Interventionism

When an economy is on the ropes, the last thing in the world it needs is for politicians to squander more resources and for the central bank to print up more green pieces of paper.

"What if the management is done by the government? Then we abandon the realm of service and enter into the realm of policy."

"The London merchants were not, however, content with free-market development, and power began to move in on the market. Specifically, the London merchants began to reach for export monopoly."

Unless Hugo Chavez's government suddenly ends spending and returns to a free market, the most likely conclusion to current events in Venezuela is a crisis of interventionism, as the bolívar collapses and the government finds it more and more difficult to fund itself.

"The Bank of England has been reduced to the position of a part of the machinery for the manufacturing of political money in any quantity that may be required."

The only solution to increasing costs is to eliminate government interference in the market and to allow the price mechanism to work as it should.

"When something becomes illegal, consumer demand does not vanish."

Today, as always, the general citizenry needs to understand economic principles and to recognize economic fallacies.

Recorded at The Mises Circle in Manhattan, on May 22nd, 2010.

Recorded at The Mises Circle in Manhattan, on May 22nd, 2010.