Or: We’re from the government—and we’re here to help. In Perspective: Let global online freedom ring?, my former partner, e-commerce law expert Eric Sinrod critiques the proposed Global Online Freedom Act of 2006.

One truism has never been successfully challenged: Government interventions lead to a less efficient, less well-ordered society.

In his important book, Basic Principles of Economic Value, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk develops, among other important concepts, his basic law of prices and includes a footnote that is both intriguing and worthy of exploration.

The New York Times does not mention Independence Day on its editorial page on the 4th of July. And there is no word of celebration of it on its Op-Ed page. What is present on the Op-Ed page is a further demonstration of that newspaper’s hostility to the fundamental values on which the United States was built.

It’s tough to be an economist. Not only must you endure years of stultifying lectures and readings, you must also brave the feigned approval of those who had innocently asked, “Oh, a professor? What do you teach?”

But beyond this, there is a deeper problem: I can’t help watching certain movies without being distracted by nagging problems that would trouble only an economist.

You know hypocrisy, as when the pot calls the kettle black? Well, this news report gives new meaning to the idea:

The rise in American consumer debt has been accompanied by a sharp increase in complaints about aggressive and sometimes unscrupulous tactics by debt collection agencies, a phenomenon that has government regulators increasingly concerned.

Walter Block’s latest article is Coase and Kelo: Ominous Parallels And Reply to Lott on Rothbard on Coase, from Vol. 27, no. 4 (2006) of the Whittier Law Review.

I’ve scanned and uploaded Tibor Machan The Moral Case for the Free Market Economy (Edwin Mellen Press, 1988) (with the author’s permission; it was informally published on regular sized paper, not hard-bound). From the preface:

They finally got to him.

Read: Is Ken Lay a criminal?

    In his paper “Toward a Reconstruction of Utility Theory and Welfare Economics,” Murray Rothbard writes: “We conclude therefore that no government interference with exchanges can ever increase social utility,” (his emphasis).