When did the Right Unravel?
[This article is excerpted from Murray Rothbard’s preface to the 1991 revision of The Betrayal of the American Right, now available in the store. See also Tom Woods’s introduction.]
The Language of Government Decisions
In the eyes of governments, the private sector is a big buffet table. The enticing cuisine is just sitting there, waiting to be dished out to satisfy the appetites of the rent seekers who reinforce government power. This is not merely a consequence of the statist inclinations of the ministers and bureaucrats in power at any given time.
In fact, the interests of these rent seekers is carefully entrenched in the very fabric and vocabulary of the government decision-making process, where they are routinely consulted as “stakeholders” in decisions that concern their “interests.” And of course, this includes decisions that encroach on the rights of property owners to the benefit of these rent seekers, either through restraining the ability of the former to freely use their property, or through outright confiscation.
Unions as Central Planning Mechanisms
A Fairy Tale of the Austrian Movement
[This review essay of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by B
“Last Knight” Live Blog 8 -- Ransom
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and Wieser’s “communist economy” modeled social phenomena as a pure logic constructed by and available to a single mind. Sometimes brilliant mistakes are the very thing which leads to revolutionary advance in social theory. The revolution came with Wittgenstein’s later “private language” argument and Mises’ discovery of the impossibility of economic calculation in a pure socialist system.
Fannie, Freddie to Buy More Bad Loans
Via the IHT (Paulson saying he would consider allowing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to buy larger mortgages) and Bloomberg (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Regulator Eases Asset Limits), regulatory limits on the two GSEs will be relaxed, in order to allow them to buy, in aggregate, $36 billion of mortgage-backed securities containing “jumbo” loans --- those over the “confirming” limit of $4
The Dazzling Vera Galt
A reader who was captivated by Vera Galt, the daughter of Henry Galt from Garet Garrett’s The Driver, sent in this picture to Mises.org. In her dress and manner she attempted capture Vera’s intelligence, independence, modernity, and strength of mind. As readers know, the book is set early in the twentieth century, and explores the culture of wealth on Wall Street.
Mises in America
Burst building bubble blows bad-guys’ bid-rigging business
Even organized crime is feeling the pinch from the rapidly deflating housing bubble. According to a Jane’s Security News brief:
ISI Quiz on Civics and Amercian History
Take the quiz. An article from USA Today on the ISI report. Breakdown of the results. It is unfortunately not surprising that the questions on basic economics were among the ones with the lowest percentage scored correctly.
