There’s a new patron in the arts world, one without a name as lofty as The American Arts Council or National Council on the Arts. In fact, it’s a one-word synonym for missed connections, interminable delays, stale candy bars, filthy restrooms, and stained seats. That’s right: Amtrak has decided it’s going to become a veritable […]
Financial innovation: People like to talk a lot about it these days. But what is it? If you read the business press, it’s all about “high frequency trading” and “dark pools,” shadowy new entities few understand and even fewer know how to manipulate. But never mind the scaremongering. The world—especially the United States—stands on the […]
To kick off FEE’s Summer Seminar series, more than 60 students traveled from all over the world to St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, for “People Aren’t Pawns: Understanding the Economics of Human Behavior.” The seminar served as an introduction to the Austrian perspective of economic theory, and participating students and speakers discussed applications of […]
Video games rot your brain and teach you econ. Video games are playing an increasingly large role in pop culture. Whether you play or believe they are art, gaming will no doubt continue to be a major player in the entertainment industry. More importantly, libertarian ideas seem to be popping up everywhere in gaming. Criticism of government […]
Why Do People See Property Rights as the Source of Economic Problems? We commonly benefit from things we neither understand nor appreciate. Obviously there are advantages in benefiting from a wide range of things without having to give them much thought. But the danger is that such neglect can often cause us great harm. Good […]
(Editor’s Note: This essay was first published in 1962. Paul L. Poirot was a long-time member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education and editor of its journal, The Freeman, from 1956 to 1987.) The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is proud to partner with Young America’s Foundation (YAF) to produce “Clichés of Progressivism,” a series of […]
Economics in One Lesson (PDF) is by far Henry Hazlitt’s most famous book. Like many, I’ve read some of this other works, including Failure of the New Economics, Man versus the Welfare State, and The Foundations of Morality. But whether he intended it or not, EIOL is Hazlitt’s masterpiece. It’s there that he addresses and elaborates on Frédéric Bastiat’s broken-window fallacy, […]
About 30 years ago, I was sitting in a rural roadside diner outside Milwaukee. My host, a wealthy businessman, had chosen the spot close to one of his factories. It was an all-day breakfast type of place. I was there to pitch him for around $10,000 per year for The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS), […]
The Huffington Post calls it “the Twitter of dating.” It’s Tinder, an 18-month-old mobile app now available in two dozen languages. Millions of men and women, mostly millennials, have flocked to the Tinderverse. It’s exhilarating, enticing, and occasionally disturbing. To begin, you download the app and log in via Facebook. Tinder hijacks essential data—name, age, photos, […]
Statism can be summed up and slapped on the back of a car. Can the freedom philosophy? The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for […]
How a beautiful old hill in Britain is bleeding one man dry. With these words two centuries ago, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge immortalized a beloved mountain in Britain’s stunningly beautiful Lake District: On stern Blencathra’s perilous height The winds are tyrannous and strong; And flashing forth unsteady light From stern Blencathra’s skiey height, As […]
I think it’s good to try to see an issue from the side of one’s ideological opponent, but it’s very hard to do. Sometimes, though, I see or read something that hits me in a way that really gets through. This time it was a clever cartoon from a left-leaning blogger. In it the following […]
Editor’s Note: This week’s cliché was authored decades ago by FEE’s founder, Leonard E. Read, and originally appeared in the first edition of Clichés of Socialism. Barely a word has been changed and though a few numbers are dated, the essay’s wisdom is as timely and relevant today as it ever was.) The Foundation for Economic […]
Good economics teaches cooperation and the limits of politics, not greed. But of all the duties of beneficence, those which gratitude recommends to us approach nearest to what is called a perfect and complete obligation. What friendship, what generosity, what charity, would prompt us to do with universal approbation, is still more free, and can […]
Market competition expands cooperative arrangements among people. If you ask people whether competition or cooperation is better, almost everybody picks cooperation. It just “feels” better. However, when it comes to economic relationships, the question is not “either/or,” despite long-standing confusion. FDR’s often-echoed statement was that “cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, […]