Historians who are ostensibly concerned about "the little guy" revere US presidents in almost exact proportion to how many people were killed by their subordinates. Beyond Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson's wars, however, is their dismal record of economic interventionism.
Jim Manzi has been challenging mainstream economists to defend their models, which tout the benefits of fiscal and monetary "stimulus." Manzi has repeatedly asked why he should put any faith in the predictions of these models.
Antitrust keeps superior products and marketing strategies from harming rivals, but halting such innovation harms consumers. It inhibits superior firms from passing on their efficiencies to consumers in lower prices.
If the Fed had been tracking repos in 2007–2008, what they would have seen was the unfolding of the financial crisis one full year before it went critical. Instead, Bernanke stopped collecting the data because he decided to abolish M3.
Why is unemployment stuck at 10 percent in the narrowest measure and as high as 30 percent for some demographics? The usual answer is that the broad economy is not recovering. That's true but superficial; it explains nothing. We have a problem of a specific kind with the job market.
Beginning in 2007 and culminating in 2008, the home-ownership myth was smashed, as values all over the country plummeted, wiping out a primary means of savings and instilling shock and awe all across the country. The thing that was never supposed to happen had happened.
The fundamental question is, who is the owner of the funds paid in taxes? Is it the citizens, who have earned the funds and who turn them over under threat of being fined or imprisoned — or even killed — or is it the government?
Plans are already in the works to put the initiative back on the ballot for 2012, which is expected to have higher turnout from young people. But in order for the ballot initiative to succeed, we must first understand why it failed.
Recorded at the Mises Circle at Furman University on November 13th, 2010.
