Mises Search

In “ The Intellectuals and Socialism ,” F.A. Hayek contrasted intellectuals with scholars, original thinkers, and specialists. The intellectual is a public figure who is a “secondhand dealer in ideas” who is not necessarily very bright but can speak and write with confidence and authority about a wide range of subjects with which he or she has

  Volume 7, No. 3 (Fall 2004)   The Bias Against Guns  is overall a less technical book than More Guns, Less Crime, but in its later chapters, quite a few portions are still way over the heads of most  laypersons  (Poisson regressions and all).  Bias  seeks to explain why the costs of gun ownership to society are emphasized by the government and

  Volume 9, No. 3 (Fall 2006)   The return of true free-market health care institutions will never be through the  incrementalism  of small tax changes and medical-savings accounts that Goodman et al., and Pipes envision. Goodman et al., and Pipes come to the table with hat in hand ready to bargain away solutions that would truly deal with the

August 9, 2014 marks twenty-five years since the signing into law of the US savings and loan (S&L) industry bailout, the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) of 1989. After FIRREA was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, the federal government took control of 327 failed S&Ls with $147 billion in assets.

Fascinating column here on the “puzzling” rise in short-term interest rates and decline in long-term rates. At least he offers some alternative “gloomy” theories behind our flattening yield curve, but ends on this: All this attests to our economic ignorance. There are no simple rules (budget deficits, for instance) to explain interest rates. My

Apropos of the discussions of intellectual property here of late. (I was hoping to see discussion of this story last week here or on LRC’s blog, but better late than never.) The overstepping labels have now angered Steve Jobs, which is not a good sign. All of this could end with completely anonymous file sharing where file sharers can’t be

“Red light cameras do not increase safety,” says Eric Scrum with the National Motorists Association. “Quite frankly, they are not a solution in any shape or form.” *** Studies by the Federal Highway Administration show right angle crashes decreased by 25 to 30 percent, but rear-end crashes increased by about 15 percent. Here

The poor Associated Press . It attributes the fall in prices to an increase in demand on the part of college students, but that would raise prices (assuming supply relatively constant). It is competition and increasing efficiency on the supply side that have reduced the price of laptops (VCRs, DVD players, and so on) and thus made laptop purchases

Of course there’s still some problems with this analysis , but it’s a pretty good start. With regard to one of my earlier posts, maybe this calls for some optimism that they will eventually figure out who really owns the

Interesting report on Bill Frist’s sale of HCA shares. Insider knowledge? For years, Frist was criticized for holding HCA stock while directing legislation on Medicare reform and patient issues. His office has consistently deflected criticism by noting that his assets were in a blind trust and not under his active control. However... Frist traded