Pension Pain: The Other Social Insurance Crisis
The root of the pension problem, writes Carl Horowitz, is the inherent unsoundness of State-granted guarantees to firms (and unions) against market failure.
A Musical About Tax Resistance?!
New on the Film Page:
Lagaan - Once Upon a Time in India (2001)
A musical about tax resistance?! Why not! Rothbard once wrote, “...I am notoriously hostile to films that are (a) slow, (b) dark and murky, (c) with long close-ups of suffering actors’ faces substituting for dialogue, and (d) in a foreign language. Indeed these four elements almost always go together.”
The Trouble With the EU
The reality of this supra-state is far from its putative promise, writes Jude Blanchette.
Ramesh Ponnuru on the Austrian School
“I also prefer the Austrian school of economics — which includes thinkers such as von Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard — not least because it does not overemphasize the textbook model of perfect competition, especially by using that model as a stick with which to beat real-world industries. For the Austrians, the essence of economic life is not competition but co-ordination. The metaphor of the invisible hand is a way of explaining how the problem of social co-ordination can be solved without central direction.
On the Upside
Reagan liked to quote Mises (but I can’t seem to find the one attributed to Mises in his works: “A nation is the more prosperous today the less it has tried to put obstacles in the way of the spirit of free enterprise and private initiative.”)
Core hoax
Well, everyone is relieved now after today´s inflation report. Sure, the CPI rose 0,6% over the last month and 3,1% over the last year, both the highest number for years, but this number seem irrelevant. The core index rose only 0,2% m/m and 1,7% y/y so inflation is “really” under control so the Fed will now most likely only raise interest rates with 25 basis points at their next meeting. This reaction reminds me of Murray Rothbard´s excellent article on the issue of the “core” index.
A Hoax to Raise Our Consciousness
Though the science in the movie is seriously flawed, writes Art Carden, some say it has the virtue of elevating the dialogue about global warming.
Milwaukee’s Mess
Perhaps you have heard that the bureaucrats running the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District recently dumped 4.6 billion gallons of raw sewage into Lake Michigan along the Wisconsin coast. What’s more, they did it as a matter of policy.
Review of Mises University
I just finished the Mises University program, and give my fullest and most complimentary endorsement.In addition to being extremely knowledgeable, all of the professors were good lecturers, and were very approachable. A week spent in this program is well worth it. You get to meet some of the best professors in economics, business, and philosophy.
Oral Examination Results, Mises University 2004, Session One
Congratulations to the following for passing what many consider to be the hardest exam of their academic lives:
David Heinrich
Rafal Raciborski
Simon Bilo
Ale Hartmann
Aaron Gunn
Harry David
honors: Adam Martin
