A few questions about gold and governement intervention in the economy

Ramone posted on Wed, Mar 18 2009 11:55 AM

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1)  In a discussion online, I mentioned the benefits of money backed by gold.  Someone replied:

I'm no economist, but I read a lot of history. Between WWI and the depression, Churchill(who was serving on the front bench as chancellor of the exchequer)reverted Britain back to the gold standard. It really exacerbated England's labor woes, and hurt their economy. That may have simply been a product of their economy at the time(which was contracting as their empire began to unravel,coupled with massive war debts). If our economy went back to the gold standard would you expect the same economic crunch(considering we also are exporting less and have accumulated massive war/big government debts)

I know very little about the English economy during this area and I'm an an cap based on political reasons, not economic ones.  Can someone explain the English situation to me?

2)  In another discussion I was talking about the benefits of deregulation on higher education.  Someone replied:

We've seen what happens when deregulation occurs. It's not a good thing.

Do you have sources for your argument that government involvement has caused the increase in cost of tuition? It seems the rise in the cost of living since WWII is the cause for tuition going up. I'm not going to say that government intervention has nothing to do with it, but I would say it's a very small part of the reason for increase on top of increase.

Again, in the scenario you propose, most people could not afford higher education. It's all about making sure the "have-nots" stay that way, while the rich continue to get richer.

Of course I'm going to reply that government intervention in the economy raised the cost of living.  But are there any articles on mises.com or elsewhere that talk specifically about how governement involvement in higher education is directly responsible for increases in tuition?  I've tried searching the archives but I couldn't find an article I really liked.