Mises Search

The Producer Price Index is out and it shows a change in intermediate goods in March 2008 from 12 months ago (unadjusted) at a 10.5% increase. This follows a 8.8% rate of increase in February and January. Focusing on energy alone, the news is devastating: “The intermediate energy goods index advanced at a 46.4-percent SAAR (Seasonally Adjusted

An oped calls for getting rid of the word taxes and replacing it with the word dues. Why? Well, the word taxes seems punitive, whereas dues suggests “obligation and duty.” Now we come to the civics text sermon: “we thrive because of the schools and transit systems and 10,000 other services that exist only because we have joined together.” That’s

Here is an extremely interesting book from 1937: Collectivism: A False Utopia (link takes you to full text). On the plus side, this book is an excellent demonstration of the commonality between Nazi German, Fascist Italy, and Soviet Russia. The governments he analyzes are all socialist in their practical essence. And notice the year: 1937. This is

NPR reports that the ocean seems to be slightly cooling rather than warming. Let’s give the ocean a government grant and see if it changes its mind. Also, here is a special treat for those who prefer their weather forecasts

Larry Elliott in the Guardian writes that Every parent with a stroppy teenager knows the feeling. After relentless pressure, mum or dad gives in to demands that they drop the ­oppressive rules that govern the home and, with reluctance, allow their progeny to do their own thing. The last words the teenager hears as they slam the door and head off

I can’t say enough good things about the film version of “ Horton Hears a Who! “ now in theaters. I’ve generally tended to avoid these film adaptations, which stray too far from the original book and introduce strange twists, usually something designed to preach left-liberal ideology, that just end up being a bother and a distraction. None of this

So I tried it again, an article on economics that attempts to reach an audience disinclined to read about economics. It begins: “The following will explain the most important idea in the history of social analysis. The notion (actually, it’s a description of reality that is all around us but rarely noticed) has been around for many centuries. It

A report on the price of newspape r: zero A paper mill in the central Canadian province of Manitoba is no longer accepting paper for recycling because the price of newsprint has dropped so low that it’s no longer cost effective to recycle... Instead, the mill plans to simply cut down trees to make its paper. as more people read their news online,

Here is a funny column on Marketwatch that argues that “While Obama, despite his University of Chicago connections, is no Friedrich Hayek, he is closer to the Austrian economist’s classic notion of ‘liberal’ - i.e. favoring market forces over government fiat - than his Democratic rival.” Probably true in the same way that Alaska is closer than the

This weekend, the New York Times published an excellent review of what looks to be a good book on Iraq: No End in Site by Charles Ferguson. The catalog of error, arrogance, corruption, and violence looks overwhelming, and the review itself is very instructive. If the book is anywhere near as good, it seems very important. In any case, what we see