Mises Daily

Although he writes with confidence, David Frum's rejection of the gold standard is based on faulty history, bad economics, and a belief in the power of Washington to manage the economy.

"A theory that identifies liberty with a single right, the right of doing all that you have the actual power to do, and a theory which secures liberty by certain unalterable rights, and founds it on truths which men did not invent and may not abjure, cannot both be formative principles in the same Constitution."

"What comes out from reading Mises's policy writings is that if you had asked him a fiscal, or monetary, or regulatory-policy question, he would not have said, and did not simply say, 'laissez-faire' — abolish the central bank, deregulate the economy, and eliminate taxes."

The inevitable collapse — and the moral outrage of those it hurts — will continue for as long as the public buys into the myth that higher education (and its professors) are too important to have to keep their costs and production in line with consumer demand.

"Yes, this is the mercantilist world of Paul Krugman. Peaceful private exchange is an act of aggression, and aggression will deliver us from an imaginary 'liquidity trap.' Indeed, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength."

Ultimately, the Keynesian's deficiency comes down to their lack of capital theory, which eventually leads them to believe in a very disjointed monetary theory.

In the long run, the religious "peace" of absolutist "moderation" turned out to be the peace of the grave for many Huguenots.

"There is no greater example of why it is morally incumbent on everyone to oppose all forms of government intervention in all times. That includes, especially, wars that socialize the economy."

It was Misesian (myself) vs. Rothbardians (nir, wilderness, and Conza), and it got rocky a few times. But tempers cooled, concessions were made, compliments were passed, common ground was discovered, and new ways of looking at the issue were found by both sides.

These are the people who said that there was no housing bubble, that there was no danger of financial crisis, and then that a financial crisis would not impact the real economy. These are the same people who said they needed a multitrillion dollar bailout of the financial industry, or we would get severe trouble in the economy.