In the past few years, there has been a remarkable revival of academic interest in the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises’s pioneering and incisive critique of the rationality of economic calculation under socialism. An entire issue of the Journal of Libertarian Studies was devoted to the subject. Other journals have included articles by Karen I.
In this article, I shall consider the nature and consequences of labor-union activities. There are various useful services that unions perform, but my interest will be solely with the social effects of privately exercised coercive power as a means to secure some of their main objectives (e.g., an increase in the remuneration of a particular group of workers).
During the past decade a significant change has occurred in the kinds of questions explored by monetary economists. Heretofore, one of the central issues concerned the “rules versus discretion” debate of a central bank empowered monopolistically to supply base money. However, with the publication of studies by Klein (1974), Thompson (1974), and Hayek (1976/1978), the range of alternatives expanded to include the possibility of regimes based on the private provision of inconvertible media of exchange.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, in his excellent article “How Is Fiat Money Possible? — or, The Devolution of Money and Credit,1 explained that fiat money can come into existence through the progressive degeneration of commodity money substitutes.
This essay is intentionally one-sided. Almost all other essays by either defenders of capitalism (libertarians) or defenders of government (statists) are oppositely one-sided. They claim that capitalism’s voluntariness or government’s coerciveness mean that capitalism or government better fosters such things as art, happiness, education, jobs and world peace, and never much emphasise factors that may undermine their commentary. This essay emphasises the mitigating factors that others gloss over.
Robert LeFevre The Rampart Journal - Winter 1966
Robert LeFevre The Rampart Journal - Summer 1966
Rampart Journal (Summer 1965)
Robert LeFevre The Rampart Journal - Spring 1968
