Topic: Economic History

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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A New Film on the Life and Work of Ludwig von Mises

– October 13, 2020

A new film about Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) is a major achievement in getting the word out by this mighty intellectual of the 20th century. It tells the story of his life and work through interviews with top scholars and writers. Featured in this film are the following associates of AIER: Peter Boettke, Edward Stringham, Peter C. Earle, Jeffrey Tucker, and Gregory van Kipnis, along with many others. Many parts were filmed at the campus of AIER.

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smashcapitalism

A Comment on the New History of Capitalism

– September 18, 2020

“Much of the current debate revolves around an emergent historiographical school. Usually referred to as the ‘New History of Capitalism’ (NHC), this school has produced a sizable body of research contending that the institution of slavery was a central building block of American capitalism. At the same time however, the NHC literature has come under intense criticism from economic historians who have long studied the same subject, and who question both its use of evidence and its conclusions.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

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classroom

Should K-12 classrooms teach from the 1619 Project?

– September 12, 2020

“We need not indulge the bombastic posturing of Trump, or unlikely legislative efforts to strip funding from schools, to conclude that the 1619 Project is still ill-suited for K-12 education. That is a judgement we may make on its scholarly shortcomings alone.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

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