I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice have finally agreed to a settlement in the infamous antitrust case against the House that Bill Gates Built. It seems that everyone has an opinion about this thing, but, as Austrian economists might have expected, most people have missed the boat when it comes to assessing the damage that has been done by runaway government.
In Defense of Free Capital Markets: The Case Against a New International Financial Architecture. By David DeRosa. (Bloomberg Press: 2001) $19.56.
Prior to the Keynesian era, recessions were called panics and had durations of about three months. The shortness in duration reflected the lack of interventionism by extra-market authorities. Today, recessions last much longer, as the bad idea that the state should manage the economy has become legitimized.
The state has a monopoly on higher education, and those who work for it tend, in part accordingly, to favor the state in most every respect. Having higher education managed, ultimately, by the state is one of the most corrupting aspects we find in these institutions.
Some are claiming that the attacks of September 11 triggered this latest economic slide, but all signs indicate that the U.S. economy already was in recession even before the attacks.
[The following essay originally appeared in Plain Talk, Volume 3, no. 4, January 1949, pp. 57-64, and has been widely reprinted since]
Presidents assume near dictatorial powers during wars, and FDR was able to manipulate World War II to provide moral legitimacy to his domestic agenda. With the war, Roosevelt could boast of eliminating unemployment at home while fighting evil abroad. Not a bad deal.
