Table of Contents
Introduction xiii
The Remnant xv
The Socialist Founders of the American Economic Association xvi
Chapter 1 What Is "the Free Market," Anyway? 1
Entrepreneurship: Economic and Political 6
The Consumer Is King 8
Road Maps, Street Signs, and Market Prices 10
Chapter 2 The Worst Economic Idea in the World 13
Concocting Economic Chaos 15
FDR's Boneheaded Scheme to Make Everything More Expensive during the Great Depression 20
Price Controls = Legalized Theft 21
Four Thousand Years of Price-Control Chaos 23
Price Controls Always Cause Higher Prices in the End 25
Chapter 3 The Nirvana Fallacy in Economics (Or, How to Attack a Straw-Man Argument) 29
Enough with the Nirvana Fallacy Already! 34
Should Lower Prices Be Outlawed? 37
How Many Is "Many"? 40
Chapter 4 Bees, Keys, and Externalities 45
The Fable of the Keys 49
What Do Politicians Know about Technology, Anyway? 51
Chapter 5 Pollution: Is Capitalism the Cause-or the Cure? 55
Socialist Pollution: The Worst Ever 56
Lessons from Socialism's Environmental Nightmares 59
Free-Market Competition Conserves Resources 62
Chapter 6 The "Free-Rider" Fallacy 65
Two Centuries of the Free-Rider Fallacy 69
But, But… What about Lighthouses?! 73
Chapter 7 Un-Natural Monopolies 77
The True Origins of Public Utility Monopolies 79
The Politicians-on-White-Horses Theory of Antitrust Regulation 81
Chapter 8 Asymmetric (Backwards) Economics 87
The Real Asymmetric Information Problem 91
Chapter 9 Creating Monopoly with Regulation 95
How Regulation Profits the Regulated and Harms Consumers 97
Monopoly in the Sky 101
Closer-to-Home Regulated Monopolies 105
Regulators Turned Lobbyists Turned Millionaires 107
Chapter 10 The Economics of Government Failure 109
Government's Inherent Failures 110
Why Special Interests Rule 113
The Short-Sightedness of Politics 116
Legalized Plunder 117
Paying More for Less: Government Bureaucracy 121
Chapter 11 Who Creates Jobs? (And Who Destroys Them?) 127
Higher Wages, Better Working Conditions, Shorter Hours, More Products, More Safety 130
Government's Job-Destroying Machinery 133
What about Labor Unions? 137
Chapter 12 The Fed: Government's Boom-and-Bust Machine 139
The Immaculate Conception Theory of the Fed 140
More than a Century of Failure 145
Boom-and-Bust Machine 146
A Defense Orwell Would Be Proud Of 153
Chapter 13 The Root of All Evil 159
The Root of All Evil? 162
The Real Burden of the Income Tax 165
Economic Destruction 168
More Tax Loopholes, Please 169
Chapter 14 "Trade Agreements" Are Not Free Trade 173
Protectionism: Protecting Consumers from Low Prices 176
Trade Agreements Are NOT Free Trade 181
Chapter 15 Socialism (Or How to Destroy an Economy, Impoverish People, and Deprive Them of Their Freedoms) 185
"Equity": The Mask of Totalitarianism 190
Fascism Is Socialism 192
You're Killing Me! Socialized Medicine, Anyone? 197
Epilogue 203
Notes 207
Index 231
