If the United States had had a free market in oil when the Arabs imposed their embargo, its oil supplies could not have been seriously jeopardized.
MARKETS
Foreign Investment: Expropriation of Foreign Capital (3 of 5)
Foreign investment is made in the expectation that it will not be expropriated. Nobody would invest anything if he knew in advance that somebody would expropriate his investments. At the time when these foreign investments were made in the nineteenth century, and at...
The Landlord Shrugged
Government officials love to loudly proclaim the great benefits that tenants will enjoy by restricting and controlling landlords. The folly of their schemes will become clear when they discover that the landlord shrugged.
The “Right to Return”
Like all forms of subsidies, the “right to return” takes from some—taxpayers—to provide benefits to others—low-income households.
Abusing Statistics and Evicting “People of Color”
The report on eviction filings looks at groups, not individuals. Consequently, it fails to identify the context for the individuals who were evicted.
Global Prices in a Free Market
In a free market, there is a tendency toward the establishment of a uniform price for the same good throughout the world.
The Impossibility of Socialism
Socialism as a means for improving the condition of man is impossible.
Foreign Investment: A Great Historical Event of the 19th Century (2 of 5)
Without capital investment, it would have been necessary for nations less developed than Great Britain to start with the methods and technology the British had started with at the beginning of the 18th century, and slowly try to imitate what the British had done.
Money Creation: Who Cares?
Commercial banks do not lend out other peoples’ money. On the contrary, banks create new money every time they make a loan.
Unleash the Swarm in Housing Production
If we unleash the swarm, if we restore freedom to property owners, we will see an immense increase in housing production. Property owners could convert single-family homes into duplexes, build a cottage or “granny flat” in the back yard, or do any number of other things to increase the supply of housing.
This Labor Day, Don’t Praise Labor Unions
This Labor Day, the real threat to election integrity isn’t at your polling place–it’s at your workplace.
Final Thoughts on the Uniformity of Profit Principle
The uniformity-of-profit principle describes a tendency, never an actually existing state of affairs.
Foreign Investment: Standard of Living and Capital Investment (1 of 5)
The amount of capital invested per unit of the population is greater in the so-called advanced nations than in the developing nations.
To Lower Rents Increase The Profits From Building Rental Housing
Housing activists think that the solution to the housing shortage is to shackle housing producers.
Inflation: Unemployment and Inflation (5 of 5)
In 1936, in his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Lord Keynes unfortunately elevated this method--the emergency measures of the period between 1929 and 1933--to a principle, to a fundamental system of policy. And he justified it by saying, in effect:...
Inflation: Labor Unions and Wages (4 of 5)
If inflation is bad and if people realize it, why has it become almost a way of life in all countries? Even some of the richest countries suffer from this disease. The United States today is certainly the richest country in the world, with the highest standard of...
Profits and the Repeal of Price Controls & Government Subsidies
Farm subsidies are a way the government achieves artificially high prices. They are an illustration of legal minimum prices—that is, prices below which the government prevents the producers from selling.
Antitrust Lawsuit Against PGA is Unfounded
Eleven professional golfers, including Phil Mickelson, have filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the Professional Golf Association (PGA).
Inflation: John Maynard Keynes vs. The Gold Standard (3 of 5)
The government may think that inflation--as a method of raising funds--is better than taxation, which is always unpopular and difficult. In many rich and great nations, legislators have often discussed, for months and months, the various forms of new taxes that were...
An Unnecessary Evil: How Canada Ended Up Insuring Bank Deposits
If Canada’s relatively “free” banking system was so stable, why did the Canadian government establish the Bank of Canada in 1935? And why did it establish a Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) some three decades later?
The Profit Motive as an Agent of Innovation and Progress, Part 2
The operation of the tendency toward a uniform rate of profit requires that high profits be made by continuously introducing productive innovations in advance of competitors.
Confusions about Capitalism
Three common accusations against capitalism are that it is exploitation, it is cronyism, and it destroys the planet.
The Lottery Life: Creating Lucky Housing Winners at the Expense of Everyone Else
End the “Lottery Life” in housing and watch market entrepreneurs do the rest.
The Profit Motive as an Agent of Innovation and Progress, Part 1
How the profit motive acts to make production steadily increase in a free market, and becomes an agent of continuous economic progress.