Publication and Its Aftermath
The response of reviewers and public to Part II of Democracy in America was much less enthusiastic than it had been to Part I. They seemed to find Tocqueville’s use of “ideal types” and his depictions of the future too speculative and confusing. Tocqueville was hurt by the general reaction, and led to moments of self-doubt: If he really had any merit as a thinker, how could he have spent four years of his life writing a book of such little merit? But his friends reassured him, and John Stuart Mill’s enthusiastic review filled him with joy.
On most fronts, the Trump era is off with a bang — both upsetting the status quo, but also offending numerous Austro-libertarian free market principles. Particularly, there is growing tension within the spheres of monetary and regulatory policy. Those who made themselves comfortable in the Obama administration are swiftly being uprooted by a new narrative in the Eccles Building.
Democracy in America, Part II
In fact, five years would elapse between the appearance of the two parts of Democracy in America. Part II, again in two volumes, would only be published in 1840. In those years, Tocqueville read very widely and deeply in many fields, above all the history of political thought. He had his favorites. He wrote a friend that there were three men he lived with every day: Montesquieu; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; and Blaise Pascal, the seventeenth century philosopher and subtle dissector of the human soul and heart.
The US is by far the biggest economy in the world. Its financial markets — be it equity, bonds or derivatives markets — are the largest and most liquid. The Greenback is the most important transaction currency. Many currencies in the world — be it the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the British pound or the Swiss franc — have actually been built upon the US dollar.
Donald Trump’s election has sent the mainstream media and intellectual circles in the United States into complete disarray.
Not only that, but international outlets and the intelligentsia are also at a loss for words at Trump’s unexpected ascent to the American presidency.
President Donald Trump is set to have an even greater impact on the Federal Reserve than expected, after Daniel Tarullo surprisingly announced he will be leaving the Fed’s board in April — five years before his term was set to expire. This now leaves Trump with three vacancies to fill.
Now that 2016 is gone and President Obama is a thing of the past, we can take a look back at just how much government spending grew during his tenure. It seems that in his eight year tenure, Obama never managed to top the enormous increases in government spending that occurred under presidents Reagan and George Bush. In fact, Obama doesn’t even come close.
The WSJ is reporting that Daniel Tarullo has submitted a resignation letter and will be departing the Fed Board in early April. This is an interesting resignation in light of the recent regime change in Washington.
My book, Advanced Introduction to the Austrian School of Economics, is being translated into Korean, and the translator asked me to provide a short preface for the Korean edition. I’m reproducing it below, partly just to give my book a bit more publicity (it’s affordably priced, if you go with the paperback), partly to indicate how I see how the ideas of the Austrian school are relevant to Korea, and partly because the introduction will be translated before it is published, so the only people who will be able to read it are those who read Korean. Here’
