Archive for Nicholas Snow

The Need for Critical Thinking

Today’s document is an October 6, 1960 article from economist Ludwig von Mises. The article, from the Tuller Foundation, discusses the one-sided nature of the social sciences at the university level. At the time Mises wrote this article the zeitgeist favored government intervention and planning. As Mises put it, “[O]nly totalitarian government planning that reduces [...]

22May2012 | | 2 comments | Continued

Deficits: The Latest Fashion in Paris and Athens

With the recent elections in France and Greece, austerity has seemingly been rejected. Of late, many European countries have been pushing austerity measures, but now French and Greek voters appear to prefer increased government spending, more government jobs, and more inflation. This is a common path for governments thanks to the legacy of John Maynard Keynes: [...]

9May2012 | | 0 comments | Continued

But What About the Mail?

Click to enlarge. What is so special about the mail? Must government be the sole provider? Would a postal system really be so terrible in the hands of a competitive system? We and most other countries have a government monopoly, so maybe it must be that way. Libertarians are often called out for believing the [...]

26Mar2012 | | 2 comments | Continued

Paul Samuelson’s Hazlittian Origins

Click to enlarge. Henry Hazlitt’s influence is easily seen in Austrian and other free-market circles. Reminiscent of the saying “It usually begins with Ayn Rand,” Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is usually one of the first economics books free-market economists pick up and truly absorb. But Hazlitt’s influence is even greater than this. His newspaper [...]

15Mar2012 | | 2 comments | Continued

We Want to do Nothing You Say?

Recently New York University economist and FEE summer seminar faculty, Claudia Williamson, gave a talk to the George Mason University Economics Society, cosponsored with the Future Freedom Foundation, on “The Trouble with Aid.” Williamson’s answer was simple, “We give it.” Of course she went on to give a lengthy and empirically supported explanation for why [...]

1Mar2012 | | 0 comments | Continued

Did Henry Hazlitt Have a Crystal Ball?

When the recent global financial crisis hit, few people, even amongst economists, saw it coming — except among Austrian economists, many of whom for years warned of the impending burst of the housing bubble. This didn’t happen only in recent years. Henry Hazlitt saw inflation affecting the housing market as far back as at least [...]

22Feb2012 | | 2 comments | Continued

Yesterday’s and Today’s Attacks on Government Censorship

Recently many popular websites went black to fight the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills. Fighting censorship, however, is nothing new. Today’s document is a short story in Newsweek from August 5, 1948, that tells of the role Newsweek book editor Karl Schriftgiesser played in H. L. Mencken’s 1926 arrest for selling a banned issue of [...]

8Feb2012 | | 2 comments | Continued

The Naughty Mr. Hazlitt

In digging through the archives at the Foundation for Economic Education, one comes across a variety of correspondences, from the friendly to the boring and from the hostile to the downright amusing. Today’s document is a correspondence between Henry Hazlitt and a Major L.L.B. Angas. Hazlitt and Angas disagreed about the merit and viability of [...]

6Feb2012 | | 3 comments | Continued

From the FEE Archives: Leonard Read’s Unpublished Essay on Golf and Curling

In 1955, two years before his writing famous “I, Pencil,” Leonard E. Read wrote an essay on golf and curling that illustrates the importance of keeping exchange at the forefront of economic thought. FEE’s founder was an avid golfer and curler. His point in the essay, however, is not solely about sports but also about [...]

8Mar2011 | | 1 comment | Continued

From the FEE Archives: Friedman on Inflation

Milton Friedman’s 1958 Mont Pelerin Society essay on inflation is the subject of a new post “From the Archives.” Here’s a teaser: Friedman believed the source of inflationary pressure mainly stemmed from calls for governmental responsibility and action to correct deviations from full employment. Keynesian policy subscriptions clearly had become ingrained in the public and [...]

28Feb2011 | | 1 comment | Continued

Whose Freedom?

From the Archives: This document is an old advertisement for subscriptions to FEE’s magazine, The Freeman. The Freeman has been a staple in FEE’s history since the foundation took control over it in 1956, merging it with its own Ideas on Liberty. The basic selling point of this advertisement is that freedom is everyone’s business. [...]

28Jan2011 | | 0 comments | Continued

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