Hayek famously argued that prices embody information and that economic actors, responding to price changes, act as if they knew the underlying circumstances generating these changes.
France’s state auditing bureau, Cour des Comptes, informed the French government that it was “dreaming” in forecasting that the French economy would grow this year by 0.8 percent, which would enable it to meet its budget deficit target of 3 percent of GDP. The bureau told French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault that a growth rate of 0.3 percent was more like it, which would not be sufficient to meet the deficit reduction target.
Ronald Dworkin, (1931-2013) who died yesterday, was widely regarded as America’s leading legal philosopher. He was decidedly not a libertarian, but libertarians will find much of interest and value in his work. His defense of moral objectivity in his Justice for Hedgehogs (2011) is especially impressive. He argues that views about the nature of morality are themselves moral positions.
As if any more evidence were needed (see my CB post earlier this week) that the Fed has succeeded, either through ignorance or design, in igniting new asset bubbles throughout the economy, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City just released a survey of bankers that confirms a continuing rise in U.S. farmland prices.
From time to time I have been critical of Professor Paul Krugman, the Nobel Laurette from Princeton University and the New York Times. Recently I criticized his use of the babysitter model of the economy. However, Robert Blumen brought to my attention that I had unfairly criticized Krugman in my paper on the deflation phobia, Apoplithorismosphobia.
In truth, there is only one way to regard a minimum wage law: it is compulsory unemployment, period.
The eminent Austrian economist Israel M. Kirzner turns 83 today. Last week I was privileged to participate in an event honoring Kirzner with the Fund for the Study of Spontaneous Order Lifetime Achievement Award. Here is a video of Kirzner’s acceptance speech. The other videos should be available shortly.
Milton Friedman and all monetarists after him claimed that the Gold Standard had a fatal flow. The Gold Standard required that gold be dug up, refined and then made into coins or stored away in vaults to back paper money in circulation. Therefore this gold was expensive and could not be used in jewelry, artwork, industry, etc. The fiat money system does away with most of this cost.
It would seem that Vladimir Putin has learned the art of alchemy as he has turned some Russian oil into Russian gold. According to a Bloomberg report:
