Today’s [March 16, 2006] New York Times reports as news a story which, if true, would be an event in defiance of economic law and thus a literal miracle, comparable to the raising of the dead or a virgin birth. This alleged miracle is contained in the headline “In Korea, Bureaucrats Lead the Technology Charge.” The opening paragraph of the article
In today’s New York Times , Robert H. Frank, who is described as “the co-author, with Ben S. Bernanke, of `Principles of Economics,’” writes that Galbraith should have won the Nobel Prize—for the ideas expressed in The Affluent Society. In case anyone needs a refresher about Galbraith, and the fascistic nature of his ideas, be sure to see my
Here’s a question for you. What’s funnier: we buffoons who make up the cast of investors, brokers, kibitzers, commentators who produce the daily theatrical Sitcom called the US stock market, or Saturday Nite Live? I vote for us, if comedy is valued over drama. Like this past Tuesday. Ms. Janet Yellen, San Franciso Fed Chairman, implied with a wink
The reaction to my article on the United Automobile Workers and GM , confirms how many people—namely, “liberals,” “moderates,” socialists, communists, syndicalists, “mutualists” and others—believe that businessmen and capitalists are the enemy, and labor unions and labor legislation, the friend, of wage earners. This is an enormous error, with
Today’s New York Times carries a piece by Krugman called “Death by Insurance.” It’s a rant in favor of the “single-payer system,” i.e., explicit socialized medicine along the lines of Canada and other countries. The article concludes with the words: So here we are. Our current health care system is unraveling. Older Americans are already covered
An article in today’s (Feb. 20, 2006) New York Times makes clear that Canada’s much ballyhooed system of socialized medicine, in addition to being plagued by interminable waits for treatment, has prohibited competition from private medicine. But now, as the result of a ruling last June by Canada’s Supreme Court, limited forms of private medical
Growing up as a child in World War II, I saw countless movies in which a German soldier in uniform, or a Gestapo agent in plain clothes, would utter the spine-chilling words “Papiere, Bitte” (”Papers, Please”). What made those words spine chilling was the fact that whoever they were uttered to was in imminent danger of arrest, imprisonment,
Below are the headlines of four obituaries that have run in The New York Times . The first is that of the recent obituary of the Anti-Communist Augusto Pinochet. The next three are those of the obituaries of the Communist mass murderers Mao, Stalin, and Lenin. Please be sure to note how many are described as having ruled by terror. December 11,
In the New York Times, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel prize winner in economics, has an article titled “How to Fix the Global Economy .” Judging from his article, Stiglitz appears to believe that the main problem of the global economy is “global financial imbalances.” By this, he means “America’s enormous trade deficits,” which he states are close to $3
Ask yourself if the following paragraph would seem believable to you if you were to read it a in a newspaper: Washington, D. C., Oct. 10. Following in the footsteps of “No Child Left Behind,” the Department of Education is considering new requirements applicable to all colleges and universities benefiting in any way from federally financed
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.