On April 28, 2017, INESS in cooperation with Austrian Economics Center organized in Slovakia Free Market Road Show, a part of a series of conferences and panel discussions that tours all over Europe – from Scandinavia to Montenegro, from Spain to Ukraine. Over 400 experts participate overall, presenting aspects of key economic questions in 45 cities, involving the audience in a vital discussion on economic and public policy questions.
Chinese steel is a typical strawman for U.S. politicians. Employment in the U.S. steel industry fell dramatically indeed. There were around 780,000 employees in the sector in the late 1960s and the industry was producing 115 million tons of steel. Today, there are less than 100,000 employees.
The rising popularity of nationalist thought all over the world is evident. It has already won several battles in the political competition. Nevertheless, it is important to highlight an interesting occurrence here: nationalists operate with at least two incompatible opinions on the functioning of economy.
Most economists and politicians agree that investment subsidies break market principles. However, many consider subsidies a necessary tool in the global competition for investors and as an economic growth booster. INESS analyzed the investment subsidies granted in Slovakia during the years 2002–2016.
On the one hand, Slovak unemployment rate is declining. Automotive industry and large companies find it difficult to hire enough employees. According to the recent reports, workers are brought in not only from Ukraine or Hungary, but even from Serbia.
Competition creates pressure to decrease profits in every part of production. Therefore, if someone would like to “help” developing countries by restrictions and price regulations, there should not expect that all costs will be absorbed by the corporations.
The 7th annual Seminar on Austrian Economics organized by INESS took place on October 13-16, 2016, in Mojmírovce, Slovakia. In the span of these four days, the participants had a chance to attend several insightful lectures, to discuss various topics with renowned experts from different fields, and to make new friends.
Slovak education needs a consumer-selected group of people and schools that do not wish to offer quality education, and rather just teach the same curriculum year after another, not considering the well-being of children. Many people will have to leave the field of education and a lot of old structures will have to disintegrate.
Treaties about free trade are not about free trade, but about managed trade. They are the result of thinking in the frames of the 300-years old mercantilist philosophy, which considers export to be the source of wealth and import to be the price paid for that wealth.
Regulation of the commercial business sphere by the government is a relatively hot topic these days. According to a new study by Coffey, McLaughlin and Peretto (2016), the current GDP of the US would be 25% higher if federal regulation had not increased since the 1980s.
