Tocqueville’s Conclusions and Insights
In Part I of Democracy in America, Tocqueville had glimpsed the potential for modern tyranny in several different directions. If despotism came, it might be in the form of an all-powerful legislature, or control of an omnipresent majority, or even a military dictator, He had also mentioned the possibility of centralization of power in the state-apparatus itself, the bureaucracy. In Part II, this becomes his overriding fear.
Publication and Its Aftermath
The response of reviewers and public to Part II of Democracy in America was much less enthusiastic than it had been to Part I. They seemed to find Tocqueville’s use of “ideal types” and his depictions of the future too speculative and confusing. Tocqueville was hurt by the general reaction, and led to moments of self-doubt: If he really had any merit as a thinker, how could he have spent four years of his life writing a book of such little merit? But his friends reassured him, and John Stuart Mill’s enthusiastic review filled him with joy.
On most fronts, the Trump era is off with a bang — both upsetting the status quo, but also offending numerous Austro-libertarian free market principles. Particularly, there is growing tension within the spheres of monetary and regulatory policy. Those who made themselves comfortable in the Obama administration are swiftly being uprooted by a new narrative in the Eccles Building.
Democracy in America, Part II
In fact, five years would elapse between the appearance of the two parts of Democracy in America. Part II, again in two volumes, would only be published in 1840. In those years, Tocqueville read very widely and deeply in many fields, above all the history of political thought. He had his favorites. He wrote a friend that there were three men he lived with every day: Montesquieu; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; and Blaise Pascal, the seventeenth century philosopher and subtle dissector of the human soul and heart.
About 40 years ago, economist Bruce Yandle went to Washington to work for the Council on Wage and Price Stability, ready to apply his knowledge of economics and educate his fellow workers. After all, he reminisces, one eye-rolling, head-scratching decision after another was coming from government regulators that surely someone versed in economics could expose as stupid, wasteful, and downright ridiculous.
The US is by far the biggest economy in the world. Its financial markets — be it equity, bonds or derivatives markets — are the largest and most liquid. The Greenback is the most important transaction currency. Many currencies in the world — be it the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the British pound or the Swiss franc — have actually been built upon the US dollar.
Donald Trump’s election has sent the mainstream media and intellectual circles in the United States into complete disarray.
Not only that, but international outlets and the intelligentsia are also at a loss for words at Trump’s unexpected ascent to the American presidency.
President Donald Trump is set to have an even greater impact on the Federal Reserve than expected, after Daniel Tarullo surprisingly announced he will be leaving the Fed’s board in April — five years before his term was set to expire. This now leaves Trump with three vacancies to fill.
Now that 2016 is gone and President Obama is a thing of the past, we can take a look back at just how much government spending grew during his tenure. It seems that in his eight year tenure, Obama never managed to top the enormous increases in government spending that occurred under presidents Reagan and George Bush. In fact, Obama doesn’t even come close.
