Mises Search

I didn’t think anyone would dare to apply the Bastiat’s Broken Window fallacy to the human tragedy that is still playing itself out along the rim of the Indian Ocean, but sadly, faith in economic fallacies is even more common than deadly tsunamis. That is why I was surprised to hear the Institute for International Economics’ C. Fred Bergsten

I believe in forced savings. In fact, whenever my son comes into some money, usually through a gift from a relative, I force him to place a certain percentage into a savings account. In a few years, I will transfer this money into an investment account of some sort. He has come to accept the process, though this has not always been the case. He’s

With the death of Pope John Paul II last week, many have compared his intellectual contributions to those of Ludwig von Mises. Comparisons are certainly apt, as both men have much in common. That their experience with 20th century totalitarianism shaped their lives is well known. It is less well known that they both spent their formative years in

Did you see President Bush and the Saudi Crown Prince holding hands early last week in Texas? The Houston Chronicle labeled this “culture shock” as much “hand-wringing over hand holding.” The White House quickly pointed out that nothing should be read into this public display of affection. Bush was helping the Crown Prince send a message to

“Was FDR popular in Alabama back in the 1930s?” I was asking Jackson, a man whom I know primarily from our conversations each Sunday after Mass, outside of the rural parish in Piedmont. I don’t know his last name (or maybe that is his last name). I do know this: Jackson is a retired Delta Airlines mechanic living out his last years in northeastern

Those of us who appreciate liberty, voluntary exchange, and workers’ property rights to their own labor have long-objected to the American organized labor movement. Since the 1930s, this movement has been defined by the AFL-CIO. This “mother of all unions” is the biggest, with a membership of just under 13 million workers at the end of 2004. It is

What if there was no such thing as FEMA? I asked myself that question after reading about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s bungled efforts to serve the poor and suffering in the area formerly known as New Orleans. Following Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, FEMA was criticized for inaction, epitomized by Director Michael Brown’s August

It’s not always easy being a free-market thinker and a Catholic. On the one hand, you have centuries of economic thought going for you — a rich tradition of scholarship starting largely with Aquinas and culminating in Leo XIII’s condemnation of socialism in the 1870s. But on the other, you have several authoritative papal documents published since

The marketplace is a wonderful place, except when it’s MarketPlace , that public radio program that airs mornings and evenings in the United States. It is a business program, although it is doubtful that many business people find it a must-listen each business day. Since there is no shortage of privately provided business media in print, radio,

Jason McBride is a gasoline dealer from Aliceville, Alabama, who had the gall to charge $3.69 a gallon for regular grade gasoline at his gas station while his competitors were charging $2.49 to $2.79. Who did he think he was, anyway? I don’t know, but we do know what he is now. A criminal. McBride was arrested last week for violating the Alabama