Four Lectures by Dr. Antony Müller
Professor Antony Müller of Universidad Francisco Marroquín presents four lectures with an Austrian perspective on financial economics and international monetary systems:
Hayekian Competition
It may be only another form of paper, but the free market is clearly at work here: “RMB increases its influence in neighboring areas” (Xinhua): “The Renminbi (RMB) circulation in neighboring countries and regions is preparing the ground for its future goal of becoming a currency that can be exchanged freely on the international market, an official with the central bank told the Beijing-based Outlook news magazine recently.
Hathaway on the Dollar
The always perceptive investment manager John Hathawy has posted The “Real” Value of a Dollar on the Tocqueville web site. Hathaway makes a number of very Austrian-sounding points.First, the importance of money prices for economic calculation:
Whether or not to buy, hire, produce, or invest depends on millions of daily calculations measured in dollars.
The pretense of economic planners who believe that their judgments are superior to market outcomes as expressed in prices:
Who would have thought?
“Too many economists misuse statistics” (Economist)
Now all they have to do is read Mises and Hayek.
A good example of trademark law
This Slashdot article illustrates a good example of how trademarks are over-extended and used to violate property rights and freedom of speech rights. Microsoft is asserting its fictional rights to anything that sounds like “-dows”, and is thus trying to prevent Lindows from using Lindows.com.
Sechrest Controversy in the NYT
Our own Larry Sechrest is now famous.
Rockwell in Poland
I happy to report to that Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.’s article “Bandits and loopholes“ has been printed in Polish conservative-libertarian weekly magazine “Najwyzszy Czas!”. It has about 40-50 thousand readers (official numbers are not available). It is about 10% of Polish Newsweek edition, so has a pretty big audience. Here are some scans of the piece: 1 and 2.
Running on Empty
In his testimony before the Congressional Committee on Financial Services the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, said that he could see good chances for a sustainable expansion of the U.S. economy.
According to Greenspan:
The Regulators Will Botch It Again
Gregory Bresiger explains all you need to know about the SEC’s proposal to ban “soft dollars” in mutual fund management. Once again, the regulators and reformers are about to make the wrong decision, which means another generation of social engineers will have to come up with more reforms to correct the errors of the previous generation of reformers and busybodies.
Greenspan’s Easy Money Madness
Another fine piece by columnist Peater Eavis draws attention to the consequences of the Chairman’s interest rate cuts:
The extra debt may keep the economy afloat for a while, as it has since the crash of the Nasdaq economy and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But it does much more harm in the long run by preventing necessary restructuring of the economy, driving down saving, inhibiting future spending and endangering the long-term health of the banking system.
