Podcasts

MUST-LISTEN: Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse explains basic economics!

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Wow, I thought that her earlier podcast on marriage and family was good.

This new podcast is a MUST for social-conservatives who nevertheless like big government, taxing the rich, public schools, and single-payer health care. I listened to this twice already, and it’s going to become one of my favorites for sure!

The MP3 file is here.

Topics:

  • The study of economics is anti-postmodern – there is objective truth independent of what people think
  • The study of economics believes in fixed principles of human nature
  • Economics studies the allocation of scarce resources that have alternative uses
  • Economics studies how people exchange resources
  • How both people who engage in a voluntary trade always believe that they will be better off
  • How both people who engage in a voluntary trade both benefit from the exchange
  • How incentives motivate people to act
  • Understanding supply and demand
  • Understanding how “free” government services are rationed
  • Understanding opportunity costs
  • How prices signal producers to produce more or less, and consumers to buy or not buy
  • Market-driven prices versus price controls
  • The role of substitution
  • The necessity of allowing failure in a free market

The requirements of economic growth:

  • private property
  • contracts
  • the profit motive
  • competition
  • free trade
  • entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation
  • the rule of law

DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST. REPEAT.

The Ruth Institute accepts donations. I sent her TWO already this year. She does on-campus events, just like William Lane Craig. If you want to have an impact on the university, she should be considered for funding.

You can find more economics lectures at the Acton Institute.

Videos

MUST-SEE: Conservative British MEP Daniel Hannan trashes Obamacare

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You remember Daniel Hannan, don’t you? Well he’s done some interviews this week.

Here he is explaining Britain’s government-run health care system (the NHS) to Glenn Beck. (H/T Moonbattery)

And here he is on Sean Hannity:

Previous videos featuring Daniel Hannan

On Glenn Beck: (March 25, 2009)

On Sean Hannity: (March 27, 2009)

Here was the rant that made him famous, where he spoke the turth to the leftist Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

This guy is not even a real conservative – he backed Obama in the 2008 election! But at least he understands small government and free market capitalism.

Why do we have to make the same mistakes that all the European countries made decades ago?

News

India launches nuclear-powered submarine!

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And it’s a boomer! 12 ballistic missiles!

Congratulations to India! First massive tax cuts, now peace through strength! You’re on a roll!

Story here from the Russian newspaper RIA Novosti.

Excerpt:

MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) – India launched its first nuclear-powered submarine on Sunday for sea trials, national media reported.

The launch ceremony of the 6,000-ton INS Arihant (Destroyer of Enemies) was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur, the Times of India said.

The submarine completes India’s nuclear triad, making it the sixth country after the U.S., Russia, China, France and the U.K. to have land, air and sea-based nuclear strike capability.

The submarine will be armed with torpedoes and missiles, including 12 ballistic missiles, and can also be armed with cruise missiles, the paper said. It is powered by an 85-MW reactor, and can reach a submerged speed of 44 km/h (24 knots). It will carry 95 crewmembers.

The long-running project to build the submarine, completed with Russian help, is part of a $2.9-billion plan to build five submarines.

The design was based on a Charlie 1 submarine that India leased from the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Sea trials and weapons tests will take place in the Bay of Bengal, and the submarine is expected to enter service in two or three years.

Did you miss the earlier story about Canada’s new free trade deal with Panama, and their tracking of 2 Russian Akula-class nuclear submarines off the east coast?