Via alwayslowprices.net, we get a solid conservative case against Wal-Mart . The discussion is much more reasonable than the usual anti-WM screeds: Wal-Mart shouldn’t be punished for being productive, but they shouldn’t be subsidized, either. Retail productivity is important--see this McKinsey Institute study --but robbing Peter to improve Paul’s
Chapter 28 of “ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe “ by Douglas Adams addresses the most pressing, fundamental questions of social science: “The major problem — one of the major problems, for there are several — one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to
Okay, so no one’s actually getting killed. But their lives are being made more difficult—in this case, legislation to “help” the poor by tightly regulating payday loan places will sharply restrict their access to short-term credit. Are there con men out there? Sure. Do people get ripped off? No doubt. This doesn’t call for regulation, though—it
It will be interesting to see what happens in this story, from this morning’s Post-Dispatch . The basics: A church has a 200 year old tree on their property. They want to cut the tree down to build a parking lot. Other residents, including the Garden Club and members of City Council, object. The preacher has given them 30 days to come up with the
Why can’t the private sector address the “crying need” for affordable, decent housing ? The short answer is that it isn’t a private sector phenomenon but rather that regulation and restriction are in large part responsible: Ed Stringham and Ben Powell of San Jose State University have shown that housing market interventions in California that were
Christmas is a make-or-break time for many retailers, and the holiday season’s importance to the American economy is so great that “Black Friday” sales at some retailers, particularly Wal-Mart, are reported as a macroeconomic indicator. The holiday season is indeed festive and inspiring even in spite of clichéd paeans against the “commercialism”
Markets are ruthlessly efficient, meaning in large part that people will not undertake investment projects with risk characteristics that are not aligned with savers’ preferences. All profitable opportunities will be exploited in equilibrium, and no potentially profitable projects will be left undone. One of the unfortunate consequences of credit
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.