Ideas on Liberty and The Freeman

A Private-Sector Solution to Poverty

November 5, 1999

Economics on Trial NOVEMBER 1999 by Mark Skousen “The able bodied poor don’t want or need charity. . . . All they need is financial capital.” -MUHAMMAD YUNUS For years free-market economists have protested the waste and abuse of foreign aid programs, International Monetary Fund loans, and World Bank projects.(1) P.T. Bauer has been in [...]

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Chicago Gun Show

October 5, 1999

Economics on Trial The Freeman OCTOBER 1999 by Mark Skousen “According to the economic approach, criminals, like everyone else, respond to incentives.” -GARY BECKER(1) The Chicago boys are at it again. This time the economists at the University of Chicago are making headlines in today’s hotly disputed debate about gun control. Milton Friedman set the [...]

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Say’s Law Is Back

August 2, 1999

Ideas on Liberty August 1999 by Mark Skousen “Keynes . . . misunderstood and misrepresented Say’s Law. . . . This is Keynes’s most enduring legacy and it is a legacy which has disfigured economic theory to this day.” —Steven Kates[1] In researching my forthcoming book, The Story of Modern Economics (to be published by [...]

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The Battle for Diamond Head: A Case of Market Failure?

April 30, 1999

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN APRIL 1999 The Battle for Diamond Head: A Case of Market Failure? by Mark Skousen “Hawaii’s great and beloved landmark … is too precious an asset to be sacrificed.” –Honolulu Advertiser editorial ( 1967) Last month I addressed the theory of entrepreneurial error in conjunction with the year 2000 computer [...]

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Y2K and Entrepreneurial Error

March 28, 1999

ECONOMICS ON TRIAL The Freeman March 1999 by Mark Skousen “No businessman in the real world is equipped with perfect foresight; all make errors.” –Murray N. Rothbard (1) Over the past year, I’ve been involved in a series of debates over the impact of the Year 2000 Problem, the potential collapse of computers–and perhaps the [...]

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A Golden Comeback, Part III

November 29, 1998

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN NOVEMBER 1998 by Mark Skousen “A free gold market … reflects and measures the extent of the lack of confidence in the domestic currency.” – LUDWIG VON MISES In the past two columns, I’ve highlighted the uses and misuses of gold. Despite occasional calls for a return to a gold [...]

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A Golden Comeback, Part II

October 29, 1998

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN OCTOBER 1998 by Mark Skousen “Gold maintains its purchasing power over long periods of time, for example, half-century intervals.” Rou JASTRAM, The Golden Constant1 In last month’s column, I focused on gold’s inherent stability as a monetary numeraire. Historically, the monetary base under gold has neither declined nor increased too [...]

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A Golden Comeback, Part I

September 29, 1998

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN SEPTEMBER 1998 by Mark Skousen “A more timeless measure is needed; gold fits the bill perfectly.” –MARK MOBIUS When speaking of the Midas metal, I’m reminded of Mark Twain’s refrain, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” After years of central-bank selling and a bear market in precious metals, [...]

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Getting Published–An “Austrian” Triumph

September 5, 1998

Economics on Trial — THE FREEMAN By Mark Skousen “[Austrian economists] feel they’ve been frozen out of mainstream economics and seldom get even a footnote in standard textbooks.” -Todd G. Buchholz 1 Austrian economist makes good! I just got published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the most widely read economics journal in the country. [...]

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Milton Friedman, Ex-Keynesian

July 31, 1998

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN July 1998 Milton Friedman, Ex-Keynesian by Mark Skousen “I had completely forgotten how thoroughly Keynesian I then was.” –MILTON FRIEDMAN 1 What?! The world’s most famous freemarket economist a former Keynesian? Yes, it’s true. One of the more remarkable revelations in Milton and Rose Friedman’s new autobiography, Two Lucky People, [...]

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