Where did Benjamin Strong - head of the Fed - come from? Rothbard continues to reveal the individuals who shaped our world and wars. Morgan's empire brought us the irrational and useless WWI. Foreign policy today rests upon this Morgan outlook.
Public housing, planned cities, government power plants, and coerced unionism were all part of the great cooperation between corporations and government through WWI and WWII.
Progressive movement came in in 1900 to eliminate political parties. Technocrats and bureaucrats take over political power. Rural versus urban. Eliminate mayors, eliminate voting altogether, have appointed bureaucrats only. The Progressive party was created by JP Morgan interests.
With WWII, Morgans get their war in Europe; Rockefellers get their war in Asia. Both sides are happy. Rockefellers take over foreign relations and create the Trilateral Commission, while electing Carter President in 1977.
Rockefeller's Standard Oil created a monopoly in kerosene refining by buying others out. A huge drop in the price of fuel followed, benefiting consumers, due to production efficiencies. Rothbard then discusses pietists, prohibitionists and the big political shift of 1896.
The railroads experienced both enormous growth and enormous government intervention. Land was closed off from settlement, causing farmers to oppose the privileged railroads. Markets were skewed. Waste and inefficiencies were high.
"The Austrian School is the most humane form of economics we know, and the most philosophically informed — hence we regard it as the most relevant to humanistic studies."
Mises illustrates his case with a review of the fall of Germany, from the collapse of classical liberalism to the rise of nationalism and socialism
If composers could set still-unmatched records of productivity without copyrights while earning a living, writers could do this in an environment t
Rothbard explains why he is optimistic. The norm of civilization has been despotism and statism. The quantum quality change in history has been the Industrial Revolution from mid-18th Century to mid-19th. Only the free market, libertarian society can expand this viable and moral industrialism.
