On his podcast “Verdict” November 13, Ted Cruz mentioned one of my favorite books by Ludwig von Mises: Bureaucracy. He mentioned it in reference to the “Department of Government Efficiency” that was also announced by President-elect Donald Trump on the same day. Cruz brings up a crucial point to the conversation surrounding this plan, pointing at Mises for getting it right.
Popular understandings of economics often attempt to incorporate the methodology of natural sciences as the supposed key to economics. Some economic experts are of the view that the methods employed by the natural sciences, such as advanced mathematics, are important tools for the assessments of historical data to establish the state of an economy. It is also believed that the knowledge secured from the assessment of the empirical data is likely to be tentative since it is not possible to know the true nature of reality.
[Editor’s note: In this article, originally published in October 1984, Murray Rothbard critiques a problem with the economics of Republicans and conservatives. Namely, its proponents think they can have it both ways by cutting tax rates and increasing government spending, while somehow not running up huge deficits. Much of this is based on the so-called Laffer curve idea, which Rothbard regards with skepticism.
In 2019 The New York Times launched their 1619 project, which “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” In the NYT retelling of American history, black troops who fought for the Union in the 1861-65 war are to be commemorated, but black Confederates must be summarily erased. The aim of this article is to argue against this erasure of black Confederates.
Americans are outraged. Gas prices have risen over 30 percent in four years, electricity has risen by over 30 percent in the last four years, and groceries have risen by over 20 percent. This is infuriating and Americans are well in the right to be disgusted by it.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest price inflation data, CPI inflation in October accelerated and month-to month increases in CPI inflation hit multi-month highs.
The seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.24 percent month over month in October, rising to a six-month high. Year over year, the CPI rose 2.49 percent in October, not seasonally adjusted. That’s a three-month high.
Left or right, the enemy is the free market. Every problem is the fault of the free market. On the left, the supposed radical deregulation of the 1980s paved the way for the financial crisis and the destruction of the environment. On the right, free trade is responsible for the gutting of manufacturing. The free market is made out in this mythos to have had its heyday in the 1980s and ‘90s and destroyed everything. Even free market advocates fall into this trap, saying that this time in the near past was a free market victory.
