Economics for Real People reviewed (Washington Witness): “Mr. Callahan leads us gently through the fruit of hundreds of years of reflection on human action with prose accessible to any layman. In fact, he does such an excellent job of being clear, interesting and witty that some readers may think that all economic reading is this
The PBS Special “Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy” is now available as a broadband webcast . Based on the pro-market book by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, it is structured around the debate between Keynes and Hayek, including footage of interviews with Hayek.
What does it mean to say that there has been “education inflation”? It is an analogy to money inflation. Austrians understand money inflation in this way: money substitutes are created that do not represent actual goods and services, (e.g. counterfeiting). So to draw an analogy to education, we might say that education inflation would be the
This TidBITS article discusses a new California statute that is the most aggressive anti-spam legislation yet, “The new California statute definitely pushes the envelope. It bans all unsolicited commercial email unless the recipient has agreed to receive it.” But the author wonders whether laws will accomplish anything: “...spam laws won’t stop
The good democratic news is that public economic policy closely corresponds to public economic opinion. The bad news is that the public is economically ignorant, so public economic policy is terrible. Bryan Kaplain explains in a two part article on EconLib , “Mises and Bastiat on How Democracy Goes Wrong” ( part I , part II ). “Over 80% of
I’ve added two new films to the film list , the Clint Eastwood western The Outlaw Josey Wales and the documentary The Commanding Heights. I get a slow but steady stream of e-mail suggesting movies for the list or wondering why I select the films I do. So, a brief explanation is in order. My two main criteria for adding films to the list are that
Today’s story on the CIA investing in start-ups in USA Today is frustrating. The worshipful tone of the article betrays no hint of the regular failure of gov’t directed investing in the market, any knowledge of the problems with socialist calculation, any concern for the technology market being directed by gov’t spies... Did the 20th century
Re-issued today in several major U.S. cities only is the important and timely film The Battle of Algiers (link includes trailers and reviews). Covering the 1954-7 period of the conflict between French occupiers and the Algerian independence movement, the film dispassionately re-enacts the murder and torture used by both sides. More importantly
In Can CAN-SPAM Can Spam? , Brady Johnson in TidBITS writes on the new federal anti-spam act. It is no surprise that the law is a massive act of nullification of state laws, “One heavily criticized component of the Act is the provision preempting all state laws addressing spam with certain very limited exceptions.” Also a few exceptions to this
“South African entrepreneurs have discovered a stunningly large and lucrative market: Africa’s poor. By providing services that the developed world takes for granted, the entrepreneurs are making money -- and making lives easier.” Megan Lindow reports from Cape Town on Seeking Riches From the Poor . [ Wired News ] One of the examples she gives of
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.
