In response to a comment by a friend who pointed out that the Bible expressly forbids usury, (as do all major world religions) I wrote a paragraph for Wikipedia presenting an argument in defense of usury.:
The primary argument given in defense of usury is that charging
interest is essential to guiding the investment process, which
cannot be [...]
Fortune: Why There’s No Escaping the Blog: Freewheeling bloggers can boost your productor destroy it. Either way, they’ve become a force business can’t afford to ignore.
I often hear arguments from skeptics of capitalism about roads being a natural monopoly, so I decided to write up a fictional account of how a private road system might function. Needless to say, this is just one potential scenario that markets might create. It is impossible to say what arrangement entrepreneurs would [...]
Kerry’s plan to create 10 million jobs—a plan that Republicans branded yesterday as unworkable and ineffectual—depends on an array of tax cuts and changes in the tax code. The centerpiece is an end to a tax break enacted in the early 1960s, known as deferral, that allows US companies to delay paying taxes on foreign [...]
I’ve often wondered how socialists can possibly explain away the actual track record of socialist regimes in countries like the USSR, Cuba, and China. Now I know: they were actually capitalist countries all along!
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It is widely assumed that capitalism means a free market economy. But it is possible to have capitalism without a [...]
This post is mostly for my reference. I responded at a local forum in answer to some questions about the nature of wages and the effects of productivity improvements. I dont have much experience debating economics (as opposed to capitalism) so suggestions are welcome
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What is a job?
A job is a contract between two [...]
Collectrix.com is now hosting Economics for Real People, a new introduction to Austrian economics in the spirit of Economics of One Lesson. Other than excerpts, I havent read it yet, but from what I understand, its a great book.
Check out the “Are You an Austrian?” quiz at the Mises Inst. I scored 94/100 (96, if I hadn’t misread a question.)
Not surprisingly, the two questions I got “wrong” are the Mises Institutes’ take on “market anarchism” and pacificism. Ex: “A market society needs no antitrust policy at all; indeed, the [...]
My response to an ugly smear job:
In Praise of Sweatshops In Response to Jonathan Steeds Editorial
Jonathan writes that sweatshops represent the worst of capitalism. In fact, sweatshops are a great example of the virtues of free trade and free markets. Consider what conditions the citizens of third world countries live in before [...]
From Mises.org: Isabel Blew Fallacy Ashore. The Fallacy of the Broken Window is one of many great examples from Henry Hazlitt’s awesome book Economics in One Lesson.
Also: check out the latest Cox and Forkum.
Economists at the BIS (The Bank for International Settlements is a central-bank for the world) have issued an inane ruling that shows just how clueless they are. They told a Fed conference that “Central banks should tackle emerging asset bubbles head-on rather than wait till they burst and then clean up afterward.”
The only point [...]
The lesson that we should draw from the results of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is that efforts to partially privatize the industry are likely to retain those elements of regulations that benefit concentrated interests in business most.
If this point is not immediately evident to you, I highly recommend you read “The Question of the [...]
I had to cut short a letter to the editor I wrote about monopolies, but if you want to read some common misconceptions about monopolies, you can do so here.
Check out these Satellite photos of North Korean prison camps.
Then read this: Death, terror in N. Korea gulag.
Here is a quote from an email I sent out on the Brazos Valley Web Design listserv regarding Microsoft’s lack of compliance with the W3C standards:
I think that it’s helpful to realize that Microsoft’s browser is in effect a de-facto standard, which by overwhelming user preference is preferred over the W3C-compliant Mozilla. If [...]
Check out this blog from initium:
In 1977, Congress passed the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, a law intended to make life easier for FTC and Antitrust Division officials in deciding which mergers to prosecute and stop. Under HSR, all mergers worth at least a certain value (approximately $50 million under the current law) must be reported to the [...]
Interesting article on Marxism at the Economist.
Here is the conclusion:Anti-globalism has been aptly described as a secular religion. So is Marxism: a creed complete with prophet, sacred texts and the promise of a heaven shrouded in mystery. Marx was not a scientist, as he claimed. He founded a faith. The economic and political systems he [...]
For my econometrics class, I am comparing the relationship between economic freedom and prosperity, and I just got my first regression results for 2001 for 155 nations. The results are very preliminary, but the evidence is clear: there is an extremely high correlation between economic freedom and prosperity, explaining over 73% of the [...]
Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Your life may change, but your dream doesn?t have to. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Your family and friends need not get in its way, because the dream is within you. No one can take it away.-- Tom Clancey
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