Arizona Republic columnist Russ Wiles makes mention of the Austrian School in his review of the PBS documentary Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy. By the way, the best means for finding news stories along these lines is the Google News Search: you can do daily searches for Mises, Murray Rothbard,
A lengthy profile appearing in four parts in The Atlantic Monthly profiles wine critic Robert Parker. Parker publishes a wine periodical that rates thousands of wines according to Parker’s own tastes. The article describes how in the past, the pricing of French wine had been mostly conventional based on a fixed and unchanging hierarchy of the established growers that was put in place decades ago. The established producers accepted their place because it guaranteed a sort of
As concerns are raised about the risk of the Japanese economic malaise spreading to the U.S. and elsewhere, some commentators have tried to revitalize the old Keynesian idea of the “liquidity trap.”1 Although the trap itself follows from the J.R. Hicks IS-LM analysis, the basic idea is borrowed from J.M.
A common criticism of the market economy is that the wealth it generates brings with it unacceptable levels of income inequality—it is conceded that the market economy generates great deals of material wealth, but it is argued that this material wealth is accrued unevenly.
The astute reader will note that income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient (one of economists’ favorite measures of inequality), has increased over the last several decades, indeed, the income distribution is almost 16% more unequal than it was in the late 1960’s.
Paul Krugman is right to complain about government influence over the mediase via regulation, but suggests that outright government ownership would improve matters: “because the networks aren’t government-owned, they aren’t subject to the kind of scrutiny faced by the BBC, which must take care not to seem like a tool of the ruling party.” Yes, just like the Voice of America and National Public Radio.
The New York Times runs a story quoting administration officials and economists who say the weaker dollar is good for exports and has no downside because inflation and interest rates are in fine shape. These are the same people who argue that a lot of inflation is better than a little deflation, a notion which Shostak debunks today.
USA Today: “As part of President Bush’s tax cut bill, Congress has given preliminary approval to using private firms to dun some of the 6.1 million taxpayers with delinquent accounts. Officials say up to $30 billion is going unpaid because the IRS has nobody to ask for it.”
Maybe some investors were naive enough to believe that the money stolen from Wall Street brokerage firms was set to be real compensation for investor losses. The Associated Press reports the inevitable: investors will get nothing, nor should they. But neither should Wall Street be treated as criminal to recommend a stock that subsequently goes down in price!
“Ted Turner is a worried man. His media career is gone with the wind. His faith in the United Nations looks naive. He thinks humanity’s on the verge of extinction, and he’s down to his last billion,” says FORTUNE.
