Interventionism

Cowperthwaite, along with many Austrian School economists, has proven that economics is only a dismal science when interventionist economists insist on making it one.

Every state needs justification. And the justifiers are always welcomed and cheered by the state. So we should not be shocked that a false science — a science that props up the state — is embraced by the state and associated sycophants.

"Governmentalizing, and thereby controlling through an appropriate bureaucratic apparatus, the providing of medical, accident, and old age care and of death (burial) benefits seemed an obvious way to put the reins on laissez-faire capitalism as well as on labor."

Socrates' conversation illustrates the logic of the politics of plunder and injustice in the polis. Socrates is able to do this because of his audience's lack of a definition of justice.

So no matter what GDP numbers the Commerce Department spins out, the interest rate Chairman Bernanke controls will stay low "for an extended period."

Presented to the Auburn University Economics Club; Auburn, Alabama, on 25 March 2010. Includes a Question and Answer period.

Rival explanations — for example ones that claim government deficit spending doesn't help an economy — fit the evidence far better.

The international gold standard works without any action on the part of governments.

There is, however, no denying that the banks have tremendous vested interest in influencing the policies of the Fed, nor that the power being so narrowly vested in the president makes him a special target for influence. Still, the power to control the Fed is not in the hands of its "owners" but firmly in the hands of the federal government and the president of the United States.

Property is that beautiful foundation from which libertarians approach conflicts.