How Much? It’s Political, Now.

It probably began with the 50 or so statewide unions barring anyone who didn’t pass the state exam from pronouncing accounting opinions. It hit high gear when FDR’s Congress (and it WAS FDR’s Congress) established the Securities and Exchange Commission and put crooked Joseph P. Kennedy in charge of it.
Then came Enron and the establishment of the government’s accounting standards board, supplanting that of the American Institute of Certified (by the state) Public Accountants, known as the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

What Business Management Is and What It Is Not

It is a serious mistake to identify entrepreneurship with management as in the popular antithesis of “management” and “labor.” This confusion is, of course, intentional. It is designed to obscure the fact that the functions of entrepreneurship are entirely different from those of the managers attending to the minor details of the conduct of business. There is furthermore a readiness to confuse the manager with a bureaucrat.

Response to the “Market Failure” Drones

Now that we’re living through the bust, many people are listening. That’s why it’s so important for economists of the Austrian School to redouble their efforts, whether in terms of writing, public speaking, media, or indeed whatever platform they can get, to promote a sound, free-market interpretation of what’s happening. The drones who exist to repeat clichés about market failure need a robust and energetic reply from people who know what they’re talking about.

The Folly of the National Sales Tax

Facing a historic national debt that President Obama correctly characterized as “unsustainable,” yet still desiring to implement some sort of national health-care package, US policymakers, notably Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, have recently hinted at the possibility of a national sales tax.

General Motors, RIP

General Motors was once not only the world’s greatest and most prosperous automobile company but the world’s greatest and most prosperous manufacturing company, indeed, the world’s greatest and most prosperous company of any kind. Its success, wealth, and economic power, were symbolic of the success, wealth, and economic power of the United States.

Cars and Government: Bad Mix

The former Car Czar of Romania, writing in the WSJ, talks about his experience in trying to manufacture cars under socialism. He extends his analysis to the Jaguar in Britain to show how governments in capitalist countries can’t do it either. His analysis centers on two features of car socialism: the technical ignorance of the planners and the inevitable politicization of design and distribution plans.

Obama, Autos, and Antitrust

I find it ironic that the Obama administration says that it is going to ramp up antitrust prosecutions of beleaguered American businesses. After all, it seems to me that Barack Obama is the de facto chairman of both Chrysler and General Motors simultanously, which surely would be a violation of antitrust law.

Gee, is Obama declaring himself to be above the law? Surely not!

Murphy Sets the Record Straight

Will Barack Obama’s New Deal finally sink the American economy into the sands? This is the question author Robert P. Murphy poses at the end of his latest myth buster, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal. Readers who follow Murphy’s narrative from page one will understand that unless the current administration suddenly turns pro free market and gets out of the way, our future looks grim at best.

Iceland’s Banking Crisis: The Meltdown of an Interventionist Financial System

Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde’s resignation on January 23rd of this year marked the first political casualty of the current financial crisis. While the Icelandic situation has received scant attention relative to other calamities reverberating through the world’s financial markets, the source of Iceland’s woes can be found in many of the same locales. Unfortunately, while the events affecting Iceland’s populace have been severe, the country’s diminutive size — approximately 320,000 residents — has made it a target all too easy to miss.

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