The idea that experts can do a better job of directing the use of resources, including gasoline, than can markets and market prices derives from the faulty assumption that experts know more than the whole of society.
But people in a society do not find themselves in such a "one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma." Quite the contrary, they must deal with one another repeatedly.
A drastic turn to responsible economics is the only legitimate way to escape the deep rut Ireland finds itself in.
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.
Seeking to provide the intelligent layman with sufficient knowledge of sound economic theory to enable him to understand what must be done to overcome the present financial crisis and return to the path of economic progress and prosperity.
Modern macroeconomists failed to forewarn against the dangers of the recklessly inflationary monetary policy pursued by the Fed in the first half of this decade. They now are at a complete loss for a coherent explanation of its consequences in the deepening financial crisis and recession that afflicts the global economy.
Our present institutional arrangements are characterized as socialistic.
"You libertarians are really nuts. … Why depend on the willy-nilly whims of some capitalist exploiter when the state is there to provide this wonderful service for free?"
Austrian economists like Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek opposed government intervention in the macroeconomy because that intervention leads to distorted relative prices and malinvestment.
Carabini admits in the first chapter that in his opinion people are in general attracted to one of two opposing camps — those inclined to liberty and those inclined to mastery — and it is rare that exposure to additional evidence and facts sways anyone to switch camps.
