Block’s Defending the Undefendable has needled and irritated an entire generation of readers and compelled many to re-examine long-held beliefs in favor of the logic of libertarianism. Now comes volume 2, with a foreword by Ron Paul, that promises more such irritation for future generations.
Pope Francis’s compassion for the poor is overwhelmed by his confusion about the market economy. Economic liberty has done more to elevate the living standards of the general population than any other form of social organization in history. It is the only system which does not trust in the goodness of those with power.
Mises said the causes of freedom and Austrian economics had to be advanced by a dual program: scholarly work in the defense of freedom and educating business and professional leaders with the compelling case for the Austrian School. Mises would be proud of what you have helped the Mises Institute accomplish.
Government intervention causes iatrogenics — unintended negative consequences that hurt the very people they’re intended to help. Nowhere is this better exemplified than with Obamacare, a policy intended to bring insurance to all that has in effect taken it away from many. This paradox can be applied to other policy arenas as well.
Sweden, once the crown jewel of the welfare state, took the road less traveled, and emerged as a financially sound economy, and an example of the economic growth possible with free markets. The country’s financial strength and its ability to resist a global recession are due to the long-term rolling back of the expansive welfare that Keynesians so often praise.
Central banks always result in feeding forces that centralize and expand the nation-state. The Fed’s policies in the 1920s, would provoke the Great Depression, which, in the end, wrenched political power from cities and state governments to the swampland in Washington
One can be certain that interest rates will shoot up once inflation picks up. Since most of the U.S. debt is short term, it is going to be very difficult to inflate prices to reduce the real value of the debt. How will the U.S. government react if it has to refinance at interest rates of 12 percent or more, like in 1981?
Austrian economics teaches that understanding the “economy” can only be undertaken with the aid of economic theory. There is no formula or equation for understanding the economy. It cannot be measured in any meaningful scientific way. Only the logical construction of cause and effect aid us.
The prospects for an unwinding of the Fed’s bloated balance sheet without even more damage to the economy and a return to a more reasonable rules-based monetary policy, are significantly diminished under a Yellen-led Fed. It is time, not to restore a rules-based policy, but to denationalize money.
What would happen if the FDA didn’t ensure that food was safe and the EPA didn’t protect us from pollution? What would happen if the SEC didn’t rein in Wall Street and the FTC and antitrust laws didn’t protect us from monopolies and collusion? The answer is “I don’t know; no one knows.” But someone would come up with an solution.
