FDR expressed a willingness to experiment his way out of the Great Depression. But experimentation requires recognizing failures, and the self preserving dynamics of government bureaucracies laced with political cronyism is reluctant to confess failure.
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by Henry Oliner
The obsessive focus on demand also proved misplaced. Demand and supply ebb and flow in ways far too organic to be managed by central planning. Periods of innovation create new demands. New products precede their demand and subsequent manufacturing technology continuously turns luxuries into commodities.
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from newly discovered blog Isegoria, Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics Francis W. Porretto notes that Cyril Northcote Parkinson studied the same phenomenon of bureaucratic behavior: Parkinson promulgated a number of laws of bureaucracy that serve to explain a huge percentage
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Economics is a bit different from history by the use and study of certain underlying principles. It is not a physical science but a social science using scientific methods to analyze and understand. There are certain principles that are quite
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from the Wall Street Journal, Judy Shelton in Trump’s Contribution to Sound Money The source of trade anxiety is a broken global monetary system that distorts price signals with sharp currency moves. No serious economist would claim today that the
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Milton Friedman’s basic theory was MV=PT. The supply of Money times its Velocity or turnover equals the Price level times the number of Transactions. Milton assumed the Velocity was relatively fixed and that therefore the control of the supply of
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The big prize at Freedom Fest was George Gilder, most famously noted for his Wealth and Poverty. His new book is The Scandal of Money. Gilder wrote of travelling to China with Milton Friedman and respectfully challenges many of Friedman’s
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Jeffery Singer writes in Reason Online, Health Care’s Third-Party Spending Trap: Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman, in his masterpiece “Free to Choose,” wrote of four ways to spend money: Category I—You spend your money on something for yourself. Here you are
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Pope Francis offered his judgment on modern capitalism in his 50,000 word address, Evangelii Gaudium: Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and
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The editors of the Wall Street Journal write An Economy Built to Stall- With a third slowdown in three years, maybe the problem is the policies. 6/12/2012 Excerpt: Maybe Milton Friedman was right that “temporary, targeted” tax cuts don’t change
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In his book comparing the Chicago and Austrian schools of economics, Mark Skousen clarifies the various schools of thought by their faith in Capitalism. Marxists have no faith in capitalism. In the world of capitalism they are the atheists. “To
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With Pelosi explaining that unemployment benefits are the best form of stimulus spending and the President suggesting that further regulation actually creates jobs, it is hard to conceive of more misguided economic thinking. On a tour in China economist Milton Friedman asked
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General William Westmoreland, the U.S. Commander in Vietnam, strongly supported involuntary conscription, and told the [Gates] commission that he didn’t want to command an army of mercenaries. “General,” [Milton] Friedman interrupted, “would you rather command an army of slaves?” Replied
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Unfortunately, the relation between the ends and the means remains widely misunderstood. Many of those who profess the most individualistic objectives support collectivist means without recognizing the contradiction. It is tempting to believe that social evils arise from the activities
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The most misunderstood aspect of the success of the Reagan led supply side revolution was the monetary aspect. The idea adapted from Robert Mundell’s theory was that the Fed should focus ONLY on monetary matters and that fiscal policy should
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This clip of Milton Friedman is a great insight into the ancient tradition of surviving is spite of governmental authority vs those who seek protection from that authority. tips to Bob Cain
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The lesson of history, then, is that even as institutions and policy makers improve, there will always be a temptation to stretch the limits. Just as an individual can go bankrupt no matter how rich she starts out, a financial
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This is a continuation of Roy Fickling’s response in a debate that centers on promoting economic growth verses a more fair and even distribution of wealth. For a bit about Roy’s experience see The Great Debate Part I The human
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Guest Blogger- Roy Fickling is a very intelligent and experienced young entrepreneur and investor. Among his company’s holdings are automobile distributorships, banks, and real estate- the biggest victims of the recent financial collapse. He is very well read and travelled
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“A society that puts equality — in the sense of equality of outcome — ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for
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