If the legitimacy of the state arises from the people’s consent, then the prospects for a free society largely depend on the psychological processes of the individual members of society. That is to say, if people’s psychological processes are designed for a social order in which there exists an institution that uses force to acquire resources and that monopolizes protection and defense — to use Rothbard’s description of the state — then the prospects of a free society stand little chance.
In last Monday’s article I discussed Jim Manzi’s debate with economist Karl Smith. I pointed out that Smith’s evidence in favor of mainstream macroeconomic models was actually consistent with the view that fiscal and monetary “stimulus” policies only stoke economic crises.
The generic gold standard may be briefly defined as a monetary system where the unit of value — in terms of which prices, wages, and debts are customarily expressed and paid — consists of the value of a fixed quantity of gold in a large international market.
Recently, Ben Bernanke indicated that Quantitative Easing II (QE2) might be followed by QE3, etc. In an interview at the beginning of December, Bernanke was asked, “Do you anticipate a scenario in which you would commit to more than $600 billion?”
Bernanke’s answer was startling. “Oh, it’s certainly possible,” he said. “And again, it depends on the efficacy of the program. It depends on inflation. And finally it depends on how the economy looks.”
Paul F. Cwik is currently an Associate Professor of Economics in the department of management and human resources at Mount Olive College. He earned a B.A. from Hillsdale College, Michigan, an M.A. from Tulane University in Louisiana, and a Ph.D. from Auburn University in Alabama. He has taught classes at several colleges and universities such as Auburn University, Campbell University and Walsh College.
David Leonhardt speaks as the wise one from on high, assuring readers that opposition to Obamacare is part of the American tradition of individualism and laissez-faire. This is one tradition, he says, while another is centralist and collectivist. It’s true enough, I suppose, just as you can say that society has a long tradition of peaceful people and war-like people just as the natural world has a long tradition of parasites and hosts.
I’ve got some ideas about what would happen after the end of Atlas Shrugged. I could just describe the basic plot here for you. I could say, “I think that after the world economy crashes and the governments collapse, the heroes emerge and help to rebuild. Dagny and Galt have a child, who ends up being a Randian Kwisatz Haderach, named Sarah. Then they get divorced when Dagny cheats on Galt with Eddie Willers. Sarah ends up running for President of a scaled back federal government.
