Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

The American right defines itself entirely in opposition to the left. They have no ideas of their own except protecting the status quo and the politically powerful and, of course, war. They merely hate the left. But being against something is not a positive program. Brown’s victory is a reaction to Obama’s policies, a good [...]

The federal government is going into the car business. Note how ridiculous this remark sounds: “This administration has no desire to run an auto company on a day-to-day basis.” Of course, it will have to keep tight control over the management, since the managers will have little incentive to generate profit, because any loss will [...]

In The Mystery of Banking Rothbard creates the following fanciful scenario: “The Angel Gabriel is a benevolent spirit who wishes only the best for mankind, but unfortunately knows nothing about economics. He hears mankind constantly complaining about a lack of money, so he decides to intervene and do something about it. And so overnight, while [...]

Suppose there are 10 consumers each holding $1 and a producer holding 10 oranges. If he exchanges his oranges for money, then each consumer will benefit “a little,” while the producer will benefit “a lot.” The benefits and wealth are concentrated in the producer, while they are dispersed among the consumers. Is that a problem? [...]

In arguing against the conclusions of Free Market Madness reviewed by David Gordon, Enjoy Every Sandwich writes: “I’m not aware of any serious advocates of the free market who argue that the market works because all humans employ perfect reasoning. Rather, all of the ones I’ve read so far argue the opposite: that the free [...]

What has bothered me about concerns about trade deficits is the seeming arbitrariness of aggregating imports and exports on the territory of the United States as versus other countries. For countries do not trade; only individuals and firms do. So, what sense is there of talking about “our” trade imbalances? Surely, in the US there [...]

This time, my own. Now normally I’d hold fast to the principle “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.” But supposing I have been made dictator of the US, what would I do? Four things, in my estimation; in the following sequence:
1) Monetize gold and silver;
2) Default on all government [...]

I said: “poverty is a consequence of being relatively useless to your fellow man.” Therefore, it is never correct to blame “society” for your poverty in contradistinction to the wealthier folks around you. A society as a whole can indeed be poor, and then one can reasonably point the finger at the anti-capitalistic ideology held [...]

One way is by having an ideology, e.g.: “While praxeology, and therefore economics too, uses the terms happiness and removal of uneasiness in a purely formal sense, liberalism attaches to them a concrete meaning. It presupposes that people prefer life to death, health to sickness, nourishment to starvation, abundance to poverty. It teaches man how [...]

In describing the historical origin of the socialist idea, Mises writes that the old liberal philosophers “substituted in their inquiries the image of an ideal state for the real states of their age. They constructed the vague image of a government whose only objective is to make its citizens happy. … The state, as it [...]

The key about the tragedy of the commons is that I have a reason to grab as many resources in the commonly owned pool before others do the same. Those others think that I will consider them greedy and grasping, that is, narrowly self-interested, and so will try to grab the best stuff first before [...]

[This is a repost of an article of mine I wrote for lewrockwell.com.]
Poor chickens. According to many animal-rights advocates, they live unhappy lives. Maybe they do. (Though perhaps they should still thank their human caretakers for the gift of life.) I’ll say right away that the evaluation of the ethics of animal rights is not [...]

Peter Singer regales us with the following “amazing” statistic: “People in the poor countries consume, on average, 180 kilos of grain a year, while North Americans average around 900 kilos. The difference is caused by the fact that in the rich countries we feed most of our grain to animals, converting it into meat, milk, [...]

“Great nations,” Pat Buchanan avers, “do not have trade partners. They have trade competitors and rivals.” Nonsense, all of it.
1. Nations have neither partners not competitors nor rivals. In fact, nations do not trade at all; only individuals and firms do.
2. Each firm has (i) customers, (ii) suppliers, and (iii) competitors. In a global market [...]

Sidgwick writes that “the lending of money for interest is commonly reprehended in societies where commerce is imperfectly developed, because the ‘usurer’ in such communities is commonly in the odious position of wringing a gain out of the hard necessities of his fellows.” (The Methods of Ethics, 454ff) This implies that the low level of [...]

I remain convinced that people can be lured by a promise of a legal system which is both in conformance to human nature and is rock-solidly efficient, developed in the manner of Rothbard’s The Ethics of Liberty and Epstein’s Simple Rules for a Complex World. If I am wrong, then, as Mises put it, “there [...]

Remember that socialism can be reached in two ways. The first is through violent revolution which destroys the old order and erects a total state, as happened in the Soviet Union. The second is as a logical outcome of government interventionism, the “third way.” This third way is internally inconsistent; it is a contradictory set [...]

Economists have argued that utilitarianism urges that consumer surplus obtained due to gains from trade be maximized. But what about producer surplus? Well, under indirect exchange the producer does not receive goods but money which is de facto debt of society to him. So, the producer receives no surplus until he spends this money, at [...]

That’s what Mises calls labor which is done for reasons other than the consequences or output of labor, that is, other than the end product of working. Here are some examples of such labor.

Work as exercise, “to make his mind and body strong, vigorous, and agile.” (Human Action, 587)
Here the disutility of labor is an [...]

As recounted in Simple Rules for a Complex World, Ronald Dworkin makes a distinction between “personal” and “external” preferences. Apparently, personal preferences are those made without the input of other people; external preferences depend on “the views that others have for him or for his way of life.” (314) This distinction is tenable only if [...]