March 30 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of someone who introduced a crucial distinction in understanding political reality–sociologist Franz Oppenheimer. In The State (my English translation of which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year), he contrasted the “political means” and the “economic means.”
Reading David Hume on economics, one has the feeling that he is rebutting current Keynesian policies. How could that be, since Keynes lived hundreds of years later? The explanation is simple: Keynesianism is not new. It is just a revival of the old mercantilist ideas that Hume was targeting.
Keynes even admits at the end of the General Theory that he is reviving mercantilism, apparently having forgotten his claim at the beginning of the same book to be staking out new ground in economics. Whatever the reason, much of Hume seems highly relevant to today’s debates:
Robert Higgs discusses his book ‘Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government’. Purchase online.
[From “An Appreciation of B.R. Shenoy, Economist in the Fall 2013 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.]
AGRICULTURE AND FOREIGN AID
The fear of deflation serves as the theoretical justification of every inflationary action taken by the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world. It is why the Federal Reserve targets a price inflation rate of 2 percent, and not 0 percent. It is in large part why the Federal Reserve has more than quadrupled the money supply since August 2008. And it is, remarkably, a great myth, for there is nothing inherently dangerous or damaging about deflation.
From last week’s Austrian Economics Research Conference: 
By Nathan Nicolaisen
One of socialism’s last men standing, Cuba has recently softened its stance on foreign investment. In a bid to attract capital to the stagnant economy, a newly proposed foreign investment law would cut taxes on foreigners in half to 15% and exempt most investors from paying it for at least eight years.
