Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, the Austrian-school economist who learned from Carl Menger and taught Ludwig von Mises, speaks to the ages. We ignore his lessons to our peril. One hundred ten years ago, in a journal article titled "Control or Economic Law," he wrote: [J]ust as...
Economics
What Inequality?
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 6, 2024 | Blog, Economics, Politics
According to research conducted by Phil Gramm, the late Robert Ekelund, and John Early, documented in The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate and summarized in this video: The bottom 20 percent of households have an average annual income...
Immigration Talk
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 6, 2024 | Blog, Economics, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics
I talk about immigration with Michael Liebowitz on The Rational Egoist.
Democracy and Free Stuff
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 4, 2024 | Blog, Economics, Justice, Politics
Democracy: the matching up of people who want free stuff with politicians who promise free stuff. Problem: free stuff as they all imagine it does not exist. However, it does exist in the market, as explained by Frédéric Bastiat in Economic Harmonies, chapter 8,...
TGIF: Government Undermines Civilization
by Sheldon Richman | May 31, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The good, great, and prosperous society depends on ever-widening trust among strangers. It's not blind trust -- ways to hedge against cheaters abound -- but trust is vital. It is as vital as respect for private property and privacy. Like the system of private...
Economics in One Other Lesson
by Sheldon Richman | May 29, 2024 | Blog, Economics
"The number one principle of economics...: the secret of mass consumption is mass production.... What about distribution? Here's what we know from all of human history, all of economic history. Any large increase in production is widely shared. There's no such thing...
TGIF: The Economic Is Personal
by Sheldon Richman | May 24, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Contrary to accepted doctrine, we have no grounds for regarding so-called economic liberties as less important or less worthy of protection than so-called personal, or civil, liberties. That's because we have no essential grounds for distinguishing so-called economic...
This Is the State
by Sheldon Richman | May 22, 2024 | Blog, Economics, Justice, Politics