Economics
Economics
To Curse Machines is to Curse the Mind
Ari Armstrong February 4, 2013
“A curse on machines! Every year their increasing power condemns to pauperism millions of workers, taking their jobs away from them, and with their jobs their wages, and with their wages their bread! A curse on machines!” That is the cry rising from ignorant prejudice, and whose echo resounds in…
Economics
How Capitalism Saved the Bees
Ari Armstrong December 20, 2012
A report issued earlier this year from the Property and Environment Research Center shows how capitalism helped save honey bees (and thus related markets) from “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD), a problem sometimes hysterically reported by the media. The paper’s authors, agricultural economists Randal R. Rucker and Walter N. Thurman, conclude:…
Economics, Politics & Rights
The Flawed (Yet Revealing) Legatum Prosperity Index, and the Path to Prosperity
Ari Armstrong December 19, 2012
“In an unprecedented fall, the US drops out of the top ten of the 2012 Legatum Prosperity Index,” reports the London’s Legatum Institute. We’re now twelfth in this ranking. But what does that mean? There’s good reason to be skeptical of the index’s rankings. Much of the data derives from…
Economics
Duolingo: Making Money By Offering Free Language Lessons
Ross England December 9, 2012
With the new web startup Duolingo, students of foreign language now have an ingenious and free alternative to purchasing formal classes or language-learning software. Users can create an account with Duolingo (or sign on through Facebook or Twitter) and immediately start web software-based language lessons in Spanish, German, French, or…
Economics
MedCottage: An “American Solution” for Eldercare
Ross England December 3, 2012
Ken Dupin is providing an innovative alternative for the millions of Americans who care for their aging parents. His product, the MedCottage, is a pre-fabricated, modular, and portable “three-room apartment equipped like a hospital room. There are safety rails, lighted floorboards, and a wall with a first-aid kit and defibrillator…
Economics
So 7.8 Percent Unemployment is Good News?
Ari Armstrong October 8, 2012
In a striking indication that an economy hovering barely above recession is becoming the “new normal,” the president and much of the media heralded the September unemployment figure of 7.8 percent as great news. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, “the real news . . . is…
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Economics
Open Letter to Paul Krugman re Intellectual Impotence, Inflation, and Ayn Rand
Craig Biddle August 24, 2012
Dear Mr. Krugman, In “Galt, Gold and God,” you assert of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged that “the book is a perennial favorite among adolescent boys. Most boys eventually outgrow it. Some, however, remain devotees for life. And [Paul] Ryan is one of those devotees. . . . Mr. Ryan is…
Economics, Reviews
Review: The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure, by John Allison
Ari Armstrong August 20, 2012
Ari Armstrong reviews The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy’s Only Hope, by John Allison.
Economics, Reviews
Review: Free Market Revolution
Ari Armstrong August 20, 2012
Ari Armstrong reviews Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins.
Economics
Letters and Replies
Richard M. Salsman August 20, 2012
Richard Salsman answers a letter about Objective Economics.