Interventionism

The consequences of inflation, higher taxes, and more regulation that result from government bailout plans, however, are sure to make losers of us all.

Hamiltonian mercantilism is essentially the economic and political system that Americans have lived under for several generations now.

Money passing back and forth from the amorphous fiscal blob in DC and listed corporations is as difficult to follow as a shell game.The public is expected to sit blinking like a corporate mistress in a James Thurber cartoon.

Presented to the Auburn University Economics Club, Auburn, Alabama, on 14 October 2008.

Really smart guys (and now gals too) built impressive models that were quite rigorous in some respects, yet woefully deficient in others. In the case of economics, this hubris led to horrible government policies. We can only hope the same doesn't happen because of the climate models.

By outlawing short selling, the Securities and Exchange Commission outlawed a practice that produces information necessary for financial markets to function smoothly.

Economic knowledge gets more valuable as the economy worsens; but the economy worsens according to the level of political intervention — which is a function of economic ignorance.

For the economy and country to begin healing, we need capital, credibility and authority to move from the wasteful to the productive. The power elite, predictably, is attempting to achieve the exact opposite.

Q: So what's the solution?

A: Get out of the way. Let the market work.

Leading Austrian Economists discuss Henry Hazlitt's classic book Economics in One Lesson. Interview 7 of 12.