George Reisman

Dangers of Imposing Economic Equality

Some thoughts on Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

The Errors in Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century

Capital accumulation and more production, not egalitarianism and its absurd theories and programs, are the foundation of rising living standards in general and rising real wages in particular.

How Minimum Wage Laws Increase Poverty

The principle here is that we need to look to greater economic freedom, not greater government intervention, as the path to economic improvement for everyone, especially the poor.

The Minimum Wage Forces Low-Skill Workers to Compete with Higher-Skill Workers

The efforts underway by the Service Employees International Union, and its political and media allies, to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour would, if successful, cause major unemployment among low-skilled workers, who are the supposed beneficiaries of...

Unemployment: A Deadlier Disaster for the Third World

As wage rates rise, workers can more and more afford to accept lesser increases along with improved working conditions of a kind that must be at their expense.

“Tax Expenditures”: Not Taxing Is Allegedly Spending

To reduce government spending means to reduce the money the government pays out, not to reduce the money it has chosen not to take in. The first is a reduction in government spending; the second is an increase in taxes. Confusing the two is of benefit only to con men wh…

Post-Sandy: A Man-Made Disaster

It is intolerable that their people be made to suffer the effects of disastrous legislation piled on top of a natural disaster and thereby needlessly enlarging and extending the effects of the natural disaster.

Gun Control on the Government’s Guns

Any meaningful program of gun control must above all focus on strictly controlling and regulating the activities of the government.

Fairness for Capitalism Pledge: An Open Letter to Warren Buffett

You and your fellow billionaires should make this policy on the part of the colleges and universities an absolute condition of receiving donations or bequests from you for any purpose. You could think of it, perhaps, as the “Fairness for Capitalism Pledge.”

Occupy Wall Street vs Freedom of Speech

Upholding freedom of speech and rational communication requires a policy of no tolerance for the occupation of property against the will of its owners.

In Praise of the Capitalist 1% Percent

“The wealth of the 1 percent provides the standard of living of the 99 percent.”

The Irrelevance of “Worker Need” and “Employer Greed” in the Determination of Wages

In the conditions of a labor shortage, which necessarily materializes if wage rates go below the point corresponding to full employment, the payment of higher wages provides exactly the same benefit to employers.

Where Profit Comes From

This theory of profit/interest has major implications for the understanding of capital accumulation, the determination of real wages and the general standard of living, taxation, inflation/deflation, and the business cycle. It also provides the basis for the overthrow o…

Raising Taxes Is Not Reducing Government Spending

The basis of tax reform must be reduced government spending, not higher taxes.

Natural Resources and the Environment

The notion that production and economic activity are harmful to the environment rests on the abandonment of man and his life as the source of value in the world.

Boom-Bust in Microcosm

The key to avoiding “busts” is to avoid the credit expansion and “booms” that cause them.

A Pro-Free-Market Program for Economic Recovery

My pro-free-market program for economic recovery is a provisional 100-percent-paper-money-reserve system applied to checking deposits, accompanied by a demonstrable commitment to ultimately achieving a 100-percent-gold reserve system.

Maoist in the White House

Anita Dunn, is described by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia as “one of the major decision makers of the Obama campaign” and as one of Obama’s “four top advisers (along with David Axelrod, David Plouffe, and Robert Gibbs).” She currently...

The Real Right to Medical Care Versus Socialized Medicine

The health and the freedom of the American people now and in the future demand a new politics of progress: progress away from government interference and in the direction of individualism and capitalism. Let such progress begin here and now, with a fight for the right t…

The Decline of General Motors

If a company as great and as economically powerful as General Motors once was can collapse into a shadow of its former self, so too can every other company in the United States. So too can the United States itself.

Fallout from Declaring CO2 a Pollutant

A Potential News Dispatch from a World Going Mad

Green Jobs

Once we put our minds to it, nothing is easier than to think of things that would require the performance of virtually unlimited labor in order to accomplish virtually zero result.

Standing Keynesianism On Its Head

As Employment Increases in Response to a Fall in Wage Rates, the Rate of Profit Rises, Not Falls

The Fundamental Obstacles to Economic Recovery: Marxism and Keynesianism

While the influence of Marxism stands directly in the path of a fall in wage rates and prices, by blocking its way with laws and threats, Keynesianism aims to prevent any attempt to overcome these obstacles by allegedly demonstrating the futility and harm of doing so.