“Bankers’ hours” is an old phrase that actually reflects monopolistic privilege. The 10AM to 3PM that banks formerly were open to serve customers was made possible by government regulation and the consequent lack of competition to force bankers to be more available when customers needed them. With modest deregulation (and the electronic
In marketing the most effective way to introduce new products is the free sample. In 1978 Lever Brothers spent $15 million ($47.55 million in today’s currency) delivering a free sample of Signal Mouthwash to two-thirds of all US households. The strategy was a success and the product remained on the market well into the 1990s. The significance of
Teachers are peddlers of knowledge and ideas. Well, that’s what they would be in a free market in education and that’s how they should think of themselves in today’s government-run and government-controlled system. In a free market in education, teachers would be sales reps for their schools. Some might even be owner-entrepreneurs who hang out
Choice phrases from NY Times op-ed columnist John Tierney on Nora Ephron and the rent-control crowd: “Like European nobles in crumbling castles, rentocrats are above money grubbing. They deserve their homes because of their longevity and their virtues. They compare rent control to Fulbright scholarships — a stipend wisely provided to worthy
Education and social critic Alfie Kohn is an exhaustive researcher and engaging writer. I have not read all of his eleven original books, but I do highly recommend these two: Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and
In “Trial and Error: The scientific system does little to prevent scientific fraud. Is there a better way?” , New York Times Magazine , January 15, 2006, author David Dobbs, in the wake of the Hwang Woo Suk cloning fraud, says: “Journal editors say they can’t prevent fraud. In an absolute sense, they’re right. But they could make fraud harder to
Peer review, the sacred cow of the scholarly world, is often a hurdle that those of us with less-than-conventional ideas sometimes find difficult to overcome. Thomas Stossel, American Cancer Society Professor at the Harvard Medical School, recently put the process in perspective: “Anonymous peer review by jealous competitors has its merits, but it
Two New York lawyers detail here the sleazy legal tactics of the Recording Industry Association of America. The lawyers call the tactics a reign of terror against young people and have set up their blog as a clearing house of information and evidence about the RIAA’s “oppressive lawsuits.” I like the lawyers’ designations, but I would also say
I admit that I have not heard this question—why does capitalism need to be defended?—in precisely that form. After the hardcover edition of my book In Defense of Advertising: Arguments from Reason, Ethical Egoism, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism was published, I did hear the question this way: Why does advertising need to be defended? As advertising
In product development there are two kinds of errors. A “go” error occurs when the green light is given to a product that eventually fails. The Edsel, a $250 million write-off by the Ford Motor Company in 1959, is one example. The “drop” error occurs when an idea that could have been highly profitable is eliminated from further consideration. How
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.