The Writers Strike and Jay Leno’s Monologue

The Writers Guild apparently says it’s OK for Jay Leno to do his monologue, but if writes his monologue then he has crossed the picket line. As I explain in this PRI blog post, such a position quickly leads to absurdity. The union advocates would have you believe that they are merely withholding their own labor to show how important their contribution is, but everyone knows that their tactics go beyond that.

Last Knight Live Blog 20 Kraus

Economics is a science that studies production of wealth, i.e. material goods to satisfy human needs, in a division of labor society. Behind this simple definition stands the desire to understand factors that are responsible for high and rising productivity of labor. The material comfort, indeed the very survival, of billions of people depends on the knowledge of what to do to maintain the existing relatively high level of productivity of labor and how to raise it even further so as more and more people around the world will be able to enjoy high and rising living standards.

Myth and Truth About Libertarianism

Murray Rothbard addresses all the critical questions. Do libertarians believe that individuals are isolated, acting without influence? Are we libertines? Naive rationalists? Utopians? Do we promote selfishness? Before judging and evaluating libertarianism, it is vitally important to find out precisely what that doctrine is, and, more particularly, what it is not. It is especially important to clear up a number of misconceptions about libertarianism that are held by most people, and particularly by conservatives.

Memo to David Frum: More Money Not Necessary for Economic Growth

In discussion of gold as a monetary institution I often hear that the supply cannot expand fast enough to accomodate economic growth. But why should this be true? (For a related discussion, see Bob Murphy’s response to David Frum’s articles on the gold standard.). The idea that economic growth requires more money is based on a confusion of the real and the nominal. In fact, economic growth does not depend on the quantity of money at all. Any rate of economic growth can occur with any quantity of money.

Don’t Blame Subprime Lenders!

Why would a businessperson choose to lend and borrow in an artificial boom once they’ve seen several business cycles? Because, even though business investors know that the bust will come, it makes no sense to refuse funds while other businesses are using the new funds to compete. And why doesn’t the population at large just refuse to participate? Because Congress has established high transaction costs (capital gains taxes) and legal tender laws that prevent common citizens from the use of alternative assets to replace government money. As a result, expanding businesses get to use cheap socialized financing. That financing gains its value from diluting existing money. But the real negatives occur not in the booms and busts, but their additive result over time.

Did Capitalism Cause the Great Depression?

Murray Rothbard, in a memo dated 1959, reviews Robbins’s book on the Great Depression. Lionel Robbins’s The Great Depression (Macmillan, 1934) is one of the great economic works of our time. Its greatness lies not so much in originality of economic thought, as in the application of the best economic thought to the explanation of the cataclysmic phenomena of the Great Depression. This is unquestionably the best work published on the Great Depression. At the time that Robbins wrote this work, he was perhaps the second most eminent follower of Ludwig von Mises (Hayek being the first). To his work, Robbins brought a clarity and polish of style that I believe to be unequalled among any economists, past or present. Robbins is the premier economic stylist.

The Tax that’s Anything but Fair

Tired of reading yours truly on evils of the FairTax? Here is Bruce Bartlett’s newest analysis of the tax that’s anything but fair: “Why the FairTax Won’t Work.” Mr. Bartlett has written a very exhaustive and very thorough critique of the FairTax. Since presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee backs the FairTax, this issue is very relevant. Don’t be fooled because FairTaxers and Ron Paul each want to abolish the income tax.