Thoughts for Earth Day (updated)
Since Thomas Robert Malthus[1] apparently first broached the topic in the early 1800s, we’ve been told that earth’s capacity to support life, specifically human life, is limited. But is is true?
The arguments always center on the notion of finite resources. Are earth’s resources finite? Of course they are. The earth is a roughly 8,000 mile diameter ball which has no means to increase the resources within or immediately surrounding it.
But what does that have to do with capacity to sustain human life? Continue reading ‘Thoughts for Earth Day (updated)’
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Thought for the day
If full employment would solve our economic problems, we could just eliminate power tools and live like our ancestors. But full employment is clearly not the key. Efficiency is.
Wealth depends on how efficiently we use our resources, not on how busy we are.
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Tags: employment, jobs
A video, for those of you with decent broadband Internet service, this Peter Schiff presentation will cover principles which explain ‘bubbles’ in a thoroughly enjoyable manner. Peter Schiff understands economics from both the Austrian theoretical view (my own) and how it applies to the world of finance. Like others who understand the material about which they speak, he also works without a teleprompter. The link:
Video: Why the meltdown shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
Even if you already understand these principles, Schiff’s presentation is entertaining while possibly offering you some new perspectives. — C.
http://blog.mises.org/archives/009620.asp
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Inflation: Part 1
High prices are not inflation. Inflation results in higher prices.
Inflation is the increase in money supply without a corresponding increase in goods and services (sometimes referred to as “output”). Nowadays, credit accounts for most of this increase.
“…to hold down interest rates artificially is to encourage borrowing, and thereby to increase the money-and-credit supply. It is this increased money supply that raises prices (and costs) and constitutes the heart of inflation.” — Henry Hazlitt [1]
Since money is a medium of exchange, its value is determined by the units of goods and services it can buy. If we chose ten pounds of beans to represent the total units of goods and services, and ten dollars to represent total money supply, beans would be worth one dollar per pound.
But if we increase just the money supply — lets say “double” it for simplicity — twenty dollars now must be exchanged for the same ten pounds of beans.
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Tags: credit, economics, economy, Hazlitt, Henry Hazlitt, inflation, Ludwig von Mises, Mises, money, prices, resources, Walter Williams, wealth
Hello world…and more
Good citizenship requires a fundamental understanding of that which affects our lives and liberty around the clock: economics. Not understanding this leaves one open to propaganda which, without fail, leads to loss of freedom. In a word; slavery.
When we confuse the vagaries of fate with the sins of man and look for “leaders” to redress this unfairness, we are setting ourselves up to become dupes of those who know how to arouse emotions and promise the impossible. That lesson is written in blood across the history of the 20th century. — Thomas Sowell: Controversial Essays — Hoover Press 2002
Economics is not rocket science, since math is not essential to its understanding. Economics is simply the study of how we use our resources; all of them. Resources include time, knowledge, skill, materials, tools, labor, and, yes, even money. Our wealth is directly correlated to how efficiently we use these scarce resources.
Just looking at this list of resources should give us a clue as to the real nature of our economic explorations: our actions.
There’s a wealth of excellent information already available for the price of an Internet connection. So why do so many remain so astonishingly uninformed? Two reasons: 1) many believe the subject requires some high-level education (it doesn’t); 2) intellectual laziness. Ouch!
Getting all one’s information from news media is not the path to knowledge. Knowledge must be actively sought, not eaten a spoonful at a time, fed by those who are driven by ratings, not correct information.
For more than two years I have vowed to do this blog. It’s truly hard to find time.
Since the Internet is such a rich source of genuinely good information for those willing to ingest and test the principles, I will call your attention to appropriate in-depth resources as I write on a particular topic. Whatever you learn here will be because you made the small effort required to test the principles. Most of all, I will do my best to keep my posts concise and around 300 words which should require little of your time.
So, hello, world!
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Tags: citizenship, economics, economy, freedom, resources, wealth
Briefly: on asking questions
“Well, wait a minute. How come… ?”
In normal spoken conversations, we interject our queries when a point puzzles us. We usually do it without giving it a second thought. There’s no reason to not do the same in this format.
So, please, if something doesn’t seem understandable, just ask. I’ll be happy to explain. All I ask in return is that you leave the politics out of it. The ideology of big government is what causes problems; not political parties, proper. Once politicians begin accepting big government as a cure, or worse still, in order to be reelected, freedom becomes a mere mythological fairy tale.
Updated: Apr. 6, 2009 22:23
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