The Fed

"There are so many problems with Krugman's thinking that it's hard to know where to begin."

Google Trends records a massive increase in searches for Austrian economics, with the leading city for most such searches being Washington, DC, but extending to all areas of the world.

Even zero inflation is too much when an economy is experiencing overall improvements in productivity. Sound policy in that case calls for deflation at minus the rate of productivity growth.

But even "free market" media such as the Wall Street Journal cling to Keynesian pump-priming, which — by the media's own admission — didn't help Japan and in fact caused the housing boom.

Jeffrey Tucker offers insights into Greenspan's role in the 2008 economic crash.

Recorded at the Mises Institute Supporters Summit, 1 November 2008; Auburn, Alabama. Includes a brief introduction by Mark Thornton.

With an Introduction by Lew Rockwell. Recorded at the Mises Institute Supporters Summit, 1 November 2008; Auburn, Alabama.

In a nutshell, John Maynard Keynes held that one cannot have complete trust in a market economy, which is inherently unstable. If left free, the market economy could lead to self-destruction. Hence there is the need for governments and central banks to manage the economy.

There is, after all, a very keen similarity between Hamiltonian mercantilism — or an economy directed and controlled by government, supposedly "in the public interest" but in reality for the benefit of a privileged few — and the economic fascism of Italy (and Germany) of the 1920s and '30s.

"The enemies of capitalism and economic freedom … use the accusation of 'laissez faire' as a kind of ratchet for increasing the government's power."