Mayfield's Economics Blog: Recommended Reading: Walter Williams' Column

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Recommended Reading: Walter Williams' Column

the latest column from Walter Williams

Economic Thinking

"Historical costs, sometimes called sunk costs, are irrelevant to decision-making because they are costs that have already been incurred....
The only costs relevant to decision-making are what economists call marginal or incremental cost; that's the change in costs as a result of doing something. That cost should be compared to the expected benefit..."

read the entire column

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The body of economic knowledge is an essential element in the structure of human civilization; it is the foundation upon which modern industrialism and all the moral, intellectual, technological, and therapeutical achievements of the last centuries have been built. It rests with men whether they will make the proper use of the rich treasure with which this knowledge provides them or whether they will leave it unused. But if they fail to take the best advantage of it and disregard its teachings and warnings, they will not annul economics; they will stamp out society and the human race.

Ludwig von Mises

Quotes

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

Milton Friedman

Economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics.

Ludwig von Mises

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.

Frederic Bastiat

Modern civilization is a product of the philosophy of laissez faire. It cannot be preserved under the ideology of government omnipotence.

Ludwig von Mises

No one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result.

Ludwig von Mises

Freeing the economy is the only path to sustainable prosperity.

Sheldon Richman

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

FA Hayek

Tyranny is the political corollary of socialism, as representative government is the political corollary of the market economy.

Ludwig von Mises

No, the problem is not partisan politics; the problem is bad economic policy. Really bad economic policy.

William Anderson

Trust no intellectual who tells you not to worry about Leviathan.

James Bovard

The man is an idiot, he should resign.

Jim Rogers on Ben Bernanke (1/18/08 Bloomberg)

If we can’t trust people with freedom, how can we trust them with power?

Sheldon Richman

As soon as we surrender the principle that the state should not interfere in any questions touching on the individuals mode of life, we end by regulating and restricting the latter down to the smallest details.

Ludwig von Mises

A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.

F. A. Hayek

We must fight all that we dislike in public life. We must substitute better ideas for wrong ideas.

Ludwig von Mises

If you think we are free today, you know nothing about tyranny and even less about freedom.

Tom Braun

The market economy is the social system of the division of labor under private ownership of the means of production. Everybody acts on his own behalf; but everybody's actions aim at the satisfaction of other peoples needs as well as at the satisfaction of his own. Everybody in acting serves his fellow citizens.

Ludwig von Mises

Anyone who wants to vote probably shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Voting is the first step towards zombification – trying to get something without actually working for it.

Bill Bonner

A market-based economy is extraordinarily resilient, but cannot forever bear anti-business rhetoric and overweening governmental intrusion into affairs best left to the private sector.

William Shughart

Government is not created to produce public goods, to control externalities, or to enforce social cooperation for the good of all. It is created by force for the benefit of its creators.

Randall Holcombe

Economics is not about goods and services; it is about human choice and action.

Ludwig von Mises

...neither do I subscribe to the idiotic neo-Keynesian econometric crapola that fascinates the Federal Reserve and mainstream academia, a theoretical monstrosity which has resulted in the horrific economic mess we are in, and from which there is, alas, no escape.

Richard Daughty

Economics deals with society's fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen.

Ludwig von Mises

Keynesianism is not a theory of economics. It is a confidence game, and the question is not whether they can correctly predict the future. The question is, can they gain your confidence and get you to act in such a manner that they can steal your wealth?

Howard S. Katz

Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty.

Ludwig von Mises

True, governments can reduce the rate of interest in the short run. They can issue additional paper money. They can open the way to credit expansion by the banks. They can thus create an artificial boom and the appearance of prosperity. But such a boom is bound to collapse soon or late and to bring about a depression.

Ludwig von Mises

Mr. Benanke has never been right about anything.

Jim Rogers

The essence of Keynesianism is its complete failure to conceive the role that saving and capital accumulation play in the improvement of economic conditions.

Ludwig von Mises

A man who chooses between drinking a glass of milk and a glass of a solution of potassium cyanide does not choose between two beverages; he chooses between life and death. A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

Ludwig von Mises

Economists are often asked to predict what the economy is going to do. But economic predictions require predicting what politicians are going to do-- and nothing is more unpredictable.
Thomas Sowell

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

Thomas Sowell

Quotes Two

But, unless you are willing to surrender your children and your country to galloping inflation, war and slavery, then this cause demands your support. For if human liberty is to survive in America, we must win the battle to restore honest money.

Howard Buffett

With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people.

Friedrich A. Hayek

Bernanke is a complete fool, trapped in academic wonderland, completely oblivious as to how the real world works. To top it off, Bernanke has the gall to knowingly lie about the real world effects of his blatant stupidity.

Mish Shedlock

Gold as money prevents inflationary policies and corruption. Gold is a precondition for a free society. It is the most liquid product, the best store of value, the best insurance and nobody else's liability.

Ferdinand Lips

In economic terms, a zombie is a parasite. He contributes less to the economy than he takes from it. He lives at the expense of others.

Bill Bonner

As soon as the economic freedom which the market economy grants to its members is removed, all political liberties and bills of rights become humbug.

Ludwig von Mises