Free Markets

The iron law of prohibition states that the more you attempt to enforce prohibition, the more dangerous and the more potent the drugs actually become.

Contra Marx, the laws of economics are immutable and are the same no matter what historical epoch exists. Economies cannot flourish unless market prices, private property rights, and profits and losses are unhampered.

With Europe moving toward conflict in 1938, a number of economists and other intellectuals met in Paris to try to revitalize liberalism. Ludwig von Mises also was there as a lonely voice defending laissez-faire and the free market economy.

Buchanan and Tullock‘s The Calculus of Consent influentially applies economic ideas to politics, focusing on methodological individual. However, there are a few pitfalls about which readers should be aware.

While people who “prep” for disaster (called preppers) are ridiculed by political elites and their media, their actions are perfectly rational. In this article, economist Mark Thornton explains why prepping for natural disasters makes economic sense.

Supporters of intellectual property laws claim that people will not innovate unless they are protected by such legislation. In reality, people are more likely to be innovative when they encounter real free markets, not markets characterized by artificial scarcity.

In this episode, Murphy clarifies what is right and wrong on comparative advantage.

So-called economic moderates claim to support free-market capitalism, but then say that markets still need “some” government oversight. Free markets, however, don't need government-based rules because markets effectively regulate themselves.

Sponsored by Dan Johnson and Randee Laskewitz.

The idea that “if it can fail, it should” probably seems oxymoronic to most people when applied to the economic realm.