Sumner was referring to the seemingly endless attempts to harness the power of the State to further one's own ends at the expense of other people. All human types—generals, millionaires, priests, scholars and so on—have made these attempts. The disease is not confined by race, color or creed, by age or occupation, by democracy or dictatorship. The desire to live at the expense of other men is a constant theme that runs through all of human history.
Aging populations tend to save more, which gives rise to complaints that this is bad for economic growth. But Chris Mayer explains that the level of "growth" should be determined by the market and the saving preferences of individuals. The real problem of aging demographics arises from the nature of a welfare state and the unrealistic pyramid scheme it represents.
Deflation is usually thought to be a synonym for falling prices. There could be no more serious error in all of economics, writes George Reisman. Calling falling prices "deflation" results in a profound confusion between prosperity and depression. This is because the leading cause of falling prices is economic progress.
The historical record shows that commercial freedom is the best policy in peace and war. Cooperation is more fruitful than coercion. And if one wants the friendship or assistance of others it is better to appeal to their interests instead of their fears. Above all, foreign trade should be as free and unrestricted as trade within a nation.
The tax bills of many American families are falling during a period of exorbitant increases in federal spending due mainly to war. Odd? Not once we discover the record levels of government debt accumulation. It's the shell game of government finance at work. It is not the first time that government warriors have turned to debt and the printing press to pay for their military ventures.
The NBER says the recession ended 20 months ago, but where is the recovery? The labor market is not responding, and growth is weak and ambiguous. Christopher Westley offers an explanation of why this supposed recovery looks different from previous ones.
Any upturn whether in economic statistics or in the stock market is almost certain to follow the patterns not of economic recovery but rather a mini-boom. There is no way that this particular boom, as pathetic as it is, can be sustained for a long time, unlike the boom of the late 1990s. In fact, the Fed's recent actions can only force more malinvestments which themselves will have to be liquidated in the future.
Böhm-Bawerk's critique of the naïve productivity theory of interest was a brilliant leap forward for subjectivist economics, and remains the dominant Austrian view. Unfortunately, its lessons are as little understood yet just as relevant today as they were in the 1880s. Robert Murphy explains why.
Rumors of Bastiat's lack of interest in monetary theory have not only been exaggerated, they are patently untrue. Indeed, Bastiat places the role of money at the center of the economy and portrays ignorance of its nature as one of its greatest dangers. Not only does he explain the nature of money, but he also very cogently explains the inevitable results of a failure to understand that nature.
The deflation-phobia of our elites is the rational reaction of those who profit from the privileges that our present inflationist regime bestows on them, and who stand to lose more than any other group if this regime is ever reversed in a deflationary coup. Perennial inflation is based on monopoly. Deflation brings in the fresh winds of the free market.
