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.
In his review of The Political Thought of David Hume: The Origins of Liberalism and the Modern Political Imagination, David Gordon examines systems of ethical norms. The Misesians have the best insights, of course.
Did scarcity begin with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? Or were human beings and their surroundings already bound by time and space before they ate the forbidden fruit?
Progressives believe that restricting individual liberty permits better social outcomes. In truth, it is individual liberty that allows societies to function best.
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.
Progressives believe that restricting individual liberty permits better social outcomes. In truth, it is individual liberty that allows societies to function best.
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.
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.
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.
