My new Forbes article asks “ If We Win the Future, Who Loses? ” While we’re talking about it, here are a few other comments that correct some popular misconceptions: Misconception 1: The rich get richer while the poor get poorer, and the wealth of the wealthy is caused by the poverty of the poor . In today’s Philadelphia Inquirer , Steven
I am convinced by the wisdom of Don Boudreaux . I posted this in the comments at Cafe Hayek: You make a good point. For this reason, I have decided to stop reading Cafe Hayek, Carpe Diem, Marginal Revolution, and any blog that isn’t produced by a member of my household. Your intellectual imperialism is coming to an end, gentlemen; your blog has
Probably. Here’s Ryan McMaken, from the LewRockwell.com Blog : We must have a police state in this country or immigrants will come here and support the creation of a police state. This raises what I think is a very important question. A lot of people oppose the war on drugs because of the horrific consequences or agree that we should abolish the
I appreciate everyone’s comments on my intro to my “Capitalism and Socialism” course ; indeed, one of the first things we’re going to do is figure out exactly what we mean. Two themes we will explore are the emergence of social order and the restriction of coercion. That’s part of what my Forbes column today is about . Attempts to centrally plan a
I just had an interesting online discussion with John Payne from the Show-Me Institute about light rail. Light rail fails on pretty much every efficiency measure, and I write that as someone who likes being able to get to the places I need to go in St. Louis without having to drive. It just so happened that the MetroLink in St. Louis was
Leonard Read’s classic “I, Pencil” is a staple of introductory economics classes the world over. I expect that the same will happen with the TED talk below, in which Thomas Thwaites details how he tried to make a toaster completely from scratch. He makes a valiant effort. At the end, he is able to get something he can plug in that ran for about
If you’re on the road at all this holiday season, be on the lookout for a few things. First, look for enormous amounts of unused and/or decaying productive capacity. You’ll see plenty along the way from Memphis to Birmingham, but I suspect this isn’t the only route along which you’ll see lots of crumbling buildings and rusting cars. Second, be on
Happiness, thy name is coffee. In today’s edition of “The Calling,” Steve Horwitz highlights the glory of the Keurig coffee maker, which represents a real step forward for coffee drinkers everywhere that isn’t fully captured by standard measures of well-being like Gross Domestic Product. For more on the same, here’s Jeffrey Tucker’s take on the
I was in a Christian bookstore earlier today and noticed a couple of titles ringing alarm bells and tying fears of economic collapse and the end of oil to end-times prophecy. One of the reasons I love economics is that it forces us to be honest with ourselves about our beliefs. The well-worn objection to the “we’re going to run out of oil” thesis
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.