Free Markets

Austrian economists should revel in the story of Ukara, a small, Tanzanian island in Lake Victoria. John Reader, in his astoundingly detailed and fascinating work, Africa: A Biography of the Continent (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), presents among a wealth of other information that should be of genuine interest to economic scholars a little over three pages (beginning at 255) of highly persuasive refutation of the statists' cry for central planning to protect against deadly "sprawl."

Thank goodness this bloody century, the era of communism, national socialism, fascism, and central planning-in short, the century of government worship-is coming to an end. May we use the occasion to re-pledge our allegiance to human freedom, which is the basis of prosperity and civilization itself, and to repudiate every ideological force that opposes it.

Should skydiving and other risky practices be permitted or banned? Tibor Machan argues that only market exchange on private property provides a coherent answer. 

The real meaning of Thanksgiving: Plymouth was a socialist colony and it failed miserably.

Even when the market produces amazing new technology, it can become a basis for criticism. There are two main excuses used today to justify intervention in the technology market. The first argues that manufacturers build a planned obsolescence into their designs. The second argues that a path dependency subsidizes some firms artificially at the expense of others.

Robert Mundell's economics, both praised and criticized from an Austrian perspective. (Comments from scholars)

So long as the Fed has the power to print, the boom-bust cycle is here to stay. (Paper by Frank Shostak)

The Brooklyn Museum of Art controversy raises a fundamental question about living on the dole. 

An attack on liberty that violates every principle of federalism and good sense. (Column by Clyde Wilson)

Private subways-even though highly regulated, even though the fare was held to a nickel by government decree--fueled the expansion of the city. As lines were extended, neighborhoods and shopping centers grew around the stations. But by 1940, through rigorous regulation and through Communist labor unions that sabotaged private ownership, the subways were taken over by the city.