Voice For Liberty

Category: Economics

  • Sweatshops best alternative for workers in many countries

    While sweatshops are not the place most Americans would choose to work, they are often the best alternative available to workers in some countries. Pay is low compared to U.S. standards because worker productivity is low, and the process of economic development will lead to increases in productivity and pay. But most policies promoted to…

  • The new road to serfdom and the continuing relevance of Austrian economics

    Here’s a video lecture recently given by Richard M. Ebeling titled The new road to serfdom and the continuing relevance of Austrian economics.

  • ‘In Praise of Sweatshops’ lecture

    The third in the series of three Lectures on Liberty will be held on Thursday April 8 at the historic Granada Theater in downtown Emporia. The speaker will be Benjamin Powell, professor of economics from Suffolk University in Boston, will be speaking on the topic “In Praise of Sweatshops.” The lecture is free and open…

  • What kind of man was Ludwig von Mises?

    What kind of man was Ludwig von Mises? As this unique film shows, Mises (1881-1973) was a man who never stopped fighting for freedom: not when the Nazis burned his books, not when the Left blackballed him at universities, not when it seemed as if statism had won. With courage and genius, he fought big…

  • The stimulus evidence one year on

    Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported a piece that analyzes whether the Obama stimulus plan, after one year’s time, can be judged a success. (See The Stimulus Evidence One Year On) Robert J. Barro, who is professor of economics at Harvard University and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, writes that the…

  • Importance of economic freedom explained in Wichita

    Yesterday Robert Lawson appeared in Wichita to deliver a lecture titled “Economic Freedom and the Wealth and Health of Nations.” The lecture explained how Lawson and his colleagues calculate the annual “Economic Freedom of the World” index, which ranks most of the countries of the world in how the “policies and institutions of countries are…

  • Hayek vs. Keynes: the video

    There’s a video concerning some obscure but vitally important ideas in economics that’s getting a lot of play on YouTube. Titled “Fear the Boom and Bust” a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem, the video tells the story about two competing theories of how the world works — the theories of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich…

  • ‘Economic Freedom and the Wealth and Health of Nations’ lecture to be in Wichita

    Do you know where the United States ranks on the global index of economic freedom? (Hint: It wouldn’t get a medal.) The answer is in the latest edition of the Economic Freedom of the World report. Dr. Robert Lawson of Auburn University is co-author of this popular and widely cited report. He will be the…

  • Kansas economy debated in Wichita

    Last Thursday at a meeting of the City Clerks and Municipal Finance Officers Association of Kansas, the effectiveness of the federal economic stimulus and the Kansas economy were discussed. Americans For Prosperity National Director of State Operations Alan Cobb and Kansas Secretery of Revenue Joan Wagnon were the participants, with Dale Goter, Wichita Governmental Relations…

  • Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve

    Events over the last year have placed our nation’s monetary system in focus. Or, at least it should be in sharp focus, as U.S. monetary policy and the Federal Reserve System bear much responsibility for the financial crisis and the accompanying recession. Few politicians, Ron Paul being one, are looking in the right places for…

  • Hazlitt’s ‘Economics in One Lesson’ explains today’s economics

    Economics In One Lesson, first published in 1946 and recently reissued by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, explains common fallacies (false or mistaken ideas) that are particularly common in the field of economics and public policy.

  • Cash for clunkers clunked

    Did the “Cash for Clunkers” program work as advertised? It all depends on the meaning of the word “work,” I suppose. If the definition of success means moving more cars off of dealer lots than what probably would have happened anyway, that’s good. But when looking at the marginal activity — and I believe this…