Breaking Bad toys Being Pulled by Toys R Us.

A story popped up last week where a Florida mother was concerned about a product she had seen on the shelves of Toys R Us while shopping with her children. The subjectively offensive products were figurines of characters in AMC's hit TV show Breaking Bad. From the Newspaper U-T San Diego's website,"Susan Schrivjer of Fort Myers was not happy when she found the meth-making mastermind Walter White doll alongside the partner-in-crime Jesse Pinkman doll on toy store shelves not far from Barbies and Disney characters."  

Now while this may seem like a pretty easy case for people to hash against Toys R Us, what it shows to me is that a consumer driven market economy is in effect working as it should.
Let me explain, when businesses get word that their customers are upset about a product or service or even a remark made by an employee or CEO they let that company know by differing means, that company, when made aware of these feelings or demands can choose whether or not to cave to pressure or stand by their decision. Toys R Us decided to cave to the demands of the petition signers. This is the markets way of self regulation and also of effective competition breeding. When one store will take down a product or get rid of a service, a competitor can move in to offer them.

I think this whole story has been blown way out of proportion and a real look at the market effectiveness we can see that it can be a good indication that consumer driven markets are working as they should.

Now I'm off to buy some Breaking Bad collectible figurines... Not really... I don't like the show.

Robert Murphy: Contrasting Views of the Great Depression. Mises University 2014

This year (2014) Mises University has started. This is a short video featuring Economist and Author Robert Murphy. Here he is explaining the Contrasting views of the Great Depression. Going through the differing schools of economic thought and giving examples of typical or "normal"  thoughts on the cause of, effects of and the eventual relief of one of the greatest and longest lasting economic depressions The United States and parts of the World felt.

Robert Murphy is an associated scholar of the Mises Institute, where he teaches at the Mises Academy.He runs the blog Free Advice and is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, theStudy Guide to "Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market," the "Human Action" Study Guide,The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal, and his newest book,Lessons for the Young Economist.