Ayn Rand’s contradictory life?

Via Muse Free, I came across this article in the NY Times by Adam Kirsch. From the article
When Bennett Cerf, a head of Random House, begged her to cut Galt’s speech, Rand replied with what Heller calls “a comment that became publishing legend”: “Would you cut the Bible?” …
In fact, any editor certainly would cut the [...]

Externalities

My last post on Social Planning did not address the issue of externalities as well as I would have liked so I decided to write some more on it.
For the first part of the arguement, consider the example of a lighthouse from George Reisman’s book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (pdf version available here. Note: I have not [...]

Economics in one unlearnt lesson

I recently found the time to read Henry Hazlitt’s book “Economics in One Lesson” (available online here). The book conclusively demonstrates that any attempts to coerce the free market can only result in the short term gains of special interest groups at the expense of everyone else and that even these short term gains are more than [...]

A new blog on business, economics and free enterprise

Simply Capitalism (feed) is a new blog on business, economics and free enterprise.
Here is an excerpt from their first post
Today, we live in a mixed economy made up of both semi-free markets and government controls. We live in a culture that views business and businessmen as a necessary evil. While the ability of capitalism to bring general [...]

Political systems and success

In a comment on my previous post “History is not the case against collectivism”, Mark asked
I also just realized, that a system/ideal can be judged from a moral standpoint separately from a history: then is it possible for an ideology that is inferior from a moral standpoint to actually succeed in history?
The question is important enough [...]

Worldviews and the world

American Chronicle has an interview with Jason Miller. In answer to the question “What is that (sic) you consider your purpose on Earth to be?” he says:
It’s multi-faceted and complex, but if I distill it to its essence and put it succinctly, my primary purpose on Earth is to strive for two causes: animal liberation and [...]

The financial crisis and pragmatism

Following the recent financial crisis, there have been three kinds of reactions in general
The socialists are on a rampage denouncing capitalism, free enterprise, greed and the profit motive. It is difficult to miss a note of glee in their screams. It is almost as if the financial crisis and the alleged role of capitalism in causing [...]

Book Review: The Future of Freedom

Summary
Fareed Zakaria’s book “The Future of Freedom – Illiberal Democracy at Home & Abroad” is a critique of democracy. Zakaria notes that democracy is not the same thing as constitutional liberty. He notes that democracy is a process of selecting governments whereas constitutional liberalism is about selecting government’s goals and refers to the Western tradition [...]

Sustainability of Capitalism – Applied Philosophy – 4

In view of the fact that the United States political/economic system has turned into a mostly illiberal and highly regulated democracy, the question “Is capitalism inherently unsustainable?” deserves attention.
Politically, capitalism is a form of social organization based on the recognition of individual rights. Economically, it is a system where owners of capital exercise their property rights to trade [...]

The end of Capitalism?

In the wake of the collapse of financial markets, a number of people are asking “Is this the end of capitalism?” But what is capitalism? Are the current political/economic systems really capitalist? Here is a dictionary definition of capitalism:
an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and [...]