The week before last marked my first time attending the Austrian Economics Research Conference, an annual meeting of economists of the Austrian school hosted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, AL. While many of the presentations were interesting, one that I found particularly helpful was that by Patrick Barron of the University of Iowa. What was especially useful was how he tied together monetary and fiscal policy.
In the course of his interesting discussion of “The Politics of Political Economists,” Professor Stigler challenges the alleged view of Professor Mises that “economic statistics, or more generally quantitative economics — generates a radical political viewpoint.”1 Stigler asserts that the empirical studen
In recent years, some ground has been gained in the battle for liberty on the Drug-War front, specifically at the state level, with many states adopting less oppressive laws regarding medical marijuana and some even legalizing recreational use. Possession has been decriminalized in some instances as well. Despite the progress in these areas, however, prohibition at the federal level is still going strong, even if enforcement is less than consistent.
“Our greatest enemy today, in short, is the economic illiteracy and confusion on the part of those who insist on “planning,” “stabilizing,” and straitjacketing the economy and who have the political power to do it.” So wrote Henry Hazlitt in 1946, words that sadly retain their relevancy today. The consequences of this pervasive fallacy takes many forms.
In the last two years left-wingers have been fond of referring to private enterprise as a “boom-bust” economy; OPA officials have contended that only price fixing can prevent a repetition of the 1920–21 boom and collapse, and British statesmen have insisted that their new “democratic socialism” will work beautifully if only mercurial America doesn’t crack again and drag the rest of the world down with it. Small wonder that so many people now ask each other whether the recent slump in the stock market does not at last foreshadow this longpredicted business setback.
To my British and American friends who must deal with the socialist nonsense of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, I found this poem. It was written by Rudyard Kipling, the writer most hated by English Socialists in the 40s and an opponent to the interventionist policies implemented by the Labour Party after the second world war:
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
Last week, we saw some new threats emerge against the existing auto industry. In Apple mania style, people lined up in different cities to preorder an electric car almost no one has driven or seen. It’s a car that is about to be delivered in two years (or perhaps later because of huge preorder numbers).
Since 1986, Mises University has been the place to learn Austrian economics (and sound economics in general) from some of the best, most radical, and most accessible faculty members on earth. You can be part of this continuing tradition. The Mises Institute is still taking applications for Mises U 2016. Click here for more information.
