The WSJ is reporting that Daniel Tarullo has submitted a resignation letter and will be departing the Fed Board in early April. This is an interesting resignation in light of the recent regime change in Washington.

My book, Advanced Introduction to the Austrian School of Economics, is being translated into Korean, and the translator asked me to provide a short preface for the Korean edition.  I’m reproducing it below, partly just to give my book a bit more publicity (it’s affordably priced, if you go with the paperback), partly to indicate how I see how the ideas of the Austrian school are relevant to Korea, and partly because the introduction will be translated before it is published, so the only people who will be able to read it are those who read Korean.  Here’

From 2014’s speech “A Realistic Libertarianism.” The following is an excerpt. The full version is available in pdf and html.

One of the great things about economics is that it is devoid of all mysticism. Every person, good, service, and dollar is treated equally — nothing is special or above the rules. There’s nothing about the supply of or demand for apples that is categorically different from that of oranges. Since every good or service demanded by anybody is scarce, economics treats apples, oranges, computers, haircuts, education, and health care in the same way.

For those that follow the Fed’s rate hike hoopla, one of the more obnoxious aspects is all the “economist expectations” that are reported on throughout the year. They’ve been vocalizing their lousy expectations since 2010. Consider this one, based on a survey of “leading economists:

Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez, a human rights activist in Cuba and a member of the Cuba Mises Institute, was arrested on February 2nd. Manuel Velazquez Visea, another Cuban libertarian activist, was also arrested. We have been able to confirm that other members of Mises Cuba were threatened by security officials after the incident, but no further arrests have yet been made.

Most economists agree on one thing; price controls do not work. Many go on to say they create shortages of goods, which inevitably drives black market prices even higher than they would otherwise be. Price controls were last tried in the 1970s, and everyone swore, never again. The suggestion that they could return is laughed at today, even taken as madness. Only in Venezuela and Zimbabwe.