Mises Search

Whenever I’m feeling blue about domestic politics – there is plenty about which to despair – something great happens that reminds me of the long-term case for optimism, which is all about the astonishing expansion of the division of labor globally and in ways that weren’t even possible just a few years ago. The world has changed to permit ever

The law of unintended consequences surely isn’t universal. Government often seeks to destroy things and truly does succeed in doing just that (alternative medicine, unlicensed professionals, and the like). What it taxes in order to punish, it truly does punish (cigarettes, alcohol, imports that compete with powerful domestic industries). What it

Once again, voters went to the polls to reject overweening government, responding to waves of rhetoric that decried the government takeover of health care, the bailouts and spending, and the arrogance of power. And again, domestic economic issues dominated. And so the “Obama regime,” as the Republicans have started calling it, got a much-deserved

Forbes has listed Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the top of its list of affordable cities in which to buy a home. And the publication notes in passing that the city “never experienced the dramatic run-up in prices that characterized the national housing bubble — so it was spared the subsequent bust.” True, and there is a dramatic story here that

The news reports the death of Irving Kristol , one-time socialist turned democratic capitalist. He was of course not a libertarian; his love for the market extended to two cheers only. He was also instrumental in tying the capitalist cause to a celebration of the warfare state–the whole ideology of neoconservatism–which didn’t help the cause much

Our dear friend Larry Sechrest, professor of economics at Sul Ross University, and a long-time writer and speaker for economic liberty, died this morning (October 30, 2008). He was born in 1946. The cause was heart failure, and he died with his wife Molly by his side. She says that it meant so much to him that only recently the Mises Institute was

Repeal light-bulb central planning ! But check the end of the article. It reports on a poll that shows 84% satisfaction for the non-incandescent bulb. This is among the 0.5% of the population that knows what that is? In any case, it is preposterous to judge the availability of a consumer good based on a poll. Folks, that’s what the market is for,

I always enjoy David Leonhardt’s economics writings for the New York Times. He sees and reports on interesting things. Fine. But, still, is it really too much to ask that a writer on economics take a look at the many thousands of books and millions of writings that demonstrate that there is a causal relationship between free markets and

Bruce Caldwell, editor of Hayek’s collected works, is interviewed here on the new edition of Road to Serfdom : I’ll give you one example of some relevance for today. One of his major themes was that in times of war, national leaders will use the war to grow the size of government. And it doesn’t have to be a World War II sort of war. You can think

Here is a weekend code writer who was hammered by a corporate correspondent who warned him not to release his free product because it would infringe on a legal monopoly. The whole thing is a disgrace. Just a disgrace. It further demonstrates how it would be possible to shut down the whole world using patent lawsuits. Folks, the criminals are in