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Financial Post - Paulson's Scheme (Austrian Vindication)

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liberty student Posted: Tue, Oct 7 2008 4:29 PM

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=865541&p=1

Fantastic commentary piece in the Financial Post (Financial section of Canada's National Post).

Snipped

To the extent that this assessment has been made, it represents an important victory for a school of thought that has long hung on the margins of the economics discipline: the Austrian school of economics, whose most illustrious figures include the Nobel prize winning Friedrich von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Austrian economists hold that downturns are the inevitable aftermath of loose monetary policy, thus opposing explanations typically heard prior to the current crisis that attributed recessions to price shocks, underconsumption or central bank tightening of monetary policy.

But if, to rephrase a well-known Nixon quote, we are all Austrians now, it illogically only extends to the diagnosis of the crisis and not to the school's market-based cure. For it is just not consistent to simultaneously assign blame to Greenspan's easy money and then support government intervention to fix the damage, as so many of the business op-ed writers and talking heads on CNBC have.

Awesome and wonderful.  I just got back from the store, bought two copies of the paper. One for a friend, another for framing.  It's a wonderful piece in a very important business paper in Canada.  Just fantastic!

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Now let's hope people go and type Ludwig von Mises into google.

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"

Bob Dylan

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liberty student:

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=865541&p=1

Fantastic commentary piece in the Financial Post (Financial section of Canada's National Post).

Snipped

To the extent that this assessment has been made, it represents an important victory for a school of thought that has long hung on the margins of the economics discipline: the Austrian school of economics, whose most illustrious figures include the Nobel prize winning Friedrich von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Austrian economists hold that downturns are the inevitable aftermath of loose monetary policy, thus opposing explanations typically heard prior to the current crisis that attributed recessions to price shocks, underconsumption or central bank tightening of monetary policy.

But if, to rephrase a well-known Nixon quote, we are all Austrians now, it illogically only extends to the diagnosis of the crisis and not to the school's market-based cure. For it is just not consistent to simultaneously assign blame to Greenspan's easy money and then support government intervention to fix the damage, as so many of the business op-ed writers and talking heads on CNBC have.

Awesome and wonderful.  I just got back from the store, bought two copies of the paper. One for a friend, another for framing.  It's a wonderful piece in a very important business paper in Canada.  Just fantastic!

I will spread this around as much as possible; excellent find LS.  

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GilesStratton:

Now let's hope people go and type Ludwig von Mises into google.

It probably won't have a big impact, but my guess is that people previously inclined towards free markets (e.g. monetarist laymen) will find this site.

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Credit to Tom Woods @ C4L.

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The Austrian school is really picking up a lot of steam in Canada lately.

Have any of you fellas read "Gilligan's Corner"?

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The NP is the national paper.  I don't know what circulation is, but it is read by the intellectual, cultural, political and financial elite as well as business people.  An important target audience.

I couldn't have picked a better paper for it.  I just wish it wasn't on page FP11.

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liberty student:
The Austrian school is really picking up a lot of steam in Canada lately.

Any  real reason?

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"

Bob Dylan

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I'd like to take credit for it (ha ha) but it seems that since Ron Paul ran, the Canadian LP got inspired, and now there seem to be several Canadian anarchist bloggers, and people on the street are talking about printing money and buying gold.

I know there are several Canadians here, at RPF, at C4L (and most of them are anarchists).  I feel like the liberty message is really starting to catch on for some reason.  And it's very exciting.

I mean, this article in the FP means that now one can point to it and say,

See, this Austrian school thing is legit. Credit expansion causes malinvestment.  Refute that!

 

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Awesome, I can't say things are the same in the UK as far as I know.

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"

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liberty student:

The Austrian school is really picking up a lot of steam in Canada lately.

Have any of you fellas read "Gilligan's Corner"?

Nope. Link?

BTW, if libertarianism becomes popular in Canada before America, I will have to punch someone in a face. Seriously, aren't you supposed to be the socialists? Role reversal? The irony would kill me.

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Great post.  This is nice to see.

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krazy kaju:

liberty student:

The Austrian school is really picking up a lot of steam in Canada lately.

Have any of you fellas read "Gilligan's Corner"?

Nope. Link?

BTW, if libertarianism becomes popular in Canada before America, I will have to punch someone in a face. Seriously, aren't you supposed to be the socialists? Role reversal? The irony would kill me.


Oh I dunno, them Canadians were always a bit odd, eh guy?

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krazy kaju:
Nope. Link?

http://gilliganscorner.wordpress.com/

Gilligan is on RPF.  You can usually spot him in grassroots central these days.

krazy kaju:
BTW, if libertarianism becomes popular in Canada before America, I will have to punch someone in a face. Seriously, aren't you supposed to be the socialists? Role reversal? The irony would kill me.

We are socialists, so I can't explain it either!  Although our government is actually paying down the debt, slashing social programs and entitlements, and lowering taxes, so it's all nuts up here these days!

I wonder if it is the population density and the jingoism found in the US that prevents the message from breaking through.

 

 

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liberty student:
http://gilliganscorner.wordpress.com/

Gilligan is on RPF.  You can usually spot him in grassroots central these days.

Thanks, I'll read it later.

We are socialists, so I can't explain it either!  Although our government is actually paying down the debt, slashing social programs and entitlements, and lowering taxes, so it's all nuts up here these days!

I wonder if it is the population density and the jingoism found in the US that prevents the message from breaking through.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but conservative-minded Americans love to rip on Canada, Canadians, and everything to do with Canadian health care. If Canada really does become more liberal (in the true sense of the word) than America in the near future, the irony will just be too much. Too much, I tell ya.

BTW, yes, my guess is that jingoism is what's preventing right-leaning people from embracing libertarianism.

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One of the conservative party ministers used to employ a Mises institute fellow in his staff (he runs a major french-language libertarian site). If you have been following the electoral campaign in Canada, the incumbent conservative prime minister has been a voice of reason throughout the financial crisis, which has so far spared Canada in all aspects except stock and commodities prices, while the opposition leaders have asked that something be urgently done to fix the non-problem of Canada's highly stable economy.

“If you are making up [policy] in response to the latest news, or the latest changes in the stock market, then it is obvious you really don't have a plan,” Mr. Harper told a Toronto business audience.

He pointed out the Tories have been warning since 2007 about the gathering storm clouds over the economy, and have already doled out billions of dollars in tax cuts for taxpayers, consumers and business in last fall's mini-budget to prime the economic pump.

Mr. Harper even reached for the Bible when defending his record. “As the saying goes, it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. Which is why, when the rain came, Noah didn't need to panic and he didn't switch boats.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081007.welxntoryplatform1007/BNStory/Front

He's a liquidationist.

 

krazy kaju:

I'm not sure if you're aware, but conservative-minded Americans love to rip on Canada, Canadians, and everything to do with Canadian health care. If Canada really does become more liberal (in the true sense of the word) than America in the near future, the irony will just be too much. Too much, I tell ya.

Canada's unemployment rate went lower than the USA's this year for the first time in God know how many decades.

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I know about the ripping.  They are right about health care.  Canadians are starting to wake up to this.

But Canadians rip back viciously (if you didn't know).

"Talking to Americans"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seYUbVa7L7w

Very popular show, discontinued after 9/11 (when it was not only mean, but potentially fatal to make fun of Americans).

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Stranger:
One of the conservative party ministers used to employ a Mises institute fellow in his staff (he runs a major french-language libertarian site).

Gramscian strategy.  Very effective.

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Stranger:
One of the conservative party ministers used to employ a Mises institute fellow in his staff (he runs a major french-language libertarian site). If you have been following the electoral campaign in Canada, the incumbent conservative prime minister has been a voice of reason throughout the financial crisis, which has so far spared Canada in all aspects except stock and commodities prices, while the opposition leaders have asked that something be urgently done to fix the non-problem of Canada's highly stable economy.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2008/09/29/bailout-marks-karl-marx-s-comeback.aspx

That might be the fella you are talking about.

Stranger:

“If you are making up [policy] in response to the latest news, or the latest changes in the stock market, then it is obvious you really don't have a plan,” Mr. Harper told a Toronto business audience.

He pointed out the Tories have been warning since 2007 about the gathering storm clouds over the economy, and have already doled out billions of dollars in tax cuts for taxpayers, consumers and business in last fall's mini-budget to prime the economic pump.

Mr. Harper even reached for the Bible when defending his record. “As the saying goes, it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. Which is why, when the rain came, Noah didn't need to panic and he didn't switch boats.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081007.welxntoryplatform1007/BNStory/Front

He's a liquidationist.

Harper is ridiculously good for a Tory on the economy, but he hasn't been as strong on other libertarian (or small government-ish) agendas.  I was hating on him for a good while, but now that he has called an election, to get a mandate (currently a minority government) I'm hoping they can achieve their goal of getting a majority and running the table through the economic crisis.

Stranger:
Canada's unemployment rate went lower than the USA's this year for the first time in God know how many decades.

That could change if oil keeps plummeting because manufacturing is drying up very fast.  I live in the Canadian rust belt, and plant closures are occurring daily.  I'm not sure how much more accurately the Canadian #s are reported vs. the US numbers.

Starting with the Liberal administration of Jean Chretien, any surpluses paid into the unemployment insurance fund (cutely renamed, the employment insurance fund, think about it) were rolled into general revenue.  The rate was NOT reduced, and the money was not kept separate for a rainy day.  If Harper doesn't get a mandate, things could backslide very quickly.

If you find something evil that wobbles, push it. - Gary North

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