The history of mankind, wrote Ludwig von Mises, is the history of ideas. The characteristic mark of this age of dictators, wars, and revolutions is its anti-capitalistic bias. Most governments and political parties are eager to restrict the sphere of private initiative and free enterprise. It is an almost unchallenged dogma that capitalism is done for and that the coming of all-around regimentation of economic activities is both inescapable and highly desirable. FULL ARTICLE

Art may imitate life, writes D.W. MacKenzie, but there is one instance where life cannot imitate art. The movie Groundhog Day (1993) illustrates the importance of the Mises-Hayek paradigm as an alternative to equilibrium economics by illustrating the unreal nature of equilibrium theorizing. It illustrates an important concept: one that we can never observe in real life. Because perfect competition is completely unreal we need other concepts that enable us to understand how the world really works. Fortunately, such concepts already exist in the writings of Ludwig von Mises and FA Hayek. FULL ARTICLE

Farah Fawcett, the first in a long line of blond celebrity crushes of my boyhood (first blonde older than Marcia Brady, that is) turns 60 today.

Man, 60 sure looks different now than it did back in the day.

Happy birthday, Farah.

Global-warming skeptics and climate agnostics continue to lose ground — and groundhogs — to the scientific consensus:

The Prognosticator of Prognosticators has spoken!

Punxsutawney Phil, the official groundhog of Groundhog Day, says we’ll have an early spring.