The Bad Economics of Short-Run Policies by Richard M. Ebeling October 4, 2018 Bad economics can bring about or grow out of bad politics. But the question is, what are bad economics and bad politics? Unless this is clearly and correctly identified, a bad situation can be made worse, and a good situation can be turned into a bad one. So sorting this out is crucial to having a free and prosperous ...
The Libertarian Angle: Ebeling’s Favorite Authors: Ludwig von Mises by Future of Freedom Foundation October 2, 2018 Richard Ebeling is the BB&T Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at The Citadel. He became a libertarian while still in high school and has been involved in the libertarian movement for many decades. Who did he look up to? What books have influenced him the most? Richard and FFF president Jacob Hornberger ...
The Rise of Capitalism and the Dignity of Labor by Richard M. Ebeling September 27, 2018 The market, or capitalist, economic system has transformed the material world in wondrous ways over the last 200 years. Poverty, once the natural condition of virtually all of humanity, is being lifted from people’s shoulders, not only in the Western world but also increasingly around the globe. But the criticisms of free market liberalism continue, among them the idea ...
Economic Straight Talk: The Contributions of Ludwig von Mises by Richard M. Ebeling September 17, 2018 Economic Straight Talk unmasks the economic fallacies behind many government policies, and explains the benefits from economic freedom — greater individual liberty that increases people’s freedom of choice and widens the free market competition that makes a better world for all of us.
Macro Aggregates Hide the Real Market Processes at Work by Richard M. Ebeling September 13, 2018 For the 12 months that ended in July 2018, price inflation in the United States, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, was 2.9 percent. That is, a basket of goods that cost $100 in July 2017 increased in expense by almost $3 by July 2018. But is this sort of index really all that needs to be emphasized ...
Interest Rates Need to Tell the Truth by Richard M. Ebeling August 30, 2018 In the middle of July 2018, President Donald Trump said in an interview that he was “not happy” with the Federal Reserve nudging up interest rates and threatening economic growth in the United States. At the recent Jackson Hole, Wyoming, meeting of global central bank leaders, the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome (“Jay”) Powell, said the Fed board would continue ...
Economic Armaments and China’s Global Ambitions by Richard M. Ebeling August 23, 2018 The world continues to move in potentially dangerous directions. A leading component of this threat is the use of economic armaments by governments to gain political and market advantages in their foreign relations with other countries. Among the leading participants in the use of such economic armaments is the government of China. First, what are “economic armaments”? In the 1930s, ...
Economic Straight Talk: Free Trade Is Best, Not Trade Retaliation by Richard M. Ebeling August 3, 2018 Economic Straight Talk unmasks the economic fallacies behind many government policies, and explains the benefits from economic freedom — greater individual liberty that increases people’s freedom of choice and widens the free market competition that makes a better world for all of us.
Some Confusions of Language in Economic Thought by Richard M. Ebeling July 24, 2018 Fifty years ago, in 1968, Austrian (and Austrian school) economist Friedrich A. Hayek published a monograph called The Confusion of Language in Political Thought. Hayek argued that the words we use and the meanings we give to them greatly influence how we think about the political system and the wider social order in which we live. ...
Economic Straight Talk: Trade Wars and the Balance of Trade Fallacy by Richard M. Ebeling July 19, 2018 Economic Straight Talk unmasks the economic fallacies behind many government policies, and explains the benefits from economic freedom — greater individual liberty that increases people’s freedom of choice and widens the free market competition that makes a better world for all of us.
Tariff Walls and Trade Wars Equal Government Planning by Richard M. Ebeling May 21, 2018 Trade wars are dangerous and harmful policies for governments to pursue. They hurt consumers due to higher prices and fewer alternatives; they reduce competitive opportunities for producers by restricting markets; and they narrow the benefits that come from a market-based system of division of labor in which each participant tends to devote his or her efforts to supplying the ...
Monetary Fallacies and Inflationary Bubbles by Richard M. Ebeling May 14, 2018 Looking to the next few years ahead, is America and the world going to continue riding a wave of economic growth, improving standards of living, falling and lower unemployment, and technological changes that will continue to raise the quality and variety of life? Or will this turn out to be, at least partly, an artificial economic boom that will ...