[Originally published May 18, 2006.]
I’m beginning to think that the epithet “consumerism” is just another word for freedom in the marketplace.
It’s true that the market is delivering goods, services, and technological advances by leaps, day after day. People claim that they are so inundated with techno advances that they don’t want any more. Say no to the latest gizmo!
Dan Klein and Charlotta Stern have recently published an article in PUBLIC CHOICE that surveys the views of economists from the American Economic Association. I’ve seen similar studies in the past but it never ceases to amaze me.
Francis Tandy’s essay “Defence of Person and Property,” from his 1896 book Voluntary Socialism, is one of the early explorations of the idea that private protection agencies competing on the free market would be preferable to the State. This classic discussion is now online; read it here. Background info available here.
On Wednesday May 10, Federal Reserve policy makers raised the federal funds rate target by 0.25% to 5%. This was the 16th increase in the target since June 2004 when it stood at 1%.
The statement issued by Fed Chairman Bernanke and his colleagues suggested they would now pause in the cycle of interest rate increases. They say that they must assess the implications on economic activity from the tight interest rate stance since June 2004. They hope to gain a clearer idea of the gap between the current federal funds rate and the neutral rate.
I cannot tell the difference between a joke and a policy proposal. If you can then you have been duped ... by supporters of government.
Everyone interested in ideas has surely had the following experience. You become curious about a certain topic. You start with periodicals, read a bit more deeply, become engaged more broadly and start to buy and check out book after book. Pretty soon you have a good-sized library developing. You speak the language. You know the players. You apply the ideas to understanding the world. But there are still gaps, and you dig and dig to fill them.
After fifteen years of economic transformation we can conclude that the transitional period in post-Communist countries has ended, but unfortunately the economic (and not only economic) systems of some are far from Western-style capitalism. They are better called “post-communist capitalism,” far different from the classic understanding of the word “capitalism” or any other model.
