H. Scott Trask sums it up: on the one hand, they believed in fractional-reserve banking, generally following Adam Smith's currency and banking theories. On the other hand, they were resolutely opposed to government-issued paper money, fiat money, legal tender laws, inconvertible paper currency, and land banks. On the question of a national bank, they were divided.
How damaging would another round of protectionism be? With international relations already highly strained—thanks largely, if not wholly, to the unwontedly belligerent approach generally adopted by the current U.S. Administration in its dealings with others—the clear peril here is that a series of escalating trade disputes impairs the ability of flows of goods to discharge the existing financial burdens of debt service and repayment as they come due.
On Labor Day, Americans honor the often incredible contributions of its working men and women.
Airline security had been imperfect, but airlines were capable of improving, and had every incentive to do so. The industry could respond to real threats without creating unnecessary passenger inconvenience. But instead, Congress, with the blessing of the White House, short circuited the market process and created a new bureaucracy.
What's wrong with a futures market in terrorism? It is not a genuine market creation. A growing recognition of the superiority of markets over planning has created an unviable hybrid: the planned market, one created not by property owners but by the state and for the state. Planned markets bear a close enough resemblance to the real thing to fool even astute observers who are otherwise friends of genuine market forces.
Since 9-11, many commentators have asked question: can the West can really ever be at peace with Islam? If the cooperative spirit of the market economy prevails, the answer is yes. An example is Malaysia, which defies the stereotype. It shows what peace is possible when governments permit market exchange and freedom of cultural contact, while avoiding imperial overreach and belligerence.
At the Mises University, George Reisman explained why many countries often thought to be socialist, either now or in the past, such as Sweden, Israel, and Britain under the old Labor Party, should be thought of as hampered market economies instead. For production in those countries characteristically takes place, or did take place, at private initiative, motivated by private profit.
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.
Some rich people have gained notoriety by publicly volunteering to forego a tax cut or to pay more in taxes to support spending on their favorite government programs.
Former President Clinton is a prime example. The implication is that rest of us are selfish. In fact, their statements do not make them Mother Teresa.
Scott Trask shows that the period of the Articles of Confederation was not characterized by chaos and increasingly bad economic times, as historians tend to assume. Rather, the Articles proved themselves to be a perfectly viable structure for a free society, encouraging trade and prosperity and adherence to the highest ideals of 1776—until the mercantilists and nationalists overthrew it.
