Robert Wenzel reports:  

One of the worst effects of modern Keynesian economics is that its aggregate demand (total spending) approach to output and employment  provides a pseudo-scientific justification for the central fallacy of mercantilism, which  dates back to the 16th century.  According to this ancient myth a deficit in a nation’s  balance of payments results in its loss of demand, income, and jobs.  This  fallacious doctrine has been demolished time and again by economists during the past two-and-a-half centuries.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ index of meats, poultry, fish and eggs just hit an all time high. Nor are these higher prices confined to just food items. Consumer prices across the board are registering their sharpest price increases in over15 months. Inflation is accelerating on a variety of goods, from airline fares to vegetables. This must be good news to the Fed, as it has unleashed the most expansionary monetary policy of all time over the past five years.

Summary By Luis Rivera III: As Lysander Spooner said before him, Walter Block calls “taxes” what it is…highway robbery. Host Mike Smyth asks Dr. Block how would services such as fire fighting, roads, police, courts etc. be funded. He uses a reductio ad absurdum to elucidate his point. Dr. Block holds no punches and tells listeners of this Canadian radio station that North America practices a lot of fascism.

Back when I was an undergrad, I took a class called something like “The Politics of National Defense.” This was not a class about international relations, but about the bureaucracy behind the U.S. Military. It was taught by a retired Army officer. Thus began a long education about how government bureaucracies function, and it quickly became clear that all those chest-thumping military enthusiasts who think the US Military is some kind of well-oiled machine helmed by brilliant minds live in a fantasy land.

Tom Woods writes:

Steve Forbes was on the Dennis Miller radio show last night promoting his new book about the dollar.  Based on his comments to Mr. Miller, the book proposes something conceptually similar to John Taylor’s “rule-based” Fed, i.e. pegging the US dollar to gold at (say) $1200 per ounce.  If gold rises to $1300, the Fed decreases the supply of dollars.  It it falls to $1100, the Fed inflates.

Course Description: A new history of the Great Depression is emerging. One that acknowledges the role that government played in causing and prolonging it, and the constructive role that free enterprise could have played, if it were given the chance. In this video, UCLA economist Lee Ohanian explains how Herbert Hoover, widely misunderstood as a champion of the free market, actually turned what should have just been a recession into a depression due to his mistrust of the market.

Once upon a time it was claimed that the government’s debt didn’t matter because we “owe it to ourselves.” Each government bond is a claim on taxpayers, and if all of the bondholders are taxpayers from the same country the size of the debt would be irrelevant to the total sum of the country’s financial wealth.

Bob Murphy did a good job some years ago dispelling several myths of this reasoning.

At the Oxford Union, debates are carried out in teams.