For the most part, we know what happened — and what did not happen — after Katrina had battered parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast and flooded most of New Orleans. Despite promises of aid “around the corner,” adequate government assistance did not reach many of the refugees, and especially the people of New Orleans who were stuffed into the Superdome,
Ramilaben Patel owns some small convenience stores in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area, with gasoline being one of the many goods that his businesses sell. For about 30 minutes on September 1, his Tiptop Food Mart #3 in East Ridge advertised regular gasoline at $4.99 per gallon. Even with the recent price increases due to supply disruptions in the
[To receive the Daily Article in your inbox, go to email services , and tell others too!] Anyone with even a basic understanding of economics should have seen it coming: our leaders are threatening oil companies for making money off higher prices. In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, gasoline prices shot up, as large chunks of US
It was only a decade ago that the Clinton Administration had decided that Microsoft was an Enemy of the People and tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to litigate the company into oblivion. While the principals in that set of lawsuits have gone on to other things, the “anti-monopoly” propaganda machines are turning their sights elsewhere. It seems that
Should anyone doubt that the Republicans have become the sworn enemies of the forces of supply and demand, as well as free enterprise, the following statements should change the minds of most skeptics: Congressional GOP leaders on Monday formally called on President Bush to launch an investigation into possible price gouging by oil companies, as
In a recent article on the current gasoline “crisis,” I laid blame on the Republicans in Congress for inflammatory statements coupled with terrible legislation that has laid the framework for what is occurring at the gasoline pumps. Bad economic legislation coupled with the beating of yet more war drums — directed this time at Iran — means that we
Staples used to have an advertisement in which the clueless boss comes to Dilbert’s cubicle with a visitor in tow. “Dilbert, meet our new executive vice president,” says the boss, adding, “He’s tall, so we know he’ll go far.” “I also have executive-style hair,” says the new VP, and the boss interjects, “Which we think will turn silver.” Indeed, if
Concerning the federal court conviction of Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the punditry has been consistent: the “system” works because people who committed huge crimes have been convicted and will spend all or most of their last years in prison. Thus, Forbes (”The Guiltiest Guys in the Room” by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind) could crow: Guilty!
During a cross-country trip I took in early June, I drove past a number of Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico, and I must say that the sight was not exactly uplifting. I could see hundreds of tumble-down shacks and old trailers located on hillsides, and none of them were inviting places to live. It was obvious then that I was seeing
Perhaps it is human nature for people to decry whatever their situation might be. All of us wish to be better off than we are at the present time, not matter how good the state of our current circumstances. While that might be so, the supposed “inequality crisis” decried by some economists (and, of course, members of the political classes) does
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.
