The Entrepreneur

Refusal to substitute dispassionate analysis for moralistic anticapitalistic crusading is unfortunately likely to lead us backward rather than forward.

With time rightly identified as a scarce resource, economic theory is needed to understand the interchange process. And there is no place for the "freeconomics" of Chris Anderson.

So there we have the connection between Rothbardian political analytics and the hottest movie in theaters today.

We are able to make more sense of all this insanity if we use the Austrian lens to observe that money doesn't have to be a force for human motivation. It is, rather, a tool of calculation.

Taking the counterfeiters money is not wrong, but when the women started spending the money, as Lew Rockwell points out, that's "another matter, of course, as it imitates on a tiny scale what the Fed does, and dilutes the value of other people's money."

Being hated by the wealthy and powerful is perhaps the high cost of serving those with low incomes, and Wal-Mart will no doubt continue to encounter resistance from those who don't need its services for some time to come.

While most Americans will never see the money the government takes they will have to bear the cost of the higher metal prices that result.

I am all in favor of innovation, but I just can't call it innovation if government force is pushing it down the market's throat.

Even though Scorsese may share the left-wing political opinions typical of Hollywood, writes Paul Cantor, The Aviator in many respects celebrates the spirit of free enterprise and, more generally, embodies a kind of libertarian philosophy. One may profitably interpret the film in terms of concepts derived from classic defenders of the free market such as Adam Smith and also draw on the work of the Austrian school of economics, one of whose chief representatives is Ludwig von Mises. The emphasis in Austrian economics on the special role of the entrepreneur and his ability to deal with the risk and uncertainty endemic to economic life makes it particularly relevant to understanding The Aviator.

Baron Rothschild advised that one "should invest when there is blood in the streets."