Presented at the Mises Circle in Manhattan, hosted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and sponsored by the Story Garschina Charitable Fund, and Anonymous Donor. Recorded on Friday, 14 September 2012, at the Metropolitan Club in New York
Although this paper was presented as a lecture in 1996, I have chosen to publish it in this volume in nearly its original manuscript form. It was never previously published or posted electronically, but the paper achieved a limited circulation in manuscript form via copy and fax machines during the primitive days of the Internet. Despite its
Retailer J.C. Penney just announced a new pricing policy that will make its prices more rigid and other retailers are moving in that direction. Can depression and mass unemployment be far behind? The linchpin of all varieties of Keynesian economics is the assumption that prices and wage rates are rigid and do not respond to changes in supply and
As kids, many of us baby boomers were often told by well meaning adults, “The policeman is your friend.” In the era of (relative) political innocence prior to the Vietnam War and Watergate, these adults could be forgiven their surpassing naiveté. But now “mere libertarian” (his term) economist Dan Klein goes these adults one better and counsels
If you drive a car , I’ll tax the street. If you try to sit , I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold , I’ll tax the heat. If you take a walk , I’ll tax your feet. . . . And if you don’t use your gift cards within two years, I’ll seize them all. (With apologies to the Beatles) Pursuant to a law passed two years ago, the New Jersey Department of
Well, well, well, the Chinese economy is experiencing inflation. Overall consumer prices rose by 3.6 percent in March 2012, year-over-year, including an upsurge in food prices of 7.5 percent. Even the prices of venerable Chinese herbal medicines took an upward leap of 8.3 percent. According to a CNNMoney report , inflation is “the price of
Murray Rothbard’s influence and reputation keeps growing larger more than fifteen years after his untimely passing. His passion for truth, his clear thinking and writing, and his uncompromising libertarian message continues to set new people afire for the cause of liberty. But even the most devoted Rothbardians were caught by surprise when ABC
Appropos of my recent blog earlier this week on the causes of China’s inflation, it has just been reported that March saw a surge in internal (yuan) currency loans by Chinese banks of 1.01 trillion yuan (equal to $160.1 billion) far above the 710.7 billion yuan lent in February. More significantly, this was the biggest deviation of actual from
How many eminent macroeconomists is one clear-thinking and literate economic journalist worth? Well if the journalist is Caroline Baum of Bloomberg.com , the answer is at least five. In a column this week, Ms. Baum, channeling Henry Hazlitt, demolishes the argument put forth by the IMF’s Olivier Blanchard, Ivy League Professors Ken Rogoff,
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.