Tyler Cowen is now pondering how we might handle the supposed shortage of flu vaccines. You might think that Dr. Cowen , as an economist who has no doubt taken, if not taught, Econ 101, would answer: charge a market price. There are never shortages for a good where the market determines the price. But that is not what he suggests. Indeed, he does
While Wal-Mart is waging its war for secession in California , it is also working to open stores in Chicago for the first time. The leftists, of course, are screaming. Remember not so long ago when the left decried the supposedly sinister “ghetto merchant” (defended so well by Walter Block) who charges high prices for poor quality and poor
The New York Times has finally figured out what most of us have known for a long time: that the ban on DDT pushed on third world countries by wealthy, healthy Westerners, has caused millions of deaths from malaria. And now that they’ve grasped the basic concept involved, I suppose we can count on the Times to call for the abolition of the EPA and
Alex Tabarrok is concerned about an asteroid hitting the earth, and he thinks that government should take on the problem. Asteroid collision prevention is, he says, one of the few “public goods” the he supports. But do we want government involved in this business at all? Justin Raimondo wrote a good piece on this, arguing that we do not, a few
Remember when The North Face went after a college student and his company called “ The South Butt “ for producing parody apparel? The student, Jimmy Winkelman, refused to cease and desist, and now they’ve gone to court. Read Winkelman’s hilarious Answer , filed earlier this month, wherein it is pointed out that “the public is well aware of the
Walter Block rightly notes that Loyola University New Orleans and Grove City College are the two best places in the U.S. to receive an Austro-libertarian undergraduate education. (Worldwide, I would add Universidad Francisco Marroquin to the list.) Walter lists some advantages he believes Loyola has over Grove City. Because I’m not familiar enough
Tyler Cowen points to an article on the U.S.’s tentative, so-called “free trade agreement” with Australia: The proposed deal caps the amount of local [Australian] content at existing levels of 55 per cent on free-to-air commercial television and 25 per cent for commercial radio, and at 10 per cent on pay TV. If the government reduces these content
Libertarians with conservative backgrounds might grumble at this news : Responding to reports that diversity at big law firms is on the decline, a group of big corporations such as American Airlines, DuPont, and General Mills has just agreed to spend $30 million to hire minority- and women-owned law firms as outside counsel. At first glance, this
Via Marginal Revolution , I see that Foreign Policy and the UK Prospect are asking readers to vote on the top five living intellectuals. Hernando de Soto and Pope Benedict XVI are rightly nominated, but Mises readers can probably think of other important names that were somehow overlooked -- which is why it’s a good thing they’re also asking you
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia differs from almost every other member of the federal government inasmuch as I’ve always at least wanted to like him. I like his temperament, and his Supreme Court opinions (or even better, the dissents) are almost always a great read because they’re well written and unafraid to ridicule his colleagues’
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.