Free Markets

May 15 is the 100th anniversary of the most famous antitrust ruling in US history — the 1911 Standard Oil case, and the 100 years of myths it engendered.

The New York City mayor has decreed the Nissan NV200 minivan will become the official taxi of the city. In addition to illustrating the corrupting effects of political power, the episode underscores the economic problems of government ownership of roads. 

Some say that we should grow our own food, buy locally, keep firms small, eschew modern conveniences like home appliances, go back to using only natural products, expropriate wealthy savers, and harass the capitalistic class. This paradise has a name, and it is Haiti.

President Obama has chosen to follow a well-worn script — looking for political advantage by pretending to protect voters from the evils of the marketplace.

Ostensibly their purpose is to reduce turnover of labor and stabilize employment. But they tend to freeze a worker in his job.

In the history of social and political thought, myriad proposals have been offered as solutions to the problem of social order. Many believe that the search for a single "correct" solution is futile and illusory. Yet a correct solution does exist. The solution is the idea of private property.

For the most part, the Great Society represented the culmination of economic, political, and intellectual developments dating back  a century.