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After every disaster, no matter how obviously bad, there’s always an economist (just as in  Bastiat’s story ) who is prepared to suggest that there’s an upside. Thus in the  New York Times  do we read: “Indeed, after the damage from the fires has been sustained, there can be a lift to the economy as people rebuild their homes and restock them with

The newest addition to our collection of  cafe songs of the Mises Circle in interwar Vienna. This one is sung to the familiar tune by R. Schumann.   Dei Grenznutzenschule   Nach Deutschland zog Jüngst ein Volkswirt hin, Der wollte sich unterfangen, Auf Gund einer venia legendi in Wien ‘ne Professur zu erlangen. Da hörte der Brave die traurige Mär,

The Economist offers an interesting commentary on the GDP boom: “While America’s corporations have been strengthening their balance sheets, the same cannot be said for households. According to Thursday’s figures, consumer spending rose at an annual rate of 6.6% in the last quarter. Pre-tax incomes, however, grew by much less. Part of the

Today  Lew Rockwell comments  on George Bush’s strange call for Syria and Iran to prevent its citizens from leaving the country and coming to Iraq, thereby seeming to embrace the totalitarian idea of forcibly preventing the right of exit (think: East Germany). On the same day, the US announced it has set up  exit controls around Uja, Iraq , such

The NYT runs  a piece by David Rosenbaum  that raises fundamental questions about federal disaster aid. The hook is the soaring number of these disasters and the way they are used politically: “Mr. Bush’s total for the year could approach the record of 75 disasters declared by President Clinton in 1996, his re-election year.” Before mentioning

This fascinating round-up of the Iraqi economic situation , in the New York Times , puts the most interesting information at the end (according to what seems to be the standard NYT practice). The US is being driven by the logic of the security disaster there to maintain Saddam-style socialism, issuing various labor-force edicts and paying workers

CNN.com reports that the US Mint will release a new nickel today. The image of Monticello is gone. Instead of celebrating Jefferson’s domestic genius, the design will celebrate the Louisiana Purchase that vastly expanded the geographical jurisdiction of the federal government--just to remind us what really matters. Why is this being done? The Mint

The publication Green Anarchy was sent by the publisher to our offices, perhaps as a provocation and perhaps because its website gets precious little traffic ( Alexa 2 million ). On its masthead are these words: “ An Anti-Civilization Journal of Theory and Action .” It may sound tongue-in-cheek but it’s not. These people are deadly serious by

In our offices, we continue to receive questions concerning Mises Institute commentary on Hernando de Soto’s book, The Mystery of Capital (NY: Basic Books, 2000). Two contrasting views. A critique by Gabriel Calzada Alvarez in the JLS : “it becomes puzzling how an institution whose main feature consists in being the legal monopoly of the use of

The fallout from the  WTO ruling  against the US should be interesting to watch, if you can stand it. The US was the world’s leading advocate of creating this administrative body in the first place. We were told how a world bureaucracy would miraculously bring about what every liberal mind for many centuries has called for: a world without