The field in economics called Industrial Organization is the very foundation of antitrust activity by government. And if you thought antitrust action was little more than one business using government to smash its competitors, The Economist (May 2, 1998) is here to correct you. According to this publication, it’s true that antitrust investigators
Gasoline prices are zooming (45% over last year) and drivers are worried that this may affect their summer vacation plans, while truckers marched on Washington D.C. protesting high diesel costs. Pursuing votes, presidential candidates are scrambling to provide political solutions for the doubling of heating oil prices in New Hampshire in the last
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t read something crazy on the subject of international trade, from pundits who blame it for America’s economic and social woes, to those who think trade can only thrive in the context of treaties and war. In truth, international trade is nothing more than an extension of the idea of exchange itself: that all people
While the occupation of Iraq is the major topic of debate in the 2008 presidential race, the candidates have also taken positions on George Bush’s fiscal policies. We see Republican candidates supporting Bush’s tax “cuts” and being asked to sign a pledge, a pledge they will all, except for Ron Paul, violate, promising not to raise taxes, while
The release of the 2009 Social Security Trustees Report indicates that the current economic crisis has negatively impacted the Social Security budget. It’s now projected that by 2016 Social Security spending will exceed revenues. According to the report, the financial condition of the Social Security program “remains challenging” and “need(s) to
Rocketing gasoline prices are causing consumer unrest. Government officials blame oil speculators, corporate greed, and OPEC, anyone but themselves. However, the US government has spent decades implementing policies that drive up gasoline and oil prices. From the oil-price controls of the 1970s to the windfall-profits tax of the 1980s to George W.
In his first press conference as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke discussed rising gasoline prices, blaming higher demand from emerging economies and Mideast oil-supply disruptions as the cause of the zooming prices. Bernanke did not mention the US government’s role in the higher energy prices, [1] and he explicitly absolved the
The Free Market 14, no. 5 (May 1996) To the outside world, it appears that all economists agree: free trade can never be compromised. Inside, the picture is far more complicated. Good economists, preeminently the Austrian School, favor liberty across the board. Yet among the mainstream, economists who favor big government at home likely reject
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.