That’s Chester Finn’s quote from this morning’s New York Times , reacting to the news that students in Shanghai vastly outscored their counterparts in international standardized educational testing. Finn seems to view this news as Sputnik-like, in that he sees it as an event that would galvanize support for broader federal control of education (if
Today’s Daily Article of Henry Hazlitt’s cogent (and still timely) analysis of the NRA reminded me of the following excerpt from John T. Flynn’s The Roosevelt Myth [San Francisco: Fox & Wilkes, 1998, pp. 40-41]. Flynn’s description of the Blue Eagle program, meant to intimidate private business to comply with NRA regulations, sounds eerily
An excerpt from an infamous blog apparently run by an educated professional Iraqi pseudo-named Salam Pax (another source of news around the official organs): American civil administration in Iraq is having a shortage of Bright ideas. I keep wondering what happened to the months of “preparation” for a “post-saddam” Iraq. What happened to all these
“This basic framework for tax law doesn’t make much sense,” writes Yale’s Robert Shiller in today’s New York Times . “Instead, future tax brackets and rates should be contingent on the extent of future inequality. Tax law should be based on a principle that might be called inequality insurance: the taxes would be collected in such a way as to
From the text of Senate Bill 65 currently being debated in the Alabama Legislature: SYNOPSIS: Under existing law, it is unlawful for any person to impose unconscionable prices for the sale or rental of any commodity or rental facility during a period of a declared state of emergency. This bill would also provide that it is unlawful for any
A reader responding to my most recent article on Mises.org writes: “As a former prime contractor to NASA (I’m much better now, thanks) I was astonished at what I found. The miracle is that anyone flies safely, not that occasionally they blow up. Everyone I knew, including those still there, hates and has contempt for this monsrosity. One
If Argentina defaults, will the IMF follow? From the International Herald Tribune : “Argentina owes $14.3 billion to the IMF, more than 500 percent of the country’s statutory quota (the generally accepted borrowing limit is 300 percent). Argentina owes the World Bank $8.5 billion, representing nearly 8 percent of the institution’s loans, and the
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.
