Free Markets

In a free market, no shortages would exist. In fact, it is very unlikely any of the earth's resources would be used up.

My own preference is, first to allow market adjustments to take place.

Guido Hülsmann offers his conclusions: the current monetary institutions (central banks, paper money, and fractional-reserve banking) cannot be justified and should be abolished; such an act should be greeted as a restoration of monetary sanity and a humane economy.

"Gold's market premium to the official price was no small matter as it questioned the very fundamentals of the planned monetary system."

"If buying stuff is the way to promote recovery, then nobody can top the DC politicians."

The present crisis is not a crisis of capitalism but a crisis of state interventionism, and it is also a consequence of a mechanicist approach to economic problems.

Ubel mocks those who speak of a "nanny state"; but the real problem is not that the state officiously looks out for our best interests at the expense of our freedom. It is that the state exploits us.

Throwing money at Flynt and Francis — like bailing out the automakers and the big banks — stifles innovation and new technologies in order to keep outmoded business models in place at the expense of taxpayers.

Finally, let us remember that there is a word that can never be discussed or even mentioned when we talk about the myriad flawed federal, state, and city transportation systems.That word is "privatization."

Presented at Penn State University on 4 February 2009. Sponsored by the PSU College Libertarians and the Department of Economics.