Saturday Learning Series - Law and Economics

This is the final installment of the Mises Austrian School of Economics 101, presented by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann. Previously in part 10 of 11, they discussed welfare economics.  This time they discuss the law and economics.

Saturday Learning Series - Welfare Economics

Continuing with the Mises Austrian School of Economics 101, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann discuss the economics of deflation in the 10th of an 11 part lecture series.

This part deals with the foundations of welfare economics.

Saturday Learning Series - Austrian School Theory and History

Continuing with the Mises Austrian School of Economics 101, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann discuss the economics of deflation in the 9th of an 11 part lecture series.

If you jump in at the middle it might be boring and/or confusing, but the lack of explosions is offset by the common sense.

Saturday Learning Series - Deflation

Continuing with the Mises Austrian School of Economics 101, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann discuss the economics of deflation  in the 8th of an 11 part lecture series.

Saturday Learning Series - Praxeology

The Austrian School of economics, as described by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann, is explained in an 11 part lecture series. The previous lecture can be found here.

This particular lecture focuses on praxeology. What is that? The term was coined by the famous Austrian school economist Ludwig von Mises. But it's meaning is a bit tricky to explain, but it ties into free will and the study of how human action relates to the idea that when a specific condition holds true, a particular action should be taken. That's not highly instructive, the video explains it better.

Saturday Learning Series - Capital and Interest

The Austrian School of economics, as described by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann, is explained in an 11 part lecture series. The previous lecture can be found here.

 This particular lecture focuses on the capital and interest.

Saturday Learning Series - The Theory of Banking

The Austrian School of economics, as described by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann, is explained in an 11 part lecture series.  The previous lecture can be found here.  This particular lecture focuses on the theory of banking.

Saturday Learning Series - Mises & Division of Labor & Money (3)

If you want to understand the Austrian School of Economics, and Mises, this lecture series will help explain it   for you.  In this continuation of the Saturday Learning Series, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann focus the discussion on the division of labor and money. Watch and learn.

Saturday Learning Series - Value, Utility and Price (2)

This is the second in a series of lectures on Mises and Austrian economics. No, it's not riveting, but it is an important lecture series if you are interested in how economics is supposed to work, rather than blindly accepting more failed Keynesian solutions.

Krugman tells half a story

The Krugman answer.

Paul Krugman, economist, propagandist, and Keynesian ideologue looks to Europe and sees a failure of countries' attempts at austerity in helping their economies - as if the problem was one that could be solved overnight.  The same liberal logic used to defend president Obama - the recovery will take time - doesn't get applied when Krugman looks at the success or failure of solutions that don't fit his world view.

Specifically, in early 2010 austerity economics — the insistence that governments should slash spending even in the face of high unemployment — became all the rage in European capitals. The doctrine asserted that the direct negative effects of spending cuts on employment would be offset by changes in “confidence,” that savage spending cuts would lead to a surge in consumer and business spending, while nations failing to make such cuts would see capital flight and soaring interest rates. If this sounds to you like something Herbert Hoover might have said, you’re right: It does and he did.

Now the results are in — and they’re exactly what three generations’ worth of economic analysis and all the lessons of history should have told you would happen. The confidence fairy has failed to show up: none of the countries slashing spending have seen the predicted private-sector surge. Instead, the depressing effects of fiscal austerity have been reinforced by falling private spending.

Furthermore, bond markets keep refusing to cooperate. Even austerity’s star pupils, countries that, like Portugal and Ireland, have done everything that was demanded of them, still face sky-high borrowing costs. Why? Because spending cuts have deeply depressed their economies, undermining their tax bases to such an extent that the ratio of debt to G.D.P., the standard indicator of fiscal progress, is getting worse rather than better.

(emphasis added)

The interesting point is that austerity measures don't produce results overnight, just as president Obama said there were scores of shovel-ready projects that would lift the country out of recession almost immediately turned out to be pure fantasy, it is fantasy to suggest that austerity, during a downturn would provide nothing but roses is a false claim.  Nobody suggested it would.

As for the lessons of history, in the early 1980s the deep economic recession under Reagan was deepened by the high interest rate policy which was designed to deepen the pain but significantly shorten the period of pain.  Krugman has not learned the real lessons of history - that long term solutions are not the best short term solutions.  Looking at the austerity measures taken in Europe in countries that had previously been on unsustainable paths, the long term is set up far better than additional stimulus efforts would have provided.  The point is - the results are not in this has just started.  True, it's painful, that's what happens withdrawal symptoms of an addiction.  But give it 10 years and you'll see an entirely different set of circumstances.  

The sad part of the proof will be this - if Krugman gets his way and Obama gets re-elected, the matter of proving the effectiveness of austerity measures will be easier because the United States will become the control group for the European austerity experiment. Spendthrift American government will end up being the cautionary tale Austrian school economists teach to a new generation of European economic students.

Saturday Learning Series - Austrian Economics

The Austrian Economics model and the business cycle as expounded by Mises:



This is worth watching.