Other Schools of Thought

The great legal scholar Richard Epstein makes some strong arguments in favor of utilitarianism, according to Dr. David Gordon in this week’s Friday Philosophy. However, Dr. Gordon still remains unconvinced.

This week, Bob does a deep dive on the accounting argument at the heart of MMT, as a teaser for his chapter in the Mises Institute’s forthcoming book, Anti-MMT: The Errors of Modern Monetary Theory. 
 

The people making foreign policy are not disinterested servants of some objectively identifiable “national interest.” They are people and interest groups that respond to incentives and self-interest like everyone else.

The so-called free rider problem is touted as a reason for government economic intervention. Like other excuses for intervention, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

MMT proponents, in the words of Ludwig von Mises, see "something miraculous in the issuance of fiat money"—they see in the government a power that surpasses "the art of sorcerers, witches, and conjurors."

Dr. Jonathan Newman exposes the economic myths taught in government schools and shows what students are never told about markets, socialism, and the debates that shaped economics.

Using Randall Wray's classroom "buckaroo" currency, Bob shows how MMT thinks about money, and the claim that a fiat currency's natural rate of interest is zero.

While mainstream economists add an “inflation premium” to interest rates, Murray Rothbard looked at the complete picture, knowing that the real rate of interest dealt with many factors within the structure of production.

Months ago, the administration said the war's goals were regime change and the removal of all uranium from Iran. We never hear about that anymore because the war has failed to produce either goal. Instead, Trump calls for opening the Strait of Hormuz, which had been open before the war.

In 1871, Carl Menger gave what still is the best explanation of diminishing marginal utility. What was true in 1871 is true today.