Salerno draws our attention to Mises’s very clear discussion of Ricardo’s assumptions regarding capital and labor mobility, and how the law of comparative cost makes the case for free trade even when Ricardo’s restrictive assumptions do not hold, as they have not held since the late 19th century:
The Institut Economique Molinari has published an Economic Note summarizing the key findings of Bjorn Lomborg. Lomborg, a Danish Professor of Statistics, has a history in the environmentalist movement and was once a member of Greenpeace. As such, he was determined to statistically verify the environmentalist claims, but instead he discovered that these claims were often lacking in scientific rigor.
Re: Machaj
If Mateusz Machaj were correct that “there is no difference between mobility of factors of production inside or outside a ‘country,’” there would be no subject matter for international trade theory. All trade would be regional trade.
Here is Hal Varian struggling to answer a question Menger dealt with in 1892 (why is money accepted?) and Mises addressed in 1912 (whence comes its value?). Still Varian’s column is fun and interesting. (Thanks to David Franke)
The ongoing debate between Paul Craig Roberts and other Mises Institute scholars is indeed stimulating. Roberts & Schumer have a point in that ours is a world of near-perfect capital mobility and rapidly advancing information technology; therefore, it is a world of rapid economic change. Removing trade barriers results in near-instantaneous adjustments of the structure of production and thereby creates a lot of domestic “losers:” people who are no longer part of the market for a particular good or service. We can expect them to complain, and to complain lou
At the New York Times, you can watch a slide show called “Realities of Labor“ written by Times columnist Nicholas D.
The increases in Roth IRA contribution limits, Health Savings Accounts, the tax-rate cuts, and the possible LSA’s and RSA’s are good, but we should all be wary of States bearing gifts. Though it may be difficult to see, The State, headed by President Bush, is eliminating many “loopholes” it previously created, upon astonishment that people are taking advantage of them. The most aggregious one is this:
For those whose interest in Ricardo has been stimulated by the ongoing trade discussion, Murray Rothbard discusses this on pp. 94-99 of Classical Economics: An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, vol. II (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1995), arguing on the basis of new research by William O.
