Mises Search

Those who are ignorant of the blessings of private property and its love affair with freedom lurk everywhere, even in the Wall Street Journal . One columnist for the Journal, whom I will not name--let’s just call him Vladimir L.--writes often of the government’s jihad versus Microsoft.  Vlad doesn’t want to shutter Windows, the company’s fine

In the coliseum of capitalism, life or death depends on the consumer, who rules over the games. Down in the dusty pit, the gladiators battle, but keep one eye cocked on the emperor. Everything depends on his whim. Thumbs up means prosperity and bright Rolls Royce showrooms. Thumbs down signals bankruptcy and dark-paneled courtrooms. Consequently,

The concept of taxation well deserves its partnership with death. Death and taxes, you know. Two vultures. Both, to say the least, deadly.  Why do we let them shear us like sheep every Spring? I’m talking about taxes and their incremental, inexorable growth. The analogy of the farmer’s son who hefts the newborn calf comes to mind. So easy that

The cost of communication has plummeted. Costly labor-intensive media such as smoke signals, Pyramid carvings and dense hieroglyphics on large stones have yielded to the trivial costs of email. Deflation rules. Consider long distance rates. Down! Deflated like zeppelins competing with Boeing 757s. Only old-fashioned correspondence, processed by

We Americans are far too generous with Uncle Sam. Why do we yield to his pleas for funds so readily? He’s the spendthrift uncle who’s flat broke, but still likes to dress well and drive a Mercedes to his bankruptcy hearing. So, he drops by at suppertime, has a free meal, and hits you up for a hundred or so. Historically, we’ve been a soft touch

The Free Market 26, no. 4 (April 2005)   The concept of taxation well deserves its partnership with death. Death and taxes, you know. Two vultures. Both, to say the least, deadly. Why do we let them shear us like sheep every spring? I’m talking about taxes and their incremental, inexorable growth. The analogy of the farmer’s son who hefts the

Good News Is Bad News. “Those who would understand the mysteries of the marketplace must drink deeply of the well of Wisdom.” That’s Socrates, 122BC. Now Socrates, may or may not have said that. But if he didn’t, he should have. Take Friday, the 8th: the financial news was intoxicating. The jobless rate fell to 4.7 from 4.8. virtually no

The universe is full of mysteries; like when does the phone company collect the coins in pay telephones? (Have you ever seen a guy in a phone company uniform lugging a satchel full of quarters out of the airport phone booths?) Why is it that your driver’s-side windshield wiper is ALWAYS the faulty one? And why do we Southerners say “lyberry”

“The ways of government are unknowable to man”. Somebody must have said that over the past 5000 years. In fact it must have been stated every five minutes by anybody who thought about government. Socrates, Aristotle, Hume, Locke, even Ronald Reagan. Maybe even David Bronner. Know him? You should — he runs the Alabama Pension Program and he just

I loved my cat. Probably as much as my cousin, Malcolm, who owed me fifty bucks. So when she died — my cat, not Malcolm — I was unhappy. I remembered the words of Genesis. “Dust thou art and to dust returneth.” How depressing. But I cheered up a little when I reread that big, black book and noticed that the author didn’t specifically mention my