In a free, unhampered market economy, individuals’ expectations are likely to correspond to the facts of reality. But we live in an economy where central banks routinely distort market signals and deceive the public.
An Indiana University health officer laments that incentives such as access to events, donuts, french fries, and even hard cash are no longer moving many Americans to fall in line with vaccination.
When the government pays people not to work, that means fewer people producing fewer goods. And that means a poorer society. More government spending won't change this fact.
Anticapitalism's origins are not found with the workers. Rather, it came from the aristocrats and middle-class intellectuals who harbored resentment and fear of the rising entrepreneurial and industrial classes.
The risk of government expropriation of private property remained low, and Botswana rejected antiwhite reformist politics which destroyed capital in many other countries in the region. Economic success has been a result.
The ECB wants more price inflation, so it has unveiled a new plan to use new, radical monetary tools. It's all very similar to the "old" plan. Except the new plan is even worse.
In 1819 America, nobody blamed the effects for the Panic of 1819, they rightly blamed the cause. They blamed the "friendly central bank."
With such a messed-up economy, why is it still hard to spot a bust on the horizon?
The goal of the human economy is to gain greater control over the means of satisfying human needs. We start with the most immediate needs, but thanks to saving and investment, we can move onward and upward from there.
We may be told price controls are a temporary necessity, as in 1971 under Nixon. But one thing is certain: price controls will do nothing to resolve the issues underlying the inflation.
