Given a fixed amount of money and increasing productivity, the value of money rises relative to the value of other goods (all caveats apply). The consumer sees this valuation change through falling prices at the checkout line. Interestingly, given a fixed amount of points and improving performances in Olympic events, the value of each point rises
But, please, don’t drink it in front of me. A friend of mine in the liberty movement drinks raw milk. That’s not for me. What really offends me is that adults — such as my friend — have to sneak around in order to buy something they believe is healthy. In a guest commentary in my local paper, I wrote: “Raw milk is not the issue, it’s a symptom.
According to a recent paper over at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER): The researchers find that mandatory calorie posting influenced consumer behavior at Starbucks in New York City, causing average calories per transaction to drop by 6 percent (from 247 to 232 calories). That’s 15 calories and the additional loss of property rights.
Like Atlas holding the sky on his shoulders, our federal representatives hold the weight of the Earth and our future on theirs — an awesome and sobering responsibility. Imagine for a moment that you are Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee. In your omniscience, you recognize that “ Bush’s new
It’s tornado season here in Ohio. This afternoon as a few funnel clouds were forming miles from my house, I received a call from my mother living in Florida. Seems she was not about to wait for her son to make his yearly Mother’s Day call as she had urgent news. CNN and other news outlets were reporting funnel clouds and tornados in central Ohio,
Mothers of Ohio, here you go. Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray is using your tax dollars to provide you with the gift you desired all along. Though, for some reason, you couldn’t recognize that desire -- a breakdown of Thymology I suppose. Regardless, here it is. Enjoy. Cordray knew you would. Thankfully, my mother lives in Florida and is unaware of
Ohio has effectively shut the door on payday lending . The state legislature — a bunch of nanny do-gooders — recognized the seen: the closing of 1,600 payday stores and the loss of some 6,000 jobs. But these same folks missed the unseen: the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars invested in these businesses; with investment losses to be suffered
When trying to explain complex economic situations, it sometimes best to abstract from money and look at a simple economy — a barter market. Assume that the only market for a society is its Saturday farmers market. Folks come from far and wide to exchange goods (that which they can produce efficiently for that which they cannot). One day, Uncle
“Sophistry?” my indignant neighbor replied, shovel raised. “Yes,” I responded, raising my shovel in response, “pure sophistry.” How did we, two friendly neighbors, end up in such a confrontation? What was the reason for raising shovels instead of slinging snow? To answer that, we must go back in time. The weather forecasters had predicted rain,
The virus has unleashed petite tyrants to haunt their tiny jurisdictions, using the cover of crisis to arrogate powers belonging to the people. Witness Robert J. Taylor , mayor of Ostrander, Ohio (population: 643 in the 2010 census), who just declared his village to be in a “state of emergency.” Along with this declaration, the self-righteous
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.