The Methodenstreit between the Mengerian Austrian School and the German Historical School needs to be rejoined. Mainstream economists are embracing the historicist approach, which is not real economics at all.
Henry Hazlitt's The Failure of the New Economics remains the best criticism of J.M. Keynes's General Theory.
According to Marx, all ideas represent class-based interests, leaving no room for objective truth. The problem is that Marxists claim to hold to objective truth, but manage to contradict themselves.
Behavioral economics operates on the assumption that human emotions play an important role in determining economic choices. However, while all of us have emotions, we ultimately use reason to determine what we need to sustain our lives.
When Adam Smith and the English classicals promoted division of labor as the most important ingredient in economic development, it took Carl Menger and his Austrian successors to point out that error and promote the proper economic theory of production.
Recorded in Tampa, Florida, on February 17, 2024.
Bob highlights some of the key issues from his recent ZeroHedge debate, and explains why he thinks his side won.
Scott R. Sehon tries to be intellectually honest in his critique of capitalism and his endorsement of socialism, but David Gordon writes that Sehon needs to better know the arguments favoring capitalism.
Bob goes solo to give a point-by-point rebuttal to James Lindsay's recent essay arguing that "national divorce means national suicide."
While the German HIstorical School might not have the intellectual influence it once did, its doctrines caused enough damage to alter the direction of world history. And not in a good way.
