Credit as Virtual Money

Bob Murphy has a thought-provoking column at Mises.org looking at whether, as deflationists like Mish Shedlock argue, credit should be considered virtually part of the money supply. It’s an important question, since credit expansion over the last 20-odd years has so been massive that a credit contraction will, according to the deflationists, constrict the money [...]

A Tale of Two Hazlitts

I had no idea that the great economic journalist Henry Hazlitt was indeed related to the great essayist William Hazlitt. Turns out, according to this archival Time article about H. Hazlitt succeeding H.L. Mencken as editor of the American Mercury, William was Henry’s great-great-great uncle. I’m grateful to Scott Lahti for bringing this to my [...]

Currency Competition

A classic Peter Brimelow article from Forbes on an eminently sensible idea that’s now getting more attention thanks to Ron Paul.

The “FairTax” Fraud

Bruce Bartlett tax a look at the latest scam to harness the power of antitax sentiment without actually cutting taxes, the so-called FairTax. Something in general that the not-very-rich, which is most of us, should keep in mind: any revenue-neutral tax reform is going to be a massive tax hike on people like you [...]

Democratic Capitalism Rides Again

Finished copies of Brian Anderson’s Democratic Capitalism and Its Discontents arrived at the ISI Books offices yesterday. It’s a handsome book, if I do say so myself, and while I’m skeptical of any concept that originates with Michael Novak, I’m looking forward to seeing what Anderson has to say. His earlier South Park Conservatives wasn’t [...]

Two (or Four) Interesting Economists

Both of whom I hope to write about in the not-too-distant future. Here’s Roger Kimball in The New Criterion on Hayek. And here are a couple of links to reviews of the new Thomas McCraw bio of Joseph Schumpeter, which looks to be excellent: The Economist, NY Sun. I hadn’t known that Schumpeter is [...]

Something For the Weekend: Thomas Woods on Culture and Enterprise

Last Thursday I attended the Culture of Enterprise event at the Cato Institute, “What Should Be a Culture of Enterprise in an Age of Globalization.” Thomas Woods gave a talk that was an absolute tour de force and, fortunately, it’s available on-line. Hear it here (MP3), or watch it here (Real video). Those [...]

If Bohm-Bawerk Had Given Us a Reading List, We Would Have Thrown It Back At Him

Henry Regnery’s Memoirs of a Dissident Publisher show a side of Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter seldom seen elsewhere:
At an early lecture he gave us a reading list, with the remark, “If one of our professors at the University of Vienna, Bohm-Bawerk, for example, had given us a reading list, we would have thrown it back [...]

Invasion of the Hermeneuticians

A classic from Murray Rothbard (who also takes a well-deserved shot at economists /econometricians invading other fields):
In recent years, economists have invaded other intellectual disciplines and, in the dubious name of “science,” have employed staggeringly oversimplified assumptions in order to make sweeping and provocative conclusions about fields they know very little about. This is [...]

Cantor Live

I’ve been enjoying the Paul Cantor “Commerce and Culture” seminar at the Mises Institute so much so far that I haven’t set aside any time for blogging.  Catch up on what I haven’t been writing, though, by following the live webcasts of Professor Cantor’s lectures here.