Mises Search

According to the latest government statistics, the “heroic consumer” is keeping us out of recession, or at least is making our economy grow.  That was the lead story on “NBC Nightly News” recently, which meant I was not much interested in hearing how it ended.  Myths are myths, whether told by storytellers or by Tom Brokaw.  At least Aesop’s

With the disappearance of the “energy crisis” in the early 1980s—an event that coincided with the ending of price and allocation controls on the oil industry—many of us had hoped that the voices of “conservation” and “alternative energy” would have been stilled.   Unfortunately, we have had no such luck, and in the wake of yet more

One of the many lies told by politicians is that they are “looking out for the consumer.” Of course, that means that they are looking hard to find consumers from whom they can extract even more money than ever.  Thus, we find the latest government outrage; this one comes from my home state of Tennessee, but it is also being pushed in other states.

Although I am hardly a television junkie, I am quite aware of the grand success enjoyed by the new NBC Wednesday-night drama, “The West Wing.” At the recent Emmys, it received more awards than any other drama, and it apparently has a huge and faithful following. The star of the show is Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlett, a left-wing

In the continuing battle of words over who is to blame in the California electricity fiasco, economists seem to have fallen into two warring factions: those who favor price controls, and those who do not.   Laura D’Andrea Tyson is in the former faction. Tyson, having served as the chief economic advisor to former President Bill Clinton, was able

In the saga over California’s electricity woes, the real heavyweights have jumped into the fray, says the New York Times , and they think that California needs price controls, thank you.  According to the Times,  ten “of the nation’s leading authorities on regulation” have signed a letter to President Bush, demanding that the administration

It is Sunday morning, and the socialist train on which I ride (better known as Amtrak) is slowly moving through Washington, D.C. Out the left window, I see the Capitol, and right at that instant, we descend into a tunnel that is pitch black. Surely this is a prophetic moment. In a few minutes, the train stops at the Union Station, where I

As Congress and the pundits continue to debate the so-called Patients’ Bill of Rights, it becomes clear that much of the discussion reflects both cynicism and naiveté.  Conservatives who oppose the bill on both matters of principle and practicality say that it will invoke the “law of unintended consequences,” in that it will open the doors for

Austrian economists, I believe, understand the Federal Reserve System like no other people because they despise it so much.  In fact, Austrians condemn central banking in general because tcommons.wikimedia.orghey recognize that these institutions are set up primarily to fund profligate spending by politicians and to rescue banks from their own

I recently received a Cato Institute policy analysis attacking antitrust laws, calling them “just another form of inefficient economic regulation.”   As papers on this subject go, it is accurate, and it certainly scores points for those who have long been arguing against these laws.   However, whether one is speaking of the recent Microsoft case