Economics for the Citizen, Part 2 by Walter E. Williams April 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Which is the best method of resolving conflict over what’s produced, how and when it’s produced, and who’s going to get it? ...
What’s Wrong with Public Schools? by Sheldon Richman March 25, 2005 The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of Separating School & State: How to Liberate Americas Families (1994) by Sheldon Richman. Its time to admit that pubic education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybodys role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. Its ...
Some Civics Lessons for My Son by Don Boudreaux March 1, 2005 My son, Thomas Macaulay Boudreaux, is seven years old. He’s the most precious creature in the world to me. My wife, Karol, and I will never indoctrinate him, but we do and we will teach him as best we can. Here’s a list of some of the lessons that he’ll get from me as he grows into manhood. Even in ...
Economics for the Citizen, Part 1 by Walter E. Williams March 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Last fall semester, I didn’t teach for the first time in 37 years. No, I haven’t retired. It was my semester-off reward ...
Bureaucracy: A Mises Classic, Part 2 by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 Last month I discussed Ludwig von Mises’s presentation of profit management in his great little book Bureaucracy. He explains in detail how consumers “use” the price and profit-and-loss systems to direct entrepreneurs toward producing the things they want most urgently. (Of course, they don’t self-consciously use these systems; they simply buy and abstain ...
Bureaucracy: A Mises Classic, Part 1 by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 Ludwig von Mises, the great expositor of the Austrian school of economics, left an awesome, even intimidating, body of work. Human Action and Socialism are among the most important books written in economic and social theory, yet most people with little spare time will probably not try to tackle them. Mises’s shorter works ...
The Myth of the Level Playing Field by Samuel Bostaph January 1, 2005 One of the catch phrases of the day is “a level playing field.” Some businessmen are using it to refer to the competitive situation in which they would prefer to be, but allege they are not for some reason. And, not surprisingly, the reason they usually give for not having “a level playing field” is that a competitor has ...
Seeing and Not Seeing by Scott McPherson November 15, 2004 A key element in understanding reality is an accurate representation of reality. And this headline in the November 10 Washington Post — “N. Va. Boom Sparks Economic Recovery” — demonstrates how poorly is the average newspaper editor equipped to accurately describe economic affairs, which may help ...
Corporatism and Socialism in America by Anthony Gregory November 1, 2004 Principled advocacy of the free market requires an understanding of the differences between genuine free enterprise and “state capitalism.” Although the Left frequently exaggerates and overemphasizes the evils of corporate America, proponents of the free market often find themselves in the awkward position of defending the status quo of state capitalism, which is in fact a common adversary of ...
The Danger of Science by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2004 Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ludwig Lachmann, among other members of the Austrian school of economics, often lamented that the discipline of economics alienated itself from flesh-and-blood existence to the extent it imitated the natural sciences, such as physics. With that in mind, I received the news that Cambridge University economist Partha Sarathi Dasgupta, ...
West Africa and Colonialism, Part 1 by Wendy McElroy October 1, 2004 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Until recently, Western scholarship ignored West Africa. The blind spot reflects Europes historical view of Africa as a continent to be exploited, not examined. To Europe, Africa was a market for products and a source of raw goods. In short, it was an object of mercantilism the economic system ...
Examining Reagan’s Record on Free Trade by Sheldon Richman June 21, 2004 The following article originally appeared in the May 10, 1982, issue of The Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones and Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Hardly anyone was surprised when the Reagan administration imposed quotas on sugar imports last week. This is at once remarkable and understandable. It’s remarkable because Mr. Reagan wants to be known as a free-trader. Indeed, ...