I was once again the victim of a monopoly; the Girl Scouts and their delicious cookies. Here exists the true monopoly; a restriction of supply (cookies available only once per year), and a higher-than-market price (based on equivalent cookies available at Wal-Mart). Every year around this time, an addiction forces me to place cookie orders well in
The local PBS station is due to rebroadcast the Nova program Magnetic Storm . The significance of the program is twofold. On one hand there is the prediction that Earth is long overdue for its magnetic poles to once again flip; north to south, south to north. On the other hand, and more ominous, there is the prediction that the Earth’s magnetic
“If you add up all the benefits, it’s really astonishing,” the New York senator and former first lady said, citing one study that says for every dollar invested in pre-kindergarten, there is at least a seven fold return. -- Hillary Clinton as reported by Yahoo!News Seven fold?!? So if the collective we invests a dollar, we reap seven. Invest a
Coasian ethics have come to roost in Ohio, or roast as the case may be (roasted soybeans in this instance). The Columbus Dispatch reported that an Ohio Court of Claims judge has sided with the state department of transportation in a suit brought forth by a farmer who claimed that his soybean crop was stunted by high-mast lighting along a state
It appears that the Appalachians are about to move again. Earthquakes? Shifts in tectonic plates? Not this time. Instead, the movement will be the result of an even more damaging force: congressional legislation. As a young buck growing up in Pittsburgh, I enjoyed riding my bike through the hills and valleys of the Appalachian Plateau of
Talk about internal conflict: On one hand, national security and all that, while, in the other hand, an ear of freshly-boiled, sweet corn. Sure, we all know that every kernel diverted from the production of ethanol is another seed of our destruction; oil production, global warming, etc. Yet, it is Father’s Day. Do I forsake and say, “No thanks,
The results are in for the first ever National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test in economics -- the feds consider the NAEP to be the “nation’s report card.” Supposedly, the results show that American public school students have achieved a high level of academic progress in economics by 12th grade. Read the sample question below
Please note that I do not subscribe to the panicked cries of human-induced, carbon-based global warming. But, just for fun, let’s assume that the cries are indeed true. Ever since Mises exposed the negative effects of government interventions, politicians, bureaucrats, and most economists have attempted to refute those truths. A leading fallacy
The lovers of Liberty sometimes discount how hard the statists work. Certainly, we discuss and debate, and read and write, all in an effort to further the cause of Freedom. We grow hungry and need refreshment; that we accept. But, what about the socialists who are in the midst of economic and political plans that will exterminate close to 100
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.