Note: This entry was initially written for Level 2 cadets at the 540 Golden Hawks Squadron. See other posts in this series.
10 Facts about Rockets
Author: Ash Navabi
I'm senior economist at Housing Matters, a Toronto-based not-for-profit YIMBY group. In addition to housing policy, I also like to read and write about intellectual property, money & banking, and methodology. Other random things I'm interested in include space, physics, 3D printing, entrepreneurship, the English language, and internet culture.
Where Does the Wind Come From?
Note: This entry was initially written for Level 2 cadets at the 540 Golden Hawks Squadron. See other posts in this series.
Where does wind come from?
Rocket Fuel Basics
Note: This entry was initially written for Level 2 cadets at the 540 Golden Hawks Squadron. See other posts in this series.
Ready for some rocket science?
Let’s start with some basics.
Mises’ Bureaucracy, in One-Syllable Words
Bureaucracy, by Ludwig von Mises, summarized in one-syllable words:
Folks on both the left and the right claim to hate the thing this book is named for. The word has rude tinge to it. The gripes are that they’re slow, with lots of fault in how they’re run, and who they’re run by: lots old guys — way more than there ought to be.
Yet they keep on their path of growth. Strange, right? Do they even know what it is that they’re mad at? I don’t think they know. But I know what’s got their goat. Read on to find out.
Continue reading “Mises’ Bureaucracy, in One-Syllable Words”Human Action in One-Syllable Words
Human Action by Ludwig von Mises — in one-syllable words (inspired by the summaries of famous philosophical works by Jason Brennan). Here is a short summary, before launching into a part-by-part treatment:
You can choose. With this true face, we can use just our wits to learn some more true facts: like you act in time, you have doubt about fate, and that you give up your least liked piece of a thing to get more of what you want. If you live with a group that you trade with, you should each own the goods you use to make things with and trade them for cash. The cash math will help with your growth plans. If you don’t, your group will break and rot. If any bank makes fake cash and lends it out, it will cause a boom and bust. Folks are blind to these facts; you must help them see.
Understanding the Fed’s Bond ETF Program
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve did something it’s never done before: purchasing exchange traded funds (ETFs) that are invested in corporate bonds. As a brand new program, this has generated a lot of confusion on behalf of the public. Why is the Fed buying bonds? Who is the Fed helping by buying corporate bond ETFs?
I’ll try to answer these questions (and more) in this article.
The Collected Works of Ludwig von Mises
It always struck me as strange that such a great and important thinker as Ludwig von Mises, whose last posthumous work was published in 2012, did not have a dedicated and comprehensive anthology. Since I personally have a significant interest in “what Mises said” on this or that topic, it also frustrated me that there was no simple online resource available where I could do this—despite so much of Mises’s works being available online.
Thus, I’ve used my time during the COVID-19 lockdown to create this compendium: over 8600 pages, 36 separate volumes, 200 megabytes.
Find it under the Free eBooks section of this website, or simply click here. This version was last updated May 12th, 2020.
The list of titles of the collected works include:
Title | CTRL+F | Pages of the PDF |
A Critique of Interventionism | KZ01 | 4-143 |
Bureaucracy | KZ02 | 144-272 |
Economic Freedom and Intervention | KZ03 | 273-585 |
Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow | KZ04 | 586-682 |
Human Action (Scholar’s Edition) | KZ05 | 683-1635 |
Interventionism: An Economic Analysis | KZ06 | 1636-1764 |
Liberalism | KZ07 | 1765-1973 |
Liberty and Property | KZ08 | 1974-2028 |
Marxism Unmasked | KZ09 | 2029-2154 |
Memoirs | KZ10 | 2155-2303 |
Money, Method, and the Market Process | KZ11 | 2304-2658 |
Nation, State, and Economy | KZ12 | 2659-2883 |
Notes and Recollections, with the Historical Setting of the Austrian School | KZ13 | 2884-3068 |
Omnipotent Government | KZ14 | 3069-3421 |
Planned Chaos | KZ15 | 3422-3465 |
Planning for Freedom (and other essays) | KZ16 | 3466-3658 |
Profit and Loss | KZ17 | 3659-3718 |
Selected Works Vol I | KZ18 | 3719-4151 |
Selected Works Vol II | KZ19 | 4152-4608 |
Selected Works Vol III | KZ20 | 4609-4929 |
Socialism: An Economic Analysis | KZ21 | 4930-5524 |
The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality | KZ22 | 5525-5613 |
The Clash of Group Interest and Other Essays | KZ23 | 5614-5650 |
The Free Market and Its Enemies | KZ24 | 5651-5769 |
The Theory of Money and Credit | KZ25 | 5770-6306 |
The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science | KZ26 | 6307-6451 |
On the Manipulation of Money and Credit | KZ27 | 6452-6676 |
The “Austrian” Theory of the Trade Cycle | KZ28 | 6677-6689 |
Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth | KZ29 | 6690-6780 |
Money and Inflation | KZ30 | 6781-6874 |
Epistemological Problems of Economics | KZ31 | 6875-7123 |
Entries for the Encyclopedia Britannica | KZ32 | 7124-7134 |
Theory and History | KZ33 | 7135-7529 |
Human Action (Liberty Fund Edition, volumes 1-3) | KZ34 | 7530-8442 |
A Critique of Bohm-Bawerk’s Reasoning | KZ35 | 8443-8451 |
Glossary (“Mises Made Easier”) | KZ36 | 8452-8602 |
Three Short Stories on Housing Economics
Originally published on Notes on Liberty.
Do you love housing economics but have struggled to get the basic ideas across the younger generation? Yes, you get excited about reading 60-page reports, but kids these days have better things to do.
That’s why I wrote these three, action-packed, short stories which you can read to any child (or child at heart).
So without further ado, here are three stories about how the supply of housing affects the prices of housing.
The Economic and Political Dynamics of Zoning
Originally published on Mises.org
![Ludwig_von_Mises[1]](https://ashnavabi.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/ludwig_von_mises1.jpg)
Both economic decisions and political decisions involve choices and tradeoffs. The difference is that economic decisions are ultimately informed and rely upon monetary prices, revenues and costs. Political decisions, meanwhile, do not depend on market outcomes—they can be based on love, legacy, favors, or establishing power relations.
Zoning is the practice of governments controlling the type, size, and population density of buildings. (Zoning should not be confused with building codes, which control the building materials and other design aspects of buildings.) The purpose of zoning has been to create separate regional “zones” of building types: broadly, these categories typically include residential, industrial, retail, and parks. The zones are then broken down into more minute categories, like low, medium, and high density homes, different kinds of retail businesses, and so on.
Zoning is a type of government intervention into economic decision making: it the practice of the state (whether it is the municipality, subnational, or national level) intervening in the affairs of private individuals in where and what they can build. By intention, zoning is a limit on the supply of housing. In effect, it is a limit on the quantity of the stock of housing; that is, it acts like any other quota or prohibition.
While many economists, from Rothbard himself, to even those in the mainstream, recognize the deleterious effects of zoning, there does not exist a single, thoroughgoing Austrian analysis on the subject. The purpose of this piece is to be that analysis. It is broken up into two sections: the politics of zoning, and the economics of zoning.
Continue reading “The Economic and Political Dynamics of Zoning”
Rethinking the Yellowbelt: Report Release
After a full year of research, the largest, most comprehensive report on the economics, politics, history, and policies of zoning in Toronto is available for download.
The full report is available both on the Housing Matters website, and quickly downloadable here: Rethinking the Yellowbelt.
The “Yellowbelt” refers to the portion of the city that’s zoned exclusively for detached homes. The report goes into detail explaining when and why such a zone came into existence, where it spreads in the city, who is hurt by the existence of this zone and how; and what it will take to change the system.
A summary of the report follows. Of course, the report itself goes into much more detail.
Continue reading “Rethinking the Yellowbelt: Report Release”
