Angelo Mike Archive
Steven Pearlstein’s Unreal Economics
Steven Pearlstein’s “From Old World to Real World” is a remarkable piece on the economics of international trade and protection. It manages to somewhat accurately portray problems with obstacles put in the place of free trade in describing Intel’s decision to build a $2.5 billion chip fabrication plant in China when such plants in China are heavily subsidized by the state, label free trade as a positive thing, and then essentially say that the problem with free trade is such episodes as this Intel investment, and that more protectionism is needed to fix free trade.
Pearlstein’s analysis is deeply flawed because he criticizes free trade with either vague and undefined or shifting definitions of free trade and the benefits of it, then advocates protectionism while denying the protectionist label.
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Penn and Teller Send Up Wal-Mart Hatred
Once again, Penn and Teller hilariously explode the myths and superstitions about capitalism with a healthy contempt and a plethora of curse words, so use discretion.
Here's Wal-Mart Hatred is Barbara Streisand.
By the way, one of the anti-Wal-Mart subjects of the show is Joe Moore, who's on Chicago's city council. He claims that Wal-Mart pays slave wages, destroys families, and is responsible for all kinds of evils.
I commented on this kind of thinking last week in an article in which I discussed the fact that it's the state itself that pays slave wages for jury slavery, and that this is an alleged civic duty.
Also amusing in the video is one man claiming that Wal-Mart isn't productive, but it's eliminative and displaces competition. Did he intend "Wal-Mart" to be a code word for "government"? And does Wal-Mart, being predatory for lowering prices and offering a wide variety of goods, make unilaterally imposed high taxes peaceful and productive? Because the government tools featured think so.
Success without the State
A very nice pro-market commentary by Richard W. Rahn came out in today's Washington Times praising The Science of Success, a book covering "Charles Koch, who, along with his brother, David, built this massive and very successful enterprise -- which includes petroleum refining, chemicals, fibers and carpets, fertilizers, building materials, paper products and financial services, etc."
More from the commentary:
What is the world's largest private company and how did it get that way? The company is Koch Industries...The book [The Science of Success] describes how Mr. Koch, through trial and error, and applying the insights of great economists, such as Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek and others, was able to develop what he calls "market-based management" (MBM).
As an economist and former graduate business school professor and businessman, I am familiar with many of the thinkers Mr. Koch refers to in developing his own success model. But as I thought more about his management model, I realized he is also proving, once again, why well-managed companies will always do a more cost-effective and customer-satisfying job than government.
A few inconsistencies aside about alleged government efficiency, this is a heartening part of a trend in the mainstream news to show how markets work and governments fail, as well as giving more recognition to the great Austrians. It's truly nice to see the productive members of society, and not the parasites that burden themselves upon it, get attention.
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