Labor and Wages

The COVID-19 panic may have sped up the beginning of this economic crisis, but the virus wasn’t the cause. The real cause of the crisis was the boom that came before it.

Even though the official unemployment rate is probably not quite as high as it was in 1933, there are reasons to believe that our labor market is currently in even worse shape economically than it was at the lowest depths of the Great Depression.

The key to recovering jobs quickly and efficiently is the combination of a flexible labor market, an attractive investment framework, and solid policies to preserve the business fabric of the country.

The Danish state believes that the nation can avoid economic collapse if the state pays private sector workers' salaries. This, it is thought, will allow private companies to avoid layoffs. But there's a downside.

Real higher wages can't be created with a government fiat. Worker productivity must first be increased through greater investment.

Real wages in Japan have been declining thanks to decades of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies. Now "Japanization" increasingly looks like a fate that awaits Europe.

Ludwig von Mises discusses inflation, labor unions, and issues of the adoption of improper terminology and widespread public misinformation at the Mont Pèlerin Society meeting at Princeton, New Jersey, on September 11, 1958.

After very quickly becoming an advanced economy, South Korea is experiencing declining growth and labor productivity. The culprit, as usual, is government intervention in the market to favor certain interests.

State lawmakers possess an infinite source of good intentions. Wielding the power of this limitless benevolence and munificence, politicians are regulating the lives of citizens while eviscerating their existence in the process.

The conservative case against market freedom is based on the belief that if change disrupts the status quo in any way, or if companies impose cost reductions that result in a shifting of employment — or even some layoffs — then government should step in and take control.