The Jobs Problem
Mandating benefits for employees imposes costs on employment. The would-be worker bears the cost. It makes the worker more expensive to hire. The employer has to pay not only a salary but also a...
View ArticleObama and the Economy
Travel with me back to yesteryear, the early days of the Reagan administration, when taxes were being cut and spending increases were being curbed (actual spending cuts were few), and when journalists...
View ArticleObama and the Post Office
Writing in The State and Revolution in 1917, Vladimir Lenin summed up the economic aim of socialism as follows: “To organize the whole economy on the lines of the postal service….” Incredible, isn’t...
View ArticleThe Why of Fed Secrecy
The Clearing House Association says that the Fed has to keep its business under wraps else negative rumors lead to runs. Well, it didn’t say runs; it only alludes to unnameable “negative consequences.”
View ArticleSpeaking at GMU
On Wednesday, September 9, 2009, I’ll be speaking at the Economic Liberty Lecture Series held jointly by the Future of Freedom Foundation and the GMU Economics Club. There will be pizza at 5:30pm, I’ll...
View ArticleThe Inorganic Recovery
There is something affected, something not believable, something agitpropish, about all the cheers for the glorious economic recovery we are supposed to be experiencing. Even some of the recovery’s...
View ArticleThe Afghan Disaster
In the private sector, there is always a test of success. The business must make a profit. It can sustain some losses, but the clock is always running on those. At some point, after all cuts have been...
View ArticleRich Uncle Pays Your Mortgage
You can use all the fancy words you want, but in the end government has no money. Everything government has it gets from you. That is the most fundamental lesson of political economy, without which no...
View ArticleEconomics and Moral Courage
Hans Mayer (1879–1955) Hans Mayer was born in 1879, two years before Mises. He died in 1955. While Mises worked at the Chamber of Commerce because he was denied a paid position at the University of...
View ArticleThe World of Salamanca
The age between the 8th and 16th centuries was a time of amazing advance in every area of knowledge, such as architecture, music, biology, mathematics, astronomy, industry, and — yes — economics. FULL...
View ArticleEnd of an Era for Hillsdale?
Hillsdale College is starting a Charter School, and while there is no mention of this in the press release, Charter Schools rely on government money. That’s what makes them different from regular...
View ArticleThe Misesian Vision
I’m finding it ever more difficult to describe to people the kind of world that the Mises Institute would like to see, with the type of political order that Mises and the entire classical-liberal...
View ArticleRothbard’s Legacy
Tributes to Murray N. Rothbard are often taken up with a listing his accomplishments. This is because he was so astonishingly prolific that there seem to be many scholars with that name. As soon as...
View ArticleDown with the Rich, Again?
Maybe you saw the headlines blasting the rich (again!) for failing to spend money in order to enable us to get out of this ever-lasting recession. It turns out that in boom times, the rich spent $145...
View ArticleReality Economics
For more than two years now, and even longer depending on your dating scheme, the federal government has waged war on the reality of the incredible Fed-fueled bubble that developed in housing with...
View ArticleJames E. Foy, 1917-2010
James E. Foy, former dean of students at Auburn University from 1950 to 1978 and a great friend to the Ludwig von Mises Institute, died at the age of 93 at October 9, 2010. His funeral is today. To be...
View ArticleConservatives versus Freedom
For some 60 years, there has been a deep fissure in what is called the American Right. There are those who believe in liberty. And there are those who believe in the American imperial state. They are...
View ArticleThe Libyan People versus Muammar Gaddafi
The citizens of these countries are taking their fate into their own hands, just as it should be, and not waiting for others to free them. It is very possible that Libyan citizens will end up unseating...
View ArticleSay No to Libyan Intervention
Is it possible to both oppose Gaddafi and oppose a war on Gaddafi? Absolutely. This is a position that all Americans should adopt. In the same way, it is possible to oppose the Obama administration but...
View ArticleUse the Dollar or Else
Look up the phrase "a unique form of domestic terrorism" on a search engine and you will turn up a story about a man whom the US government is trying to cage from now until the time of his death. And...
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