Big Government

Sometimes I wish our overlords would get their stories straight.

This free-market system encouraged just the right mix of tradition and innovation.

This comprehensive list of the Fed's functions gives the lie to the notion that there has been "too little regulation" of financial markets. Anyone who makes such an argument is either ignorant of the truth or is lying.

The question posed by the title to this lecture raises a number of deep problems of economic science.

"This plan would also set a dangerous precedent for American industry in general."

But if you follow the Austrian recipe of allowing liquidation of bankrupt firms and debt, allowing prices to fall without monetary inflation, not propping up employment or subsidizing unemployment, and not discouraging hoarding, you will end up with the quickest possible recovery and minimize the magnitude of economic pain.

We are also constantly told — this time by Chicago economists, not Keynesians — that "we learned in the Depression" that the Fed needs to rapidly expand the monetary base to avert disaster. Oops, turns out that's bogus too.

Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.

Konkin cripples libertarian effectiveness by creating moral problems where none exist: by indicting as nonlibertarian or nonmarket a whole slew of institutions necessary to the triumph of liberty: organization, hierarchy, wage work, granting of funds by libertarian millionaires, and a libertarian political party.

Peter Ubel has written an informative and useful book, but not entirely for the reasons he thinks. He presents a very well-written and easy-to-understand account of behavioral economics;