All Posts Tagged With: "property rights"
TGIF: Intellectual "Property" Versus Real Property
Intellectual “property” (IP) is a sleeper issue. It seems uncontroversial: Someone invents or writes something and therefore owns it. What could be plainer? But IP contains the power to destroy liberty. The rest of TGIF is here.
12Jun2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedMr. Obama, Tear Down This Wall!
All of us should worry, if not panic, when we remember that the walls keeping others out also keep us in.
21May2009 | Becky Akers | 69 comments | ContinuedLand-Use Controllers Never Quit
I have more than a small suspicion that those who promote urbanization will do so no matter what it does for the climate. The answer for them is always the same: more urbanization. Don’t worry about the exact question.
21May2009 | Steven Greenhut | 0 comments | ContinuedSupreme Neglect: How to Revive Constitutional Protection for Private Property
The framers of the Constitution were acutely aware that politics—even in the highly limited democracy they envisioned—could be dangerous to private property. For that reason they added the “takings” clause to the Fifth Amendment: “Nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” Unfortunately, like so much other constitutional language intended to [...]
2Apr2009 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | ContinuedWhat We Believe
The Foundation for Economic Education, publisher of this magazine since 1956, is now in its seventh decade, and I am now in my seventh month as its president. As we expand the outreach of our programs and publications, now is a good time to remind our readers who we are and what we believe in. [...]
2Mar2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 8 comments | ContinuedDo Patents Encourage or Hinder Innovation? The Case of the Steam Engine
Today one of the most controversial issues in economic policy is that of patent law. Is a patent just an extension of property rights to the realm of ideas? Or is it an unwarranted interference by the government into the rights of individuals?
1Dec2008 | Michele Boldrin, David K. Levine, and Alessandro Nuvolari | 37 comments | ContinuedGas Prices: The Latest Excuse to Reengineer Society
As someone who commutes 16 miles each way to work in a gas-guzzling sports car along the LA-area freeways, I’ve been less-than-amused by the nearly $5 a gallon I must pay for the premium fuel that keeps my mid-life-crisis-mobile running. Yet despite the misery of high prices, I’ve taken a certain joy in watching the [...]
1Nov2008 | Steven Greenhut | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Great Escape from the Great Depression
Questions about the Great Depression may be usefully framed as pertaining to three distinct issues: the Great Contraction, the extraordinarily severe economic decline from 1929 to 1933; the Great Duration, the persistence of subpar economic performance for more than a decade; and the Great Escape, the ultimate recovery from this uniquely deep and long depression. [...]
1Oct2008 | Robert Higgs | 6 comments | ContinuedNet Neutrality or Government Brutality?
Over the past six years or so, network neutrality, or “net neutrality,” has risen from an obscure techie buzz phrase to a bona fide political issue and rallying cry for some strange political bedfellows. The current debate comprises competing views on economics, regulation, free speech, property rights, and even the supposed rights of individuals and [...]
1Jul2008 | Adam B. Summers | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Subsidy of History
A considerable number of libertarian commentators have remarked on the sheer scale of subsidies and protections to big business, on their structural importance to the existing form of corporate capitalism, and on the close intermeshing of corporate and state interests in the present state capitalist economy. We pay less attention, however, to the role of [...]
1Jun2008 | Kevin A. Carson | 19 comments | ContinuedCompromise, Principles, and Politics
“Public servants” laud compromise as a principled and sensible political course. They call it statesmanship or bipartisanship, and portray it as the path to unity, while roundly criticizing those unwilling to compromise in the desired way. This appeal often strikes a chord with the public. (Leave aside that compromise is usually sought by legislative near-majorities [...]
1May2008 | Gary M. Galles | 5 comments | ContinuedHow Land-Use Planning Benefits Big Business Over Small
It is widely recognized that central-government attempts to completely plan economies (that is, totally eliminate private property rights) are destined to fail. But even lower levels of government can have debilitating impacts on an economy by undermining private property rights through planning and regulation. Indeed, as urban-policy analyst Sam Staley explains, the implications of the [...]
1May2008 | Bruce L. Benson | 2 comments | ContinuedIs Fair Trade a Fair Deal?
Gene Callahan is the author of Economics for Real People. We’ve all seen the signs in our local cafes, boasting something like: “We proudly sell coffee brewed with Fair Trade coffee beans, acquired at a price that permits sustainable farming and pays growers a living wage.” These posters are part of a popular trend in [...]
1Mar2008 | Gene Callahan | 3 comments | ContinuedEconomics and Property Rights
Economic theory does not operate in a vacuum. Institutions, such as the property-rights structure, do not change economic theory but influence how the theory manifests itself. Similarly, the law of gravity is not repealed when a parachutist floats gently down to earth. The parachute simply determines how the law of gravity manifests itself. Failure to [...]
1Jan2008 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedMurray Rothbard’s Philosophy of Freedom
Murray Rothbard (1926–1995) based his political philosophy on a simple insight: slavery is wrong. Few, if any, would dare to challenge this obvious truth; but its implications are far reaching. It is Rothbard’s singular merit to show that rejecting slavery leads inexorably to laissez-faire capitalism, unrestricted by the slightest government interference. If we reject slavery, [...]
1Nov2007 | David Gordon | 1 comment | ContinuedBook Reviews – November 2007
- Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe
by Robert Gellately Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
- Depression, War, and Cold War
by Robert Higgs Reviewed by Burton Folsom, Jr.
- Great Philanthropic Mistakes
by Timothy Sandefur Reviewed by George C. Leef - Elements of Justice
by David Schmidtz Reviewed by Aeon J. Skoble
The Natural Right of Property
Thomas Hodgskin was a passionately consistent adherent of the philosophy of John Locke and the laissez-faire, free-trade Manchester school of Cobden and Bright.
17Aug2007 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | Continued-
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