Free Markets

In his own critical work, Hayek was not satisfied with a challenge to the main thesis of an opponent. He responded to every argument advanced in the adversary's work.

Meanwhile, such a system of "extended liability" for homeowners would have prevented the extra stress on banks caused by negative-equity defaulters. Because these people would know they are paying back the full sum either way, they would instead keep the house and pay back the (albeit, exorbitant when considering the plummeting value of their home) debt over time — perhaps while keeping their home, if they had proof of income.

Right now, as the economy reshuffles, there are more opportunities to generate change than ever — the kind of dynamic change that we need to grow out of this slump.

In 1956, Mises showed how the supposed failures of the market economy were failures of the state and documented the traits of anticapitalism. In 2009, the facts have changed but the message remains the same.

We once did have private roads, several centuries ago.

From Chapter IX of The Bastiat Collection: Volume II: “Harmonies of Political Economy (Book Two)”. Pages 481-505 in the text.

"It is no coincidence that Mankiw's worldview leads him to literally propose destroying the currency in order to fix the economy."

The idea that experts can do a better job of directing the use of resources, including gasoline, than can markets and market prices derives from the faulty assumption that experts know more than the whole of society.

But people in a society do not find themselves in such a "one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma." Quite the contrary, they must deal with one another repeatedly.

A drastic turn to responsible economics is the only legitimate way to escape the deep rut Ireland finds itself in.