Controlling Prices to Our Detriment
As the East Coast recently prepared for Hurricane Irene the state once again “heroically” stepped in to protect people from the evils of “price gouging.” Anti-price gouging laws went into effect (see here for one example) in order to control... Read more
Worth the Price? Should We Even Need to Ask?
The Space Race in the 1960s was an epic battle for supremacy in space exploration between the United States and the Soviet Union. National pride and prestige seemed to be a driving force as the Cold War waged on. The Soviets were the first to send the... Read more
The Hoover Deal
Recently Rachel Maddow, on her MSNBC show, stated the all too often used fallacy that what made the Great Depression so great was Herbert Hoover’s do nothing, free market, approach to policy in the late 1920s. The historical inaccuracies of this claim,... Read more
Liberties’ Response to Government Debt: Pay Back or Repudiate?
The recent debt ceiling debate is a glaring example of the legacy left by Keynesian economics. Debates over America’s debt are certainly nothing new either. We have become overly dependent upon government, which is unreliable itself, and we need to... Read more
If I Were Dictator: Lord Keynes Edition
A student once asked economist Gordon Tullock, “if you don’t like democracy what do you want?” to which he responded “Tullock as dictator!” When Ludwig von Mises was asked what he would do if he were king he responded, “abdicate!” Haven’t... Read more
The Magical Delusion
The call for government action continues to grow. More and more we hear, “We need more jobs,” “we need better highways,” “we need affordable health care,” etc. And it is the government who needs to provide these “needs.” But just who is... Read more
Is There A “Middle Way”?
In the late 1940s the Harvard Free Enterprise Society was formed in order to deal with issues that directly influence the economy. In particular, the society promoted equality of opportunity, provided by the free market. The Foundation for Economic Education... Read more
Liberty and Distributive Justice
The Cliché of Socialism Number 8, written by Leonard E. Read is “The free market ignores the poor.” This cliché has far from vanished. In fact, with the recent rise in the popularity of libertarianism many have used it as the jumping point for attacking... Read more
Cliche of Socialism Number 8 “The Free Market Ignores the Poor”
Cliche of Socialism Number 8 “The Free Market Ignores the Poor” by Leonard E. Read. Read More →
The Popularity of a Warning (Yet To Be Fully Heeded)
The success of F. A. Hayek’s book The Road to Serfdom is in itself a fascinating story. Its origins date back to a memo written in the early 1930s by Hayek to Sir William Beveridge, then the director of the London School of Economics, disputing the... Read more
Bastiat Yesterday, Bastiat Today, Bastiat Forever
In 1965 the Volker Fund published new translation of three volumes by 19th century economist Frederic Bastiat; namely his Economic Sophisms, Selected Essays on Political Economy, and Economic Harmonies. Today’s document is an essay entitled “Bastiat... Read more
On the Follies of Society
Leonard Read often used a candle as a metaphor for the idea of liberty. Even in darkness a simple candle can shine to show the way. And the more people who hold a candle for liberty, the brighter liberty will shine. But in the world we live, this is no... Read more
What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and a Free Market in Money?
Ask any economist about whether he believes free trade is a good thing and the answer is almost always yes. No really, economists universally view exchange as mutually beneficial. Yes, sometimes we regret our purchases after the fact but universally,... Read more
Economics, Not Physics
Ludwig von Mises was one of the most prominent economists of his day. Still, for the most of his career Mises’s methodology was somewhat out of sync with the rest of the profession. By the time he had published his first major work presenting his methodological... Read more
A Sickness in the People
Economist James M. Buchanan used to ask his Ph.D. students the following question, “It is said that a fly that grew 9 times its size could no longer fly. What does that imply for the fiscal dimensionality of the state?” This question is one of scale... Read more
