All Posts Tagged With: "entrepreneurship"
Entrepreneurs Under Attack
Every day, federal, state, and local governments stifle small businesses to privilege well-connected incumbent companies. It’s a system of protectionism for influential insiders who don’t want competition. Every locality has its share of business moguls who are cozy with politicians. Together, they use the power of government to keep competition down and prices high. The [...]
24Nov2010 | John Stossel | 10 comments | ContinuedThe Decline in Economic Freedom
In the early 1980s both the United States and the United Kingdom reduced marginal tax rates, brought inflation under control, and relaxed both regulations and trade barriers. Many other countries soon followed, and the result was a quarter-century of expansion in both economic freedom and the growth of income. These movements can be observed in [...]
24Nov2010 | James D. Gwartney | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Kid and the Benevolent Bully
After expenses, he was making 3-cents a serving and, at 30 cups a day, had netted more than $25 the first month.
1Nov2010 | Roger Koopman | 18 comments | ContinuedThe Power of Freedom
WARNING: After reading this column, many of you will want to send me emails condemning me for my apostasy or telling me why I am mistaken. I welcome your feedback as I beg your indulgence. So, here goes: I don’t believe that the welfare state, or the regulatory state, inevitably leads to widespread poverty or [...]
22Oct2010 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 30 comments | ContinuedMaking Poor Nations Rich: Entrepreneurship and the Process of Economic Development
During the 2008 presidential campaign, a critic of then-candidate Barack Obama stated in a letter to the Wall Street Journal, “If he becomes president, I hope he hires some economists who understand why Great Britain, China, Hong Kong and South Korea all prospered when they let private industry rather than government allocate their country’s resources.” [...]
22Oct2010 | Robert Batemarco | 1 comment | ContinuedWeak Ties, Entrepreneurship, and the Great Society
Precisely because economic development depends so heavily on weak ties, it’s important to appreciate the environment in which they can emerge.
12Oct2010 | Sandy Ikeda | 7 comments | ContinuedConsumer Spending Drives the Economy?
Consumer spending makes up more than 70 percent of the economy, and it usually drives growth during economic recoveries.” —“Consumers Give Boost to Economy,” New York Times, May 1 Every quarter, when the government releases its latest GDP figures, we hear the familiar refrain: “What the consumer does is vital for economic growth.” “If the [...]
22Sep2010 | Mark Skousen | 27 comments | ContinuedBusinessmen on Business Values
A Cato Institute report issued last October estimates corporate welfare at $87 billion in 2001. That’s 30 percent bigger than Cato’s previous 1997 corporate welfare estimate of $65 billion. Welfare for business? Business in bed with the state? What goes on? (See Stephen Slivinski, “The Corporate Welfare Budget: Bigger Than Ever,” Cato Policy Analysis No. [...]
30Jun2010 | William H. Peterson | 0 comments | ContinuedGive Up on “Giving Back”
I usually cringe when I hear someone who got rich from business say he feels an obligation to “give back to society.”
8Jun2010 | Sandy Ikeda | 8 comments | ContinuedDo We Need “Progressive” Newspapers?
I recently read Alex S. Jones’s Losing the News, which says if that American newspapers go out of business, Americans will lose the “iron core of news” that permits us to be a “self-governing people.” If a few more of these outfits go under, he says, we’re doomed! Are we?
3Mar2010 | William L. Anderson | 5 comments | ContinuedTGIF: Obama's Health-Insurance Cartel
President Obama and other advocates of nationalized health insurance have tried a variety of sales pitches, which indicates their difficulty in getting traction with the public. The latest is”competition and choice.” Who could be against those things? Barack Obama for one. The rest of TGIF is here.
21Aug2009 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedHuman Action, 1949: A Dramatic Episode in Intellectual History
A great book, it has been remarked, is like a great castle. It can be viewed from many different angles, each offering a unique perspective. Viewing Ludwig von Mises’s monumental work from the vantage of 2009 permits one to see with great clarity one fascinating aspect of the book–the sheer drama of its emergence at [...]
19Aug2009 | Israel M. Kirzner | 5 comments | ContinuedHuman Action: The Treatise in Economics
“Next week we will discuss the master’s work.” So stated Dr. Hans Sennholz to close his graduate seminar during my junior year at Grove City College. I had owned a copy of Human Action since my freshman year, but the book was too daunting for me to really study it. I preferred to read Henry [...]
19Aug2009 | Peter J. Boettke | 1 comment | ContinuedTGIF: Bad Regulation Drives Out Good
In 1969 economist Harold Demsetz identified an important flaw in much public policy analysis, the “Nirvana Fallacy.” We would do well to keep it in mind as we think about solutions to the current economic problems. The rest of TGIF is here.
10Apr2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedBad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
Most people seize on the failure to practice what one preaches as proof of the error of the message preached. This is the logical fallacy known as tu quoque. It is far more often the case, however, that the message is virtuous but virtue is not what the hypocritical preacher truly seeks. Ha-Joon Chang, author [...]
2Mar2009 | Robert Batemarco | 1 comment | ContinuedPoker and the Free Market
Good poker players are like entrepreneurs: You need greater skill than average to anticipate the future. As Mises so cogently puts it in Human Action, “What distinguishes the successful entrepreneur and promoter from other people is precisely the fact that he does not let himself be guided by what was and is, but arranges his affairs on the ground of his opinion about the future. He sees the past and the present as other people do; but he judges the future in a different way.”
20Jan2009 | Robert Stewart | 2 comments | ContinuedHubris in the First Degree
“I will commit two billion dollars each year on clean-coal research and development. We will build the demonstration plants, refine the techniques and equipment, and make clean coal a reality.” That’s what John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, said back on June 18 in Springfield, Missouri. My first reaction was this: “That’s mighty generous of [...]
1Oct2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued-
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