ABSTRACT: This is a brief biographical sketch of the heroic late-scholastic thinker Juan de Mariana, with particular attention to his epic confrontation with Philip III and the Duke of Lerma, including a review of the list of charges against him. Around 1600, Mariana produced a series of powerful criticisms of statist monetary policy. From a broad perspective, the Jesuit’s attitude anticipates classical liberal and libertarian opposition to the shenanigans of central bankers (cf. Jefferson, Rothbard, Huerta de Soto, etc.).

Polls in recent years suggest that young people are growing more enamored of socialism. But, they’re not embracing the socialism of Lenin or Mao. Instead, like many other Americans, they are attracted to what seems to be a kinder, gentler version of socialism: social democracy.

ABSTRACT: In his recent book, Money, Interest and the Structure of Production (Machaj, 2017), Mateusz Machaj advances two significant criticisms of Mises’s theory of time preference and his pure time preference theory of interest (PTPT).

The Atlantic’s take is that Mainstream economics has many problems, as others have noted. They think that college students should be exposed to some behavioral economics in their economics classes. Their conclusion is thus:

After over three years of following the disastrous effects of socialism unfolding in Venezuela I can confidently say that 99% of the articles I’ve read on the issue will sooner or later point out that Venezuela’s crisis is not only surprisingly dire, but rather counterintuitive given that it is one of the most oil rich countries in the world, with probably the largest proven reserves.

Less than 10 years ago, many European nations suffered fiscal crises because of a combination of excessive spending, punitive taxes, and 

George H.W. Bush’s recent death has had the DC chattering classes up all night discussing his legacy and accomplishments. President Bush’s track record was standard fare for a 20th century politician. Bush was a consummate advocate of the conservative branch of political universalism which pushed for a muscular foreign policy and a relatively generous welfare program at home.