George Selgin, head of Cato’s monetary policy center, on his relationship with the Austrian school
An excerpt from his post at Freebanking.org, Something Nice about Austrian Economics:
3. Specific Problems: The Alleged Shortage of Scientists
We now have at our command the general principles with which to approach our problems; we may now turn to some specific applications of these principles.
First, let us turn to the widely-trumpeted problem of a grave “shortage” of scientists, researchers, engineers, etc. It is widely asserted that the Federal government should subsidize scientific education in order to relieve this supposed “shortage.” Now let us analyze this question more closely:
Science, Technology, and Government
1. General Principles
The crucial economic question, and one of the most important social questions, is the allocation of resources: where should the various and numerous productive factors: land, labor, or capital, be allocated, and how much of each type to each use?1 This is the “economic problem,” and all social questions must deal with it.
How Embargoes Destroy Freedom
From today’s Mises Daily:
Why exactly does the brutality of the Cuban regime make it alright for the US regime to jail and persecute private American citizens who attempt to trade with people in Cuba?
That is, after all, the position of those who favor the embargo. Embargoes are not something where a magic fairy waves her wand and Cuba suddenly becomes invisible to Americans.
Politicians to Business Owners: Drop Dead
Eurozone Craves More Inflation
Since 2008, many have complained that the European Central Bank—unlike its very active Japanese and American counterparts—remained idle in its response to the sluggish European recovery. In the fall of last year, the ECB embarked on a program of asset purchases designed to perk up prices in the Eurozone, which have been growing at levels below the 2% target. At the time, ECB chief Mario Draghi had promised to keep the quantitative easing ‘lite’; that is, the ECB would buy only asset-backed securities and covered bonds, and steer clear of government debt.
Connor Boyack: Raising Libertarian Kids
Chicago Fed President: We Need More Inflation and More Easy Money
Just in case you have any thoughts that people at the Fed might have become slightly less dovish on inflation, rest assured, they have not.
Today on Squawk Box on CNBC, Chicago Fed president Charles Evans averred (Pardon the all caps, but that’s how the transcript came in):
