Competition is as wholesome in education as it is in manufacture and commerce, writes Hans Sennholz. Every school is an economic check on its competitors. However, government funding for higher education has dramatically changed the economics of this sector, vastly increasing costs, reducing service, and skewing curricula toward political ends.
The private sector is good at satisfying consumer demand, but it's not much good at guessing what's in that grab bag that we call a budget deficit, writes Roger Garrison. The uncertainties associated with large federal budget deficits warn against exclusive focus on the total spending done by government. It does matter how that spending is financed.
The latest economic data indicate that the prospects for a sustained economic recovery have been further delayed, writes Frank Shostak in a wide-ranging review of the current economic moment. The low interest rate policy of the Fed remains the major factor behind the continued deterioration.
Joseph Salerno highlights Sennholz's contributions to the rebirth of interest in Austrian monetary and business cycle theory and the continuing importance of his works today. He was one of a handful of academic economists to stand fast against the postwar tidal waves of Keynesian macroeconomics and Friedmanite monetarism that swept over American academia in the 1950's and 1960's and threatened to completely submerge sound monetary economics.
Benjamin Franklin made clear the ultimate intended result of America's experiment in liberty, when he said, "God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country."
How does the public sector decide that it is a good idea to explore space instead of spending the time, resources, and talent on other scientific explorations or, for that matter, some other area like building a road? Tibor Machan, for example, likes the idea of ocean living but few seem to agree with him.
Gregory Bresiger merely wanted to check out a video that both the library catalog and a clerk said was on the shelves. Instead, he stood face to face with what seemed to be the very embodiment of the entire public sector. Whether running libraries or global economies, the public sector isn't up to the job.
People frequently refer to government policies as paternalistic—either to justify or criticize them. But there is no analogy between a family and government.
The accusations against Wal-Mart are many, and they include: paying overseas workers too little; not paying benefits to part-time workers; refusing to sell items that don't fall within its criteria for being "family-oriented"; not giving enough back to the community; and discriminating against women. Karen De Coster and Brad Edmonds respond.
With the dollar down and gold up, both trends obviously related to growing fear of economic troubles ahead, the question again arises: why shouldn't the dollar itself be good as gold? It would be if the views of the classical-liberal tradition held sway. This tradition stands solidly behind a commodity money standard, like silver or gold, as the very definition of sound money.
