Author Archive | libertas

Insights into the Financial Crisis

In this post, we highlight a few popular level resources for gaining a deeper understanding of the financial crisis and its aftermath. The Bubble, a documentary examining the financial crisis, will be arriving shortly. Fraud: Why the Great Recession features Jesus Huerta deSoto and Philip Bagus and is already available. Learn “real history and economics”…
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olympics

Harry Reid’s Olympic-Sized Fallacy

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid thinks that the U.S. Olympic Team’s uniforms—made in China as they were—deserve to be burned. He reasons that we have an abundance of unemployed textile workers in this country—why shouldn’t we take advantage of them to manufacture the Olympics uniforms? Wouldn’t that put these Americans back to work? There are…
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hollande

Why we need financial markets

“My true adversary in this battle,” he said “has no name, no face, no party… it is the world of finance.” Thus spoke new French President Francois Hollande while campaigning last month. Despite the seeming backwardness of such sentiments, it is no secret that many people actually do feel a degree of animosity toward the…
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lc1

Introducing Liberty Classroom!

With the introduction of Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom, you now have the opportunity to learn the history and economics that you never learned in school. Since the “intellectual battle for the free society is on,” Liberty Classroom‘s “goal is to equip as many ambassadors for liberty as possible with the knowledge that they need to…
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crusoe

Money, Exchange, and Robinson Crusoe

Money can be defined as the general medium of exchange, or the most widely traded good. However, it is neither a consumer nor a producer good. Suppose Robinson Crusoe, Friday, and Jackson are all on their island. Crusoe wants a rabbit from Friday’s collection, but he knows that Friday will not accept the fedora that…
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MW

Minimum Wage Distorts Reality

A price control is a legal price established by the government that forbids the selling of a good or service above some maximum or below some minimum price. It is an example of triangular intervention—the state coerces two parties to exchange at a certain price. The direct consequence of the effective maximum price control is…
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File:Ellis island 1902.jpg

Does Immigration Cause Unemployment?

It’s not uncommon for the zero-sum fallacy to crop up in a discussion on the economics of immigration.  Many individuals assume that immigrants will necessarily “steal” jobs from domestic workers.  That’s exactly what this article about Canadian immigration concludes.  But can immigrants realistically be blamed for increased unemployment rates?  If they do cause joblessness, why…
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Time Interest

What Is Interest?

There is a large consensus among microeconomists that “messing with” prices is not good. Among these prices, there is greatest consensus that rent control distorts the efficient allocation of resources. Despite the relative consensus among economists about price controls, there is seemingly no recognition that tinkering with interest rates will similarly distort the efficient allocation…
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strawman

Unlearning Economics

The Unlearning Economics blog offers a supposed list of inconsistencies inherent in the free market. Unfortunately, the reasons are themselves a convoluted, inconsistent collection of strawmen. Below is a response to each of his twenty four points. 1. Credit expansion does, indeed, cause boom-bust cycles. Many Austrians agree that outlawing fractional reserve banking would eliminate…
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File:Paul Krugman 2 BBF 2010 Shankbone.jpg

Krugman Gets (a Little) Something Right

It’s not uncommon for presidential candidates to tout their business experience, often claiming that they know “how the economy works.” Surprisingly, in a recent post, Krugman correctly shot this idea down, noting, “The idea that what America needs now is an executive type is just foolish.” Unfortunately, Krugman does not arrive at this conclusion through…
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