
This healthcare reading list will help the concerned citizen understand how we got where we are — and where we are headed if we continue on this path.
The Drugs of John Gray
People from all across the political spectrum are now, more than ever, calling for some degree of drug decriminalization or legalization. There are lots of reasons for legalization but only one really great one.
Capitalism versus Statism
[This article was originally published in Outside Looking In: Critiques of American Policies and Institutions, Left and Right. New York: Harper and Row, 1972, pp. 60-74. Reprinted in The Logic of Action Two: Applications and Criticism from the Austrian School. Glos, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 1997, pp. 185-199.]
The Afghan Disaster
In the private sector, there is always a test of success. The business must make a profit. It can sustain some losses, but the clock is always running on those. At some point, after all cuts have been made and costs are trimmed to a minimum, the business has to close shop. The summer of losses must become the autumn of profits, or else it’s all over.
Demand for Money and Supply of Money
[This article is excerpted from Human Action chapter XVII, “Indirect Exchange.” An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download.]
The Illusion of Living Wage Laws
There are plenty of people who can tell you the “benefits” of a living wage. These benefits are very shallow and short-term. A deeper economic and social analysis demonstrates the appalling costs of such regulation.
How I Found the Austrian School
Economics is a little-understood branch of knowledge, and despite its ongoing relevance to our everyday lives, it is still regarded as a subject that must be left to specialists.
Keep Your Self-Righteous Fingers Off My Processed Food
Those who think that there is something wrong with owning more than two pairs of sneakers, or that exquisite fastidiousness about what you put into your mouth equals virtue, need to be teleported back in time.
Gold vs Paper
[July 13, 1953]
Most people take it for granted that the world will never return to the gold standard. The gold standard, they say, is as obsolete as the horse and buggy. The system of government-issued fiat money provides the treasury with the funds required for an open-handed spending policy that benefits everybody; it forces prices and wages up and the rate of interest down and thereby creates prosperity. It is a system that is here to stay.
Rothbard and the Post–High-Tech Meltdown
Many of the survivors of the high-tech meltdown and dot-com bust took advice from the pages of Rothbard’s treatise when they moved operations offshore to India and China.
