Free Markets

Reading about Katz's journey causes those of us at middle age to reflect, and think about packing our bags.

But even if you are not likely to be among them, consider the loss of privacy, the loss of liberty, the loss of independence, the loss of all that used to be considered truly American, in the course of building prison nation.

Let us not be swayed by politicians out for power or by reporters out to create news where none exists. Facts and economic logic should prevail rather than rhetoric.

Make fuel from corn, by all means, if the free market signals that this the most pressing need and, hence, the most lucrative use for the crop.

The problem here is that the original Friedman thesis was wrong.

Economic calculation encompasses everything that trades against money. There is nothing "objective" about them.

Markets make more people fit rather than triggering a "dog eat dog" fight for survival. Private property prevents the law of the jungle rather than enabling it.

Robert Murphy's admirable book is much more than a conventional defense of capitalism. Murphy includes standard material, e.g., why price controls, minimum wage legislation, and rent control do not work. 

Laissez-faire is natural, moral, and biblical.

In my field of economics, we have generally dismissed inferences based on mere correlations.