Economics

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:…

“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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Ari Armstrong reviews The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy’s Only Hope, by John Allison.

Ari Armstrong reviews Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins.

Richard Salsman answers a letter about Objective Economics.

Ladies and gentlemen, computer geeks and warriors, unsheathe your swords. In an extraordinary fund-raising drive, Subutai Corporation raised $526,125 from 9,023 backers (me included) to finance the creation of a video game called CLANG, a game to be built by swordsmen using a realistic sword-like interface. No doubt the Kickstarter…