All Posts Tagged With: "The Seen and the Unseen"
Dry-Cleaning Economics in One Lesson
Another day, another news story about economic wackiness. Gas prices rise, the dollar sinks, and stores are limiting rice sales. What could be next? Clothes hangers.
Yes, clothes hangers. Marie Sledge, co-owner of Rome (Georgia) Cleaners, states, “Hangers last year at this time were $28 a box, where now they are $56.” News reports indicate that [...]
Unpleasant Economists
Economists are not the most pleasant people to have around when others are delightfully praising the benefits of this or that public policy. We acknowledge the existence of scarcity, the fact that to enjoy more of one thing requires having less of another, which in turn forces us into bringing up the unpleasant topic of [...]
1Sep2008 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Anatomy of Economic Advice, Part III
In the first article of this trilogy we explored some of the ambiguities and difficulties that surround the very idea of “economic advice” based on economic science. In the second article we set forth some of the basic foundations of economic science (with special reference to what the science can teach us about what we called the “benign” character of the spontaneous market process).
1Oct2006 | Israel M. Kirzner | 0 comments | ContinuedCentral Planning Comes to Main Street
Steven Greenhut (sgreenhut@ocregister.com) is senior editorial writer and columnist at the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, Calif. He is author of Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain.
A casual reader could be forgiven for skimming through a front-page Los Angeles Times article from February 12 and thinking that the story was just [...]
Destructive Destruction
If we sound like a broken record at times, it’s because sound economic thinking moves slowly through the culture. Case in point: On September 27, USA Today headlined what its reporter and editors must have thought was wonderful news: Economic growth from hurricanes could outweigh costs.” (At this point Dave Barry would say, “I’m not [...]
1Dec2004 | Sheldon Richman Editor The Fr | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Myth of Wartime Prosperity
Whenever an earthquake or a tornado causes great damage, some reporter somewhere claims that on net it will boost the local economy since the rebuilding effort will create jobs and increase business for local merchants. Similarly, whenever a war breaks out, the same reporter can be counted on to emphasize the economic stimulus it allegedly [...]
1Dec2004 | Thomas E. Woods Jr. | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Wisher and the Legislator: A Lesson from a Fairy Tale
Contributing Editor Joseph Fulda is the author of Eight Steps towards Libertarianism (Free Enterprise Press). Copyright © 2004 Joseph S. Fulda. The author dedicates this article to the memory of his beloved Aunt Ruth.
The fairy tale, or fable, is a literary device by which adults—who have learned many of life’s lessons the hard way—impart wisdom [...]
There’s Still Work to Do
Free trade is again under assault. If there is one reason for the perennial attack it is likely the one Frédéric Bastiat made so much of: the failure to look for what is “unseen.” The costs of free trade (temporary job loss, closed firms) are easily traced to the free movement of goods, services, and [...]
1Apr2004 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedTake Your Bike Helmet to the Safety Museum
Ted Roberts is a freelance writer in Huntsville, Alabama.
I like to bike down to our neighborhood park. The wind sings along with the spinning bike wheels, an easy, five-minute downhill ride. On the way down, you coast like a hockey puck on buttered ice. Of course, going home is a chore that would daunt Sisyphus. [...]
Hurricanes Are Creative Destruction? It Just Ain’t So!
My employer, Loyola College, is a Jesuit institution and, as such, encourages its students to participate in myriad community-service programs. In teaching introductory economics, I propose on the first day of class a marriage of economic education and community service. I offer to give students aluminum baseball bats with which they will walk through the [...]
1Feb2000 | Thomas J. DiLorenzo | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Topsy-Turvy Tariff Tangle
Dr. Curtiss is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Educate.
Had William Mckinley been a visitor at the 84th Congress of the United States in 1955, and listened to the arguments for and against protective tariffs, he would have felt right at home. Sixty years ago, McKinley was a leading proponent [...]
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Book Reviews
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The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
By Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter J. Tanous
