Does the Income Effect Argue for Taxes?
Stefan Karlsson considers the income effect and concludes that its very existence demonstrates the failure of the state to improve the social order.
Barnett on Rothbard
This paper by Randy Barnett has garnered a number of links out there in blogland. The title is “The Moral Foundations of Modern Libertarianism.”
Isn’t Capitalism Great?
This month in 1979 Sony introduced the first Walkman (initially called the Soundabout), a small portable cassette-tape player designed to be used with headphones. It was priced at $199.95. In today’s dollars that’s $540. Today, of course, you will spend considerably less for a product that is considerably better. A Sony CD Walkman at Best Buy costs $50. Lesser-known brands can be had for about 20 bucks. MP3 players are more, but that will be temporary.
Ten Recurring Economic Fallacies, 1774–2004
So many to choose from but Scott Trask picks ten of the most glaring economic errors that have bespotted the history of American economic policy.
How to get a book on the best-seller list
In Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, Mises says it is foolhearty to expect high-art from best-selling books. “It is true that most of the novels and plays published today are mere trash,” he wrote in 1956. Here is the NYT’s sendup of the base titles of today’s intensely partisan political books.
American spooks: Heavy sleepers
Sorry to say, there’s not much that’s new.
“The CIA was asleep, the FBI was asleep, the FAA was asleep,” James Woolsey told Chris Matthews on MSNBC on the night before the release of the September 11 Commission’s final report. “The rubber never met the road,” explained Woolsey, CIA chief during the first two years of the Clinton administration, referring to how 19 hijackers could beat U.S. defenses from top to bottom in the largest attack on American soil in the nation’s history.
Debunking the debunking
Well, they’re at it again. Heritage put out another error-filled report. This time Nina Owcharenko helps us to Debunk the Myths of Drug Importation Of course, what she doesn’t realize is that some economists have actually uncovered amazing new discoveries in this area... The laws of supply and demand apply.
The Limits of Brand Names
With the news hook of AT&T’s decision to give up residential phone service, this wonderful piece in the NYT illustrates how it is that consumers are in charge of the production process. Neither the author nor the editor who put the piece in the “advertising” section seem to be aware of the implications for antitrust, quality and safety regulation, unionism, and the whole apparatus of intervention that assumes that big-name producers have vast autonomous power over society.
Do Food Makers Want to Kill You?
Congress just passed another regulatory bill, Lew Rockwell reports, because people with food allergies are under the impression that food sellers are indifferent to whether they live or die.
The Chinese Boom Can’t Last
The Chinese economy has undergone extremely substantial growth rates over the past few years. According to official data, real GDP has increased at annual rates constantly in excess of 7% since 1996.
