All Posts Tagged With: "Bastiat"
Japan’s Supposed Silver Lining
The Japanese people are going through sheer horror. To spin this tragedy into economic triumph is not just bad economics; it’s an obscenity.
23Mar2011 | William L. Anderson | 16 comments | ContinuedThe Importance of Subjectivism in Economics
For an exchange to take place, the two parties must assess the items traded differently, with each party valuing what he is to receive more than what he is to give up.
7Jan2011 | Sheldon Richman | 17 comments | ContinuedThe Bastiat Revival Blog
Check out The Bastiat Revival Blog here. It’s more than just a blog. It will host workshops and other events aimed at presenting Frederic Bastiat’s philosophy systematically. Bastiat was one of the best expositors of the freedom philosophy and has always been in FEE’s hall of heroes. In fact, the blog has a page of [...]
21Dec2010 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedDestruction Is Good for the Economy?
My old friend Tom Palmer and the Atlas Foundation have produced and posted the first in a series of brief videos illustrating important free-market principles. The first is on Bastiat’s “Broken Window Fallacy.”
31Mar2010 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedMonsieur Bastiat, Call Your Office
In September I lectured at the Liberty Weekend Dedicated to the Life and Legacy of Frédéric Bastiat, sponsored by the Polish-American Foundation for Economic Research and Education (PAFERE) in Warsaw. Preparing for my visit, I reread Bastiat’s great book The Law. Oh do we need Bastiat today! The Law is the kind of book you [...]
18Nov2009 | Sheldon Richman | 5 comments | ContinuedCash for Clunkers Was a Loser
President Obama’s Cash for Clunkers program, inspired by the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act, ended August 25, 2009. As I drove through a major shopping area that day, I passed a large and highly successful Toyota dealer. Just past the sparkling showroom and sparsely populated lot of new cars, “clunkers” sat in a [...]
18Nov2009 | Bruce Yandle | 5 comments | ContinuedWhat Is Seen and What Is Unseen: Government “Job Creation”
How can Obama and his economic advisers know what kinds of jobs will position our economy to “lead the world” in the long term? Indeed, how can we expect anyone to know what kinds of jobs will be able to offer such a guarantee of wealth and security, considering the enormous complexity of our world?
10Jun2009 | Larissa Price | 32 comments | ContinuedJudges, Empathy, and Bastiat
In case someone hasn’t seen John Hasnas’s important Wall Street Journal op-ed on why an “empathetic” judge or justice is likely to commit Bastiat’s fallacy of overlooking the “what is not seen,” it is here. “The ‘Unseen’ Deserve Empathy, Too” is well worth reading!
1Jun2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedRemember the Broken Window!
The debate over what kind of government spending will “stimulate” or not “stimulate” the economy is beside the point. As Bastiat taught us, and Henry Hazlitt reminded us, you have to consider what is “not seen”–what will not happen if the government borrows and spends scarce resources. That is all that really matters in this [...]
7Feb2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedTaxation as Vandalism
Imagine a small town with only a few small businesses. The best, most prosperous business is the general store, which sells citizens many of their daily necessities. Just across the street is a shop that sells and installs windows. Unlike the general store, the window shop is not doing well at all. The town is [...]
20Jan2009 | Lachlan Markay | 21 comments | ContinuedThe Peaceful Transfer of What?
Americans this week are celebrating the peaceful transfer of power. How ironic in light of what government is today. We celebrate the peaceful transfer of the power to engage in in what Bastiat called legal plunder (pdf), a power rooted in violence.
19Jan2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedLincoln Didnt Say It
Next to Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln is probably the most quoted and quotable—President we ever had. And as is the case with all famous persons, Lincoln is sometimes credited with words he didn’t utter. Probably the most famous example is this: 1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. 2. [...]
1May1955 | Dean Russell | 0 comments | Continued-
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