Posted on 06/19/2010 2:52:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Question: Hello Paul! Do you ever plan to present the ideas of economists that adhere to the Austrian School of Economics (Students of Von Hayek or Von Mises)? Their understanding of the nature and causes of the business cyle enabled them to foresee much of what has happened in the last few years. (Peter Schiff and Marc Faber are successful examples.) Thanks for your friendly commentary!
Paul Solman: Yes, the resurgence of the Austrian School is worth a look, and was suggested to me by none other than Robert MacNeil a few weeks ago after Rand Paul's victory in Kentucky. Look for our take, playing at a PBS station near you, eventually, if not soon.
Meanwhile, Russ Roberts did a pretty good job of making the Mises/Hayek case in a debate we staged in December, a story that marked the debut of the Keynes-Hayek video rap that has since become a viral phenomenon on the Web (1.2 million views at the moment).
“Is it Time for a Resurgence of the Austrian School of Economics?”
YES!!!
This is like asking whether we should observe the laws of thermodynamics as we build our new “green economy”.
Sorry, but unregulated free trade leads to the concentration of capital in the hands of those with superior skill in gaming the system.
And once capital becomes sufficiently concentrated... blammo. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but sooner or later, blammo.
What, quit printing money? How would the government be able to fund failure.
Our resident socialist chimes in.
It is better to have capital concentrated in the hands of government?
LOL I’m no more a socialist than I am a capitalist. Capitalism and socialism are twins.
No.
No.
Cuz socialism is doing wonders for the world economy.
Austrian school relies upon centralized planning, not free markets. While we can not truly stay that America is all about economic capitalism currently; the more socialism applied the more problematic and misaligned national economics become. The worse economic type being the Keynesian model;
-Steal first then pay using someone else’s credit card.
Although, Milton Friedman’s model works very well when real market conditions actually exist, yet problems arise due to too much interference from the political class. As were seen in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Banking practices and Insurance debacles run by the Democrat Socialist Party USA, “friends of government” and foreign entanglements from 2003 through 2009.
Blammo…
You mean like China, and Middle East oil.
Has Austrian School of Economics ever been used in practice?
I like those guys, but Milton Friedman and the Chicago school rule. Are there any major differences between them?
The whole purpose of modern economics is to try to get something for nothing. It is bound to fail, but in the long run we are all dead right?
Check out the Mises institute (http://mises.org/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.