Economic theory does not operate in a vacuum. Institutions, such as the property rights structure, determine how the theory manifests itself. Similarly, the law of gravity isn’t repealed when a parachutist floats gently down to earth. The parachute simply...
Economics
Nonsense Ideas About Economics
There are some ideas and feelings that sound plausible but given just a wee bit of thought can be shown to border on lunacy. Let’s examine a few. Some U.S. companies have been accused of exploiting Third World workers with poor working conditions and low wages....
Minimum Wage Legislation
Repeal minimum-wage legislation, pro-union legislation, and licensing legislation. That is what will help to eliminate poverty.
Saving Versus Hoarding
The increase in the savings of the economic system as a whole must take the form of an increase in its capital assets, such as business plant, equipment, and inventories.
The Economically Illiterate in Hollywood
As more multinational corporations move into a poorer country, the people there not only get additional economic opportunities, they acquire skills and job experience that raise their productivity and earnings potential, even if that outrages the economically illiterate…
Wage Rates and Purchasing Power
Environmentalism thus stands a very strong chance of ultimately reverting to the more traditional socialism of massive government construction and engineering projects.
Incitement to Class War
The principal obstacle in the way of saving and capital accumulation and thus the rise in real wages is government welfare-state spending.
Government Budget Deficits Reduce Wages and Raise Profits
Growing budget deficits are part of the explanation of profits rising relative to wages.
Economics and Statistics
An interesting question in economics is the proper role of statistics. Ludwig von Mises is my favourite economist, yet he held that statistics have no valid role in formulating or validating economic theory. It’s interesting to explore his reasons. First, Mises...
“Price-Gouging,” Opportunity Costs, and the Economics of Prices
Here’s what one reader wrote: “Williams, I can understand how the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and Middle East political uncertainty can jack up gasoline prices. But it’s price-gouging for the oil companies to raise the price of all the gasoline...
The Economics of Caring vs. Uncaring
George Orwell admonished, “Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.” That’s what I want to do — talk about the obvious, starting with the question: What human motivation leads to the most wonderful things...
Oily Politicians II: Politicians Play on Consumer Ignorance of Economics
One of the beauties of an economy coordinated by price movements is that nobody has to understand it in order for it to work. If vast new iron ore deposits are discovered tomorrow in Timbuktu, 99 percent of the people on this planet may be wholly unaware of it —...
Production Versus Consumption
There are two fundamental views of economic life which give rise to two systems of economic thought.
Economic Lunacy: The Beneficial Aspects of Hurricane Destruction
The mythical economic claims of beneficial aspects of hurricane destruction.
The Freedom To Move as an International Problem
There are extensive tracts of land, comparable to those in Europe, which are sparsely settled. The United States of America and the British dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and so on, are less heavily populated, in comparison with their...
Dishwasher Economics
With TV cameras in tow, Channel 11 stopped at our restaurant last Tuesday to ask the afternoon kitchen crew how it felt about the new $52 occupation tax. Not surprisingly, no one liked it. Also not surprisingly, not much of the half-hour of filming ended up on TV,...
Bedroom Economics in Germany
Now that unemployment in Germany has hit 11.4 percent, it was perhaps inevitable that some politicians there would come up with various quick-fix “solutions” to the huge drain of unemployment compensation on the government’s budget. A young waitress...
Economics for the Citizen (Part 10)
A discussion of a few popular sentiments that have high emotional worth but make little economic sense.
Economics for the Citizen (Part 9)
What’s called the market is simply a collection of millions upon millions of independent decision makers not only in America but around the world.
Economics for the Citizen (Part 8)
Economic theory is broadly applicable. However, a society’s property-rights structure influences how the theory will manifest itself.
Economics for the Citizen (Part 7)
The fact that sellers charge people different prices for what often appear to be similar products is related to a concept known as elasticity of demand,
Economics for the Citizen (Part 6)
Relative price is one price in terms of another price.
Economics for the Citizen (Part 5)
The cost of having or doing something is what had to be given up.
Economics for the Citizen (Part 4)
Specialization is said to occur when people produce more of a commodity than they consume or plan to consume.
Economics for the Citizen (Part 3)
There are four classes of behavior that can be called economic behavior. They are: production, consumption, exchange and specialization.
Economics for the Citizen (Part 2)
Economic theory can’t answer normative questions.
Economics for the Citizen (Part 1)
The first lesson in economic theory is that we live in a world of scarcity.
Good and Bad Economics
Here are a couple of newspaper headlines following Florida’s bout with hurricane disasters: “Storms create lucrative times,” St. Petersburg Times (Sept. 30, 2004), and “Economic growth from hurricanes could outweigh costs,” USA Today...
The Economics of the Military Draft
Last year, Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) introduced bills calling for reinstatement of the military draft. A far more descriptive term for the military draft is government confiscation of labor services, but keeping with the spirit of...
Education and Capitalism: How Overcoming Our Fear of Markets and Economics Can Improve America’s Schools
Although government schools maintain a monopoly on public funds, they’ve failed miserably by almost every conceivable benchmark.
In Defense of Supply-Side Economics
In a recent column, I defended supply-side economics from an attack by Princeton economist Paul Krugman in the New York Times Magazine. One of the rare civil criticisms I got came from my friends at TAPPED, the web log of the liberal American Prospect magazine. Their...
Politics & Ideas: The Battle Over Ideas (Lecture 6, Part 4 of 4)
In contrast, however, the interventionist ideas, the socialist ideas, the inflationist ideas of our time, have been concocted and formalized by writers and professors. And they are taught at colleges and universities. You may say: “Today’s situation is...
Subscribe for free.
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.