Fall of the Berlin Wall: November 9, 1989

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E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern

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NASA FAQ 2012

Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
Here is some content from a funny blog post at Marginal Revolution.
NASA has dedicated a portion of there website to answering questions about doomsday 2012.  Here is a sample:
Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?
A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the [...]

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Hayek on Socialism

Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center intern
My favorite quote: “Profit is the signal which tells us what we must do in order to serve people whom we do not know.”

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On the Origins of Money

Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian School of economics wrote a very important article in 1892 that explained the origins of money for the first time.  Many believed money was a grand scheme planned out and created by the powerful rulers of empires. 
Menger’s article dispelled this myth by explaining that money was not [...]

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Pitfalls of Protectionism

Here is a letter I recently sent to the Midland Daily News:
In his recent letter, Bill Burk sings praises to buying local (Unions commit to local, November 4). He argues that buying local saves jobs in the community, and is therefore superior to purchasing goods made outside the community.
Although I agree that buying local saves [...]

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Constitutional Monarchy: A New Political Order for the 17th Century

Amid the smoke of the Scottish Bishops’ Wars, the Long Parliament was formed on the 3rd of November, 1641.  This Parliament would plunge England into civil war, and eventually remodel Great Britain into a constitutional monarchy. A modern hypothetical example would be if the US Congress abruptly demanded that all officers in all branches of [...]

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How to sell a dollar for more than a dollar

Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
Originally found this video at Marginal Revolution

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Health Care

Letter to the Editor by Don Boudreaux
Health Care and the Value of Life
17 June 2009
News Editor, WWL Radio
New Orleans, LA
Dear Sir or Madam:
A listener called in today during the one o’clock hour to assert that “health care isn’t like other services” – and so it can’t be supplied reliably on the market because people are [...]

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QED: Normal People Like Taxes

Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
Eric Baerren makes an interesting point in this blog post over at MichiganLiberal.
“Normal people would establish as their chief priority to make sure that schools are good and that people can access health care and that the garbage trucks operate according to a reliable schedule. Again, that’s normal people. Abnormal people [...]

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An Undeniable Influence

October 31, 1517: Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theses on the doors of the castle church in Wittenberg for discussion and debate. Luther’s hammer did not just merely question church practice; it tolled the beginning of our modern world.  Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern

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Did You Know?

Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern

Here is an interesting video portraying the rapid development of technology and its direct impact on the world around us.
Check it out!

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Spoils Exchange

Here is a letter I recently sent to the Midland Daily News:
A recent editorial by the Midland Daily News contained the following statement: “[Midland] is also due for a federal grant, stimulus money, to help offset some of the costs of smaller-scale green efforts. It’s all taxpayer dollars, but not all Midland taxpayer dollars. That’s [...]

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Two Cheers for Capitalism?

Kurt Bouwhuis, Mackinac Center Intern
I attended the Midwest Students for Liberty conference this weekend where I listened to some great lectures.  The last speaker of the conference was Peter Leeson who gave a lecture titled “Two Cheers for Capitalism?”  The following is a couple take aways from his lecture, which is also in a working [...]

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Zama, Elephants, and Rome

October 19, 202 BC:  Roman General Scipio hears the noise of his opponent’s army, but most terrifying of all is the trumpet of Hannibal’s elephants.  Would that sound resound the end of Scipio, as it had proclaimed so many other times in the past, or would this day be different?  Scipio didn’t know, but in [...]

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Case against the Minimum Wage

Here is an article that I found from Dan Smith. It is about all the negative effects of minimum wage laws. It is really interesting to see how the laws hurt wages of young workers, that minimum wage laws generally hurt blacks, and increase job turnover. Those are just a few of the negatives that [...]

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