Daniel Hausman is an influential philosopher of economics, and in a recent interview in the New York Times, he has much to say that will be of interest to Austrians. He agrees with Austrians that economists cannot predict particular events: “Scientists (and I include economists) are not fortunetellers.” His reason for holding this view. though, differ from that of Mises and Rothbard.

The International Monetary Fund (dominated by the US which has the largest voting bloc, by far) has demanded Europe be more socialistic. The New York Times reports: 

In a recent interview, Jeb Bush said that in order for the United States to reach a higher level of economic growth, “people need to work longer hours.”

Leftists immediately jumped on this comment as proof that Bush is horribly out of touch with ordinary working Americans.

Paul-Martin Foss writes: 

Obtaining nuclear weapons is a way of getting reliable defensive capability on the cheap. This is why small, relatively powerless countries want them. North Korea can shell Seoul from the DMZ with conventional weapons fairly easily, but having a few nukes certainly hasn’t hurt North Korea’s ability to keep much larger powers at bay. Pakistan’s status as a nuclear power means it faces no true threat of invasion from foreign powers, even large ones. 

Last week, former Secretary of Education and US Senator Lamar Alexander wrote in the Wall Street Journal that a college degree is both affordable and an excellent investment. He repeated the usual talking point about how a college degree increases lifetime earnings by a million dollars, “on average.” That part about averages is perhaps the most important part, since all college degrees are certainly not created equal.

Mises Daily Wednesday by Matt Palumbo: 

It’s been a light season for hurricanes and tropical storms in North America, and contrary to what many economics “experts” may think, that’s a good thing. After all, natural disasters are extremely costly in terms of opportunity costs and capital.

In the early nineteenth century, Bastiat posed the story of a young man who throws a brick through the window of a baker’s shop. We’re told that this may have a bright side — that the baker must now pay a glazier to fix the window, who will then use that income to spend elsewhere, creating a ripple effect that benefits many.

Web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal explains how global financial markets work: Basically, build something really huge that threatens the rest of us, then make everyone else pay to keep it from collapsing. This is followed by an ironic “happily ever after.” 

From the interview with the Financial Repression authority podcast:

“The only way they can do that [negative interest rate policy] is to lock people’s deposits into the banking system. That is where the war on cash comes in. They would love to restrict or even abolish the use of cash within the United States if they could. That means they would have to use deposits.  this is another way of propping up a very unsound and dangerously flawed banking system.”