Franz Cuhel occupies an honored place in the history of economic thought and of the “Viennese” or “Austrian” School of economics in particular. In his book Zur Lehre von den Bedürfnissen (1907), Cuhel presented for the first time a strictly ordinal interpretation of marginal utility and thus contributed to a systematic advance of pure economic theory. Since this lecture is named in Cuhel’s honor, I felt it appropriate that I, too, should discuss here a purely theoretical problem of economics.
[The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal. By Robert P. Murphy. Regnery, 2009. 199 pages.]
[The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. By Andrew J. Bacevich. Metropolitan Books, 2008. 206 pages.]
For years, free market theory of one sort or another has been caricatured as “trickle down economics.” The idea is that we believe that if society protects the wealth of the rich, and let’s them keep more of their money, the blessings will eventually trickle down to the poor and middle class. In some ways, it is not an entirely indefensible view, but of course the phrasing is designed to somehow elucidate the elitist absurdity even before arguments are heard.
The purpose of government is for those who run it to plunder those who do not. Throughout history, governments have used violence, intimidation, coercion, and mass murder to enforce this system. But governments’ first line of “defense” is always a blizzard of lies — about its own alleged benevolence, altruism, heroism, and greatness.
As most readers of this blog know, the Mises Institute launched Libertarian Papers last January (I am its humble Editor). In just three months LP has published 25 great papers, and been indexed in a number of leading services. It has quickly become a key journal of libertarian scholarship.
The ever-fashionable and reliably unprincipled Richard Posner seizes the moment to write and sell a new book, a work which Caronline Baum enjoys crushing.
Newly constructed home in Victorville, CA north of Los Angeles being demolished by the Guaranty Bank of Irvine. From the news story:
A Guaranty Bank official, Real Estate Officer Dean Smith .. said it was a choice of pumping their own money into property site improvements and additional money to bring the home up to code or tear down the 16 homes ..
