A number of people have been interested in this piece from the WSJ on hedonic price adjustments (May 9, 2005). A member sent this open link. Rothbard’s critique of index numbers is here.

According to official data last year the personal saving rate stood at around 1%. Some commentators have questioned the validity of this figure. It is argued that there is in fact plenty of savings in the US.

For instance, it is held that if the 2004 appreciation in the value of homes and equities are counted in the calculation of disposable income then the 2004 saving rate would have been 46% and not 1%.

There was great relief in financial markets today when today’s CPI reading came in. While the overall monthly increase of 0.5% was somewhat higher then expected, that only reflected higher food and energy prices and they apparently don’t count. The core index was unchanged after having risen 0.7% over the previous two months. But this reading highly underestimate price inflation.

Although the FairTax would eliminate the filing of all individual tax returns, the FairTax turns every business into a tax collector. Every small service business and every Internet business that does not currently collect state sales taxes will have to collect taxes for the federal government. Every doctor will now have to charge sales tax on his services. Where will this end? Is this really a step toward freedom? FULL ARTICLE

On the face of it, who can object to the Supreme Court’s decision that permits wine consumers to buy directly from out-of-state wineries? This is just the free market at work. The state laws that prohibited the practice were nothing but a legal leftover from prohibition days and a mercantilist privilege granted to politically powerful distributors who thought only of their monopoly.

Classic Mises: “There is no other alternative to totalitarian slavery than liberty.”

A classic from Ludwig von Mises (1945) and the first time online.

Over the past few decades the traditional prerogative of an employer to fire an employee “at-will” (that is, for any reason whatsoever) has come under legal assault in the United States. Judges in nearly all fifty states have ruled in favor of employees claiming “unjust” dismissal, forcing companies to rehire the employee or pay damages.

Yet despite the emotional appeal of preventing employer “abuses,” there are compelling reasons to fully restore the so-called “employment-at-will” doctrine.