Here is a first look at what you will enjoy hearing at the Austrian Scholars Conference 2008.
The general bias against Wal-Mart extends far deeper than any generic bias against capitalism or against Wal-Mart’s success. The people who hate Wal-Mart seem to have few scruples about shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond or Target. Even if Target enjoyed a market share similar to that of Wal-Mart, it’s difficult to imagine the same culturally based disdain being directed with nearly as much passion at Target as has been the case for Wal-Mart.
Taking legal drugs is safer than taking illegal drugs, right? Think again. Dr. Mercola, a pro-liberty, non-traditional doctor, in his recent e-mail newsletter, has an interesting article by a Dr.
Action always is essentially the exchange of one state of affairs for another state of affairs. If the action is performed by an individual without any reference to cooperation with other individuals, we may call it autistic exchange. An instance: the isolated hunter who kills an animal for his own consumption; he exchanges leisure and a cartridge for food.
In a recession or a crisis, the right approach for individuals is to save. So too for the national economy. A looming recession will prompt a pullback in consumer spending as a rational response to the perception of economic troubles. This action does not cause the economy to fall into recession any more than more spending can save it from recession. The downturn is a fact that cannot be avoided. We don’t blame umbrellas for floods, and, in the same way, we shouldn’t blame tightfisted consumers for recessions.
When entrepreneurs and business owners and managers face difficulties in the market, it is rare for them to throw in the towel, blame the customer, increase prices and hope that the problem goes away. A business that does not live up to the expectations of the customer becomes marginalized and on the long run goes out of business. Because a business must survive on free exchange, it has to continually overcome the challenge of providing goods and services.
Falling Behind, by Robert H. Frank, belongs to an unfortunate genre: books by well-known economists that endeavor to justify crude soak-the-rich policies, writes David Gordon. Paul Krugman and, from an earlier day, John Kenneth Galbraith are perhaps the best-known authors of such works; but Frank fully equals these eminent figures in his railings against the well-off.
