Economics

"The End of Dollar Hegemony"
by Rep. Ron Paul
February 15, 2006

A hundred years ago it was called "dollar diplomacy." After World War II, and especially after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, that policy evolved into "dollar hegemony." But after all these many years of great success, our dollar dominance is coming to an end...

"Why Paper Money Represents Theft"
by Mark R. Rushdoony

...Paper money is the greatest single means of government control of wealth. We measure our economy, in fact, in terms of the government’s success in manipulating the flow of money. We watch the Federal Reserve to see if they can maintain a balance between recession and inflation. The health of our economy is increasingly measured in terms of government management, not in terms of productivity, savings, or capital. In reality, an economy that demands government management is already a troubled one.

"Reducing Poverty by Reducing Government"
by George Reisman

...If workers, the poor, and the public at large understood their actual economic interests, they would rise up in outrage at the injustices foisted upon them. They would rise in outrage not against their usual targets, the businessmen and capitalists, who create the demand for the labor they sell and the supply of the products they buy, and who progressively raise real wages and the general standard of living by introducing ever newer and better products and more efficient methods of producing all products, but against the ignorant, incompetent politicians and intellectuals who have so misled them that moreoften than not they have been duped into positively yearning for the fetters that make them poor. It is time for everyone to open his eyes to the knowledge provided by the science of economics and to understand that it is economic freedom, not the government’s violations of economic freedom, that is the way out of poverty and is the foundation of prosperity for all.

"The Failure of Secular Economics"
By John W. Robbins

Let me begin by saying that I do not intend to tell jokes about economists—at least not too many jokes—but I do intend to quote their own words to make my point that secular economics has failed. Their words will be far more devastating than any number of jokes. The problem is not so much the economists, as the jokes might lead us to believe, as it is the discipline of economics itself. As presently constituted, the discipline of economics is incapable of providing us with knowledge.

"Markets, Not Unions, Gave us Leisure"
By Thomas J. DiLorenzo

In Human Action Ludwig von Mises wrote that labor unions have always been the primary source of anti-capitalistic propaganda. I was reminded of this recently when I saw a bumper sticker proclaiming one of the bedrock tenets of unionism: "The Union Movement: The People Who Brought You the Weekend."

"The Morality of Profit "
by Timothy D. Terrell

An article I read recently on a consumer advocacy website complained about allegedly huge profits being garnered by pharmaceutical companies. "Prescription drug profiteering racket exposed by Dept. of Commerce" was the headline. The Department of Commerce "study" the author cited bore the earmarks of a hoax, and in fact a check of the Department of Commerce website revealed no mention of any such action. The website editor apparently believed that pharmaceutical companies were actually earning profits of around a half-million percent. But let us set the editor's gullibility aside and go straight to the main ethical issue in question: Are profits immoral? And, if they aren't immoral per se, is there a level at which they become immoral?

"The Cultural and Spiritual Legacy of Fiat Inflation"
by J.G. Hulsmann

The notion that inflation is harmful is a staple of economic science. But most textbooks underrate the extent of the harm, because they define inflation much too narrowly as a lasting decrease of the purchasing power of money (PPM), and also because they pay scant attention to the concrete forms of inflation. To appreciate the disruptive nature of inflation in its full extent we must keep in mind that it springs from a violation of the fundamental rules of society.

"Ten Recurring Economic Fallacies, 1774-2004"
By H.A. Scott Trask

As an American historian who knows something of economic law, having learned from the Austrians, I became intrigued with how the United States had remained prosperous, its economy still so dynamic and productive, given the serious and recurring economic fallacies to which our top leaders (political, corporate, academic) have subscribed and from which they cannot seem to free themselves-and alas, keep passing down to the younger generation.

"Our World-Class Debt Creators"
by John F. McManus

Heavy indebtedness can cost a nation its sovereignty and its people their freedom. Thus the federal government must be put back on the leash created by our nation's founders.

"Deflating the Deflation Myth"
by Jane H. Ingraham

Fed chief Alan Greenspan is claiming that the specter of deflation is upon us. The truth, however, is that Fed-created inflation, not deflation, is threatening American prosperity.