Life = Busyness

So far I haven’t done a very good job of accomplishing many things since returning from Mises U. Last week I worked 36 hours and this week was probably not too much less than that. And it is really work. Which means I’m pretty tired when I get home and just don’t have the mental energy to study. That’s frustrating because there’s so much I want to do but it just isn’t happening. I need to develop a new schedule that will hopefully help me get things done. I’m really excited though because starting next week I’m going to be…

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Survived Mises U 2011

I apologize for my lack of presence here for several weeks. The first couple weeks of July I was busy working to make up for leaving for 3 weeks. Then of course I had to pack and prepare for my trip. Then I was on the road for a couple days. After arriving in Georgia I had several promotional events to attend for my book, Path of Grass. Then I found myself in the middle of a huge Southern family reunion for several days…then we made a mad dash for Auburn and spent 42+ hours sitting in class for the…

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The Reality of the Market

I really enjoy my job, for several reasons. One reason is that my company is the perfect real-life example of many concepts I learned in economics. I have to get my boss credit, he is sometimes a very quotable person and says things just like I’ve heard in my econ books…except he really is an entrepreneur who is dealing with very real customers (believe me…I have to talk to them every day…). First example illustrates consumer sovereignty. He said, “A lot of people think that business-owners run their company. That’s not true. The customer runs the business. The customers decide…

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What the Market Requires

I’m actually getting to the point where I enjoy my job. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never not liked it, and from Day One I’ve appreciated the challenge it has been. But there were several weeks where I’d come home every day exhausted and wondering when the chaos and madness would end. And I’m happy to say it is improving. There’s still a very long way to go, but I feel better about what I do. I worked full time for a couple weeks in order to straighten things out. I’ve actually gotten to the point where I can do…

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For Mises Students, Part 2

Israel brought up some good questions related to my first post, so I thought I’d address those here. The first thing, “aren’t there Youtube videos that summarize these required readings and can’t we get Greek history from movies like Troy?” I’m sure there are Youtube videos that explain some of what these works cover, but probably not systematically. The youtube might be on “Socialism vs. Capitalism” and might cover some of the points that Mises makes in his books, but I doubt that there are Youtube videos made as summaries of these works. I have an idea on this, however,…

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For Mises U Students

The Mises Institute strongly encourages all students attending Mises U to be familiar with the Required Readings found here. Whether I go to Mises U or not (still hoping it will work out!) I will try do the readings. Last year I wrote out a schedule for getting through all the books, and I thought I would post my updated version for the students I know who wondering how to tackle it. Anyone else is welcome to read through all this too. 🙂 Theoretically I would start the reading in March. However…that didn’t happen this year. But my schedule starts…

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The Free Market

I’m posting the resources from  a recent webinar as a blog post to give readers better access to the info. Slides are available here. Video from the webinar can be viewed here. Here’s a list of the resources and links mentioned in the webinar – Chaos Theory by Bob Murphy – Privatization of Roads and Highways by Walter Block – The Enterprise of Law by Bruce Benson – Walter Block Interview on Road Privatization, http://mises.org/daily/3431 –  A Future of Private Roads and Highways by Walter Block, http://mises.org/daily/3416 – This video is a study on a formerly-controlled intersection in England that now has…

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A Mises Weekend, Part 2

So we finally got a table at the Berghoff and looked at the menu. I wasn’t terribly hungry, so we decided to get one appetizer, one main dish, and maybe something on the side, and we’d just split it. My dad wasn’t really interested in the German food, so we went with the seafood. I ordered a smoked salmon appetizer, he ordered stuffed sole, and we got potato pancakes on the side. When the plates arrived, my smoked salmon was served on a small wooden cutting board with pieces of salmon on a bed of lettuce and onions. My first thought…

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A Mises Weekend, Part 1

On April 8th and 9th my dad and I went into Chicago for the Mises Institute’s Highschool Seminar and their Saturday Mises Circle. With my new job these events came up really quickly and I wasn’t thinking about it until that week. Friday was extremely icky…rainy and cold, and of course windy. I didn’t get to drive all the way to the train station which was disappointing, but after driving a little in the rain/dark I was relieved to have my dad take over. He was worried about getting to our train on time (and not being run over by…

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Another Week

So I still have my topics in mind for some interesting posts, but don’t have time to write it all down. This week is pretty crazy because I’m trying to make time for driving practice, and preparing for the Chicago Mises Circle this weekend and of course, working. Thankfully I don’t have any other big projects like a webinar or history class. I hope to get back into some of that next week. And more reading. It just makes me sick to think of all the books I want to read and haven’t. Same with studying. I wish I could…

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