Paul Craig Roberts, who is coming to the Austrian Scholars Conference to discuss these matters, writes: “Economists need to catch up with their discipline. The latest work in trade theory is Global Trade and Conflicting National Interests, by Ralph E. Gomory and William J. Baumol, published by MIT Press in 2000. “Gomory and Baumol show that conflict is inherent in international trade. In some cases free trade can be mutually beneficial. In other cases, one country gains at the expense of another.

Bureaucratic management means, under democracy, management in strict accordance with the law and the budget. It is not for the personnel of the administration and for the judges to inquire what should be done for the public welfare and how the public funds should be spent. This is the task of the sovereign, the people, and their representatives. The courts, the various branches of the administration, the army, and the navy execute what the law and the budget order them to do. Not they but the sovereign is policy-making.

Argentina’s descent from economic prominence throughout most of the 1990s to purgatory by the end of the decade is a miserable tale instilling heartache and frustration in all parties involved. More importantly, this tragedy underscores the inherent hazards of state participation in capital markets.

Is this really a technical problem or have producer prices risen so much that they created a technical problem to manipulate the index? from the press release:

As announced on February 17, the release of the Producer Price Index (PPI) for January 2004 has been delayed from the originally scheduled date of February 19, 2004. In addition, as announced on March 5, the release of February data originally scheduled for Friday, March 12, has also been postponed.

Gregg Easterbook believes he has discovered a paradox (”Higher productivity... may lead to fewer jobs”) but he has only resurrected an old fallacy, exploded by Bastiat among many others.

Just what we need — more advocates for the criminalization of voluntary market activities, this time aimed at those great engines of economic prosperity, the multinational corporations. MORE

Property rights are not respected in China, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

It is my personal opinion that MES (previous edition, Scholar’s edition, or online) should be read by everyone interested in learning about economics, and, by extension following Mises, this book should be read by everyone. It should also be at the top of your reading list.