Just trade

It is pleonastic to talk about "free" trade. Only as long as it is "free", can an action be considered "trade".

(By the way, can somebody give me an example of "unfair" trade?)

On the side of the worker

The most effective way to put a (definite) end to institutional unemployment and galloping inflation is to convince workers to accept that nominal wages can diminish at times and that avoiding the proscription of such declines is ultimately beneficial for they themselves. The elaboration and polish of an explanation as clear and simple as possible, prepared not for the academician but for the masses of workers is probably one of the most important tasks of economics.

A lesson on microeconomics

The production theory explains how production decisions, not supply decisions, are taken. Similarly, supply decisions doesn't depend on production decisions.

The market for protectionism

Protection from competition provided through coercion to competitors is like any other good. The producer will buy protection so long as he values better the income he receives than the expenditure he incurs in.

One factor of production

If you use only one factor of production, by definition, you can only produce a perfect substitute of that factor of production.

When, for instance, Krugman et al, in their book International Economics 9/E, page 26 et seq. speak about a basic model with "only one factor of production", they are not using the concept of "factor of production" as used in the economic theory of production. Not at all! They are merely using the term "labor" as a numeraire of unit of account.

Mises on Popper

"The positivistic principle of verifiability as rectified by Popper is unassailable as an epistemological principle of the natural sciences. But it is meaningless when applied to anything about which the natural sciences canno supply any information [as in the case of the sciences of human action, including economics]." Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, page 108.

Market failure

A market failure is a situation in which the economist fails to understand the market.

On the Church

I guess that it can be told with respect to the Church what Mises told about the utilitarian philosophy, that it

"does not look upon the rules of morality as upon arbitrary laws imposed upon man by a tyrannical Deity with which man has to comply without asking any further questions. To behave in compliance with the rules that are required for the preservation of social cooperation is for man the only means to attain safely all those ends that he wants to attain." The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, page 95.

My summary of Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society"

Even if equilibrium analysis is a useful preliminary to the study of the economic problem which society faces, namely the unavoidable imperfection of man's knowledge and the consequent need for a process by which knowledge is constantly communicated and acquired, it is high time to remember that it systematically leaves out the explanation of the very problem itself, of economic process.

Samuelson on Hayek

I want to thank Alejandro Jenkins for call my attention on this brief but interesting article by Paul Samuelson on Hayek. It resulted very interesting to me to see how a studied economist not agreeing with Hayek sees his work.

Not a science about needs

Economics is not about needs if they aren't expected to be satisfied through purposive behavior. Nevertheless, purposive behavior always imply need.