Recovery or Illusion?

[Presented at Boom, Bust, and the Future: A Private Retreat with Austrian Economists, January 20, 2002.]

Does the recent revival in various economic data raise the possibility that the Fed’s aggressive loose monetary stance is starting to yield results?

Whither the Euro?

The launch of the European economic and currency union is changing the political and economic landscape of Europe and may affect other parts of the financial world. In time, it may even modify the world dollar standard and give rise to a bicentric dollar-euro standard, which is the hope and dream of most Europeans.

The PLA Menace

Given the support unions have provided for so many politicians, their support for PLA “sweetheart deals” for unions on public construction contracts is hardly surprising, particularly since very few Americans know about them. But they are doing no favors for taxpayers or for the vast majority of workers who are not union members.

In Praise of Tipping

One of the most common justifications for government intervention is an alleged “market failure.”  There are countless mainstream economic models that purport to show the inefficiency of unregulated markets, which can ostensibly be improved by political means.

Nozick v. The State

Robert Nozick writes, “The fundamental question of political philosophy, one that precedes questions about how the state should be organized, is whether there should be any state at all. Why not have anarchy?” Why not, indeed? James Ostrowski reflects on the recent death of philosopher Robert Nozick.

Coping in a Bear Market

In attempting an outlook for the year ahead--and those of the Austrian School firmly believe all such endeavours are an exercise in futility--Sean Corrigan sets out a brief theoretical framework, predicting likely market phenomena and official policy actions, and presenting factors that could derail his predictions.

In Defense of Outsourcing

Why shouldn’t the worker who is willing to render the best services for the least pay be the one who gets the job? Instinctively, most of us recoil in disgust at the suggestion that wages should reflect nothing more than the cold calculus of supply and demand. Yet few of us realize just how essential this “cold calculus” is for the long-run welfare of laborers themselves.

The Firm in a Free Economy

In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, economist Hal Varian, citing Noble economist Ronald Coase, argues, “What economists call firms . . . are essentially groups of activities for which it is more effective and less costly to use command and control than markets to have things done.” This view of the firm leads him to believe that “(p)aradoxically, the primary unit of capitalism, on close inspection, looks a lot like central planning.”  

WTO Foments A Trade War

There has been a lot of talk recently about foreigners who hate our prosperity and civilization, and seek ways to inflict violence in retaliation. Well, here is another case in point, except these are not swarthy Islamic terrorists; they are diplomats and statesmen on nobody’s list of suspicious characters.

Court Shreds Contracts

The January 15 decision in EEOC v. Waffle House (99-1823) promises to reduce the immense efficiency gains to seeking resolution outside the court system by blocking another exit to the state’s courts. If the right to choose an alternative venue for dispute resolution can be so severely circumscribed by the courts, one more check on judicial tyranny has been lost.

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