Topic: Economic History

Carl Menger’s Theory of Institutions and Market Processes

– April 13, 2021

“Let us hope that the 150th anniversary of both the ‘marginalist’ revolution, and Menger’s distinct development of it along with his ideas about the surrounding social and market processes, can serve as the inspiration for such a rethink when thinking about man, markets and the institutions in which we live.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Books, Economic History

Thomas Paine, Debt Realist and Political Economist Extraordinaire

– March 22, 2021

“Paine’s remarkably accurate and pithily expressed ideas about political economy can now be found in a convenient edition of his work, The Best of Thomas Paine, published by AIER and edited by yours truly.”~ Robert E. Wright

Cryptocurrency, Currency, Economic History

Bitcoin Bros Rediscovering Our Monetary Past

– March 15, 2021

“For all the revolutionary creed that surrounds the emerging monetary commodity that is bitcoin, it seems that its future more and more resembles the past it tried to escape. Happy times for us monetary nerds.” ~ Joakim Book

Books, Economic History, Financial Markets

When Financial Markets Bubble, There’s Something for Everyone

– February 24, 2021

“Whenever something seems bubbly, accusations of tulips and South Sea bubbles are never far away – even though the proportion of people who could actually explain those iconic episodes of our financial past is frighteningly close to zero. Levenson’s account of the South Sea Bubble will not, I daresay, be the last time historians find reason to look at this grand event of our financial past.” ~ Joakim Book

Central Banking, Economic History, Monetary Policy

Central Banking and the Heavy Hand of the State

– February 19, 2021

“The ‘need’ for a central bank is due to economists inaccurately projecting onto historical banking systems their contemporary monetary-macroeconomic paradigms, not any fatal flaw in these systems. Neither theory nor history show we need a central bank to guarantee optimal economic performance.” ~ Alexander W. Salter

Economic Education, Economic History, Policy

Minimum Wages Had a Eugenic Intent

– February 15, 2021

“Let’s say that instead of a $15 an hour minimum, Congress pushed a $15 maximum wage/salary. The rich would simply stop working, while everyone else would likely lose professional aspiration. This is not complicated to understand. So too with a wage floor: it cuts the poor out of the market just as the eugenicists said it would.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Economic History, Financial Markets, Government

Presidential Impeachment and US Equity Markets

– February 10, 2021

“The gradual pace of what is fundamentally a political (as opposed to legal) action tends to result in dampened, rather than heightened, volatility. And nearly as soon as any latent uncertainties are ironed out, broader economic trends resume driving the direction of financial markets. A more profound degree of political upheaval, with a more sudden onset, is required to throttle the stock markets.” ~ Peter C. Earle

Authoritarianism, Economic History

The Economic Policy Failures of the Trump Administration

– January 17, 2021

“The economic policies of the Trump administration constitute one of the greatest lost opportunities of the postwar period. We’ll be paying the price for decades. The fundamental problem traces most fundamentally to an illiberal philosophy behind the seeming policy chaos. Repairing that problem is essential to laying the necessary groundwork to recover what has been lost.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Crisis, Economic History

The Decimal Point that Blew Up the World

– December 16, 2020

“A terminological confusion, a misplaced decimal point, a one-word error in data description, and a massive amount of arrogant presumptions about how to control a virus set in motion a series of events that turned our great and prosperous country into a disaster of confusion, demoralization, foregone medical services, closed businesses, wrecked arts and education, and long bread lines. The lockdowners who created this appalling disaster, the people who turned our trust into betrayal and a blizzard of statistical baloney, need to look at the science and data as they stand and come clean.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Economic History, History

The “Expert Consensus” Also Favored Alcohol Prohibition

– December 11, 2020

“Most people today regard America’s experiment with alcohol prohibition as a national embarrassment, rightly repealed in 1933. So it will be with the closures and lockdowns of 2020, someday. In 1920, however, to be for the repeal of the prohibition that was passed took courage. You were arguing against prevailing opinion backed by celebratory scientists and exalted social thinkers. What you were saying flew in the face of expert consensus.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Books, Economic Education, Economic History

No, Keynes Did Not “Sit Out” the Debate on Eugenics

– December 4, 2020

“By politely sidestepping these issues in Keynes and other historical figures, we do a disservice to the past. Carter has unfortunately reduced Keynes’s eugenics to a subject that is best not spoken about, and on the rare occasion it is raised as Cowen’s interview did, something to be actively downplayed and dismissed.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Classical Liberalism, Economic History, Government

The American Tradition of Ordered Liberty

– October 16, 2020

“Regardless of what we think of these traditions and practices, we cannot comprehend the history and development of American institutions without reference to them. To understand money, we must understand the entire institutional chain: from money to banking and finance, to law and politics, to the ultimate sources of social authority. The story of money in America is itself a chapter in the story of ordered liberty in America.” ~ Alexander W. Salter