The American school is of course, correct. Only a sufficiently commanding, authoritarian, and unitary state can command the loyalty of monied elites, who otherwise consider themselves free agents, without loyalties to a state or a people. Only a state capable of punishing treason and disloyalty by throwing a rich, powerful man in jail, or even killing him and taking his wealth, is capable of resisting a conspiracy of money grubbers who wish to take over the state and loot the treasury and oppress the people with usurious lending.
Which of course is what is missing from this reading list. An understanding of the particular evils of usury, apart from rents.
I suggest Barren Metal by Dr. E. Michael Jones as the missing piece.
I was deep into Austrian Economics for a long time. My time as a "libertarian" was long, and I enjoyed the intellectual underpinnings of the Austrian school. It took me a while, as well, to see how 'free trade' was such a negative. You couldn't have convinced me years ago. I guess we all spend time in some doctrinaire box - perhaps it's a required part of the journey.
I am curious about Keen's books. I enjoy his interviews, except when he froths at the mouth about "climate change". If you ask him, the world is doomed by climate change. I suggested in a comment that if that's the case, all the debates should end, and we should all sit and have a beer together.
I'd never heard of the American School. Thanks for the links.
This channel's content is top-notch! Just not sure if the economy can be saved. Once the incentive of growth and capitalism is gone, like we see now in woke Europe, there will be a transformation towards kings, lords, and emperors, genetic nobility, and mind control, e. g. magic and propaganda. Computers will help to create utopian serfdom and economic unreality, no problem. It is possible to imagine flying cars while riding a bike. Unreality can be monetized. Just like unreal money, unreal stocks, unreal market shares and the arts. Just hit the subscribe button and can't wait for more contemplations on the American school of economics. Also, let's combine efforts in spirit to stay ahead of the censorship! The censors are coming to Substack for sure. Best! T
A recovering free trader as well. I think one of the primary issues is making economics/market efficiency the sole goal of policy. I still favor the more natural law/rights perspective found in Austrian Econ, because I believe that to be the rightful role of the state - aka a matter of justice. Of course, reading Neo reactionary thought, I have come to believe a Jubilee is necessary and Usury needs to be illegal again.
On Tariffs, I have a pet belief that moving to funding the federal government ONLY through tariffs would be ideal. Too high and it becomes protective and drops revenues, and the too low and the government revenues also suffer. Seems like a more natural limiter of the State, than turning every business into tax collectors (via income, sales, etc.) which leads to huge opportunities for graft and corruption.
A challenging list! I think I may have read...one of these books.
I did, however, go back to your article on George Reisman. You wrote:
"Wage-laborers aren’t the only consumers. Capitalists are also consumers. The money they use to consume is the profit they receive from their ownership of businesses, paid to them in dividends, royalties, profit shares, and so on. The “missing” $3000 of food and clothing is paid for out of the profits. The capitalists eat a lot of expensive food and wear a lot of fancy clothes."
From this it's clear that profits are made--and who makes them. But I cannot for the life of me figure out on this basis alone *from where* the profits *derive*. Isn't it at least plausible that they are partially derived from wages, in addition to dividends etc?
I did not know that they figured the rent equivalent of home prices in GDP! That's wacky! Oh, for the time to read your list!
For those with less time, I'd recommend the works of Mark Skousen for understanding the Austrian School. Also Skousen is considerably less dogmatic; he is capable of conceding points to those he opposes, even Marx. He's also not allergic to numbers.
And my big gripe with the dogmatic Austrians I have read and encountered: no ability to consider transitions from a broken fractional reserve economy to a more sustainable arrangement. The prescriptions I have read consists of just letting the malinvestments rot. This is bothersome.
It seems he was correct in his prediction that "capitalism" would collapse and be replaced with socialism.
Today, every country operates using a huge dose of socialist doctrines and practices. Propaganda and subversion are not uncommon, I'm afraid.
In my opinion, part of the reason why Europe produces less than it should and consumes so much is because of the mental damage caused on people by socialist practice: public health, public education, public works.
Pure capitalism more or less forces people to remain mentally sane if they want to prosper economically. Same for companies. But in socialism, it is actually better to be crazy. Sometimes psychotically violent. Look at big companies. They act like a crazy person. And they don't suffer sanctions from the regime.
But was Schumpeter a free trader, or did he see in his prophetic work that it was actually better to run everything on nationalist-socialist principles?
The American school is of course, correct. Only a sufficiently commanding, authoritarian, and unitary state can command the loyalty of monied elites, who otherwise consider themselves free agents, without loyalties to a state or a people. Only a state capable of punishing treason and disloyalty by throwing a rich, powerful man in jail, or even killing him and taking his wealth, is capable of resisting a conspiracy of money grubbers who wish to take over the state and loot the treasury and oppress the people with usurious lending.
Which of course is what is missing from this reading list. An understanding of the particular evils of usury, apart from rents.
I suggest Barren Metal by Dr. E. Michael Jones as the missing piece.
https://www.amazon.com/Barren-Metal-History-Capitalism-Conflict/dp/0929891147
Freetrader isn’t such an embarrassing sobriquet: it’s another name for smuggler.
I was deep into Austrian Economics for a long time. My time as a "libertarian" was long, and I enjoyed the intellectual underpinnings of the Austrian school. It took me a while, as well, to see how 'free trade' was such a negative. You couldn't have convinced me years ago. I guess we all spend time in some doctrinaire box - perhaps it's a required part of the journey.
I am curious about Keen's books. I enjoy his interviews, except when he froths at the mouth about "climate change". If you ask him, the world is doomed by climate change. I suggested in a comment that if that's the case, all the debates should end, and we should all sit and have a beer together.
I'd never heard of the American School. Thanks for the links.
This channel's content is top-notch! Just not sure if the economy can be saved. Once the incentive of growth and capitalism is gone, like we see now in woke Europe, there will be a transformation towards kings, lords, and emperors, genetic nobility, and mind control, e. g. magic and propaganda. Computers will help to create utopian serfdom and economic unreality, no problem. It is possible to imagine flying cars while riding a bike. Unreality can be monetized. Just like unreal money, unreal stocks, unreal market shares and the arts. Just hit the subscribe button and can't wait for more contemplations on the American school of economics. Also, let's combine efforts in spirit to stay ahead of the censorship! The censors are coming to Substack for sure. Best! T
A recovering free trader as well. I think one of the primary issues is making economics/market efficiency the sole goal of policy. I still favor the more natural law/rights perspective found in Austrian Econ, because I believe that to be the rightful role of the state - aka a matter of justice. Of course, reading Neo reactionary thought, I have come to believe a Jubilee is necessary and Usury needs to be illegal again.
On Tariffs, I have a pet belief that moving to funding the federal government ONLY through tariffs would be ideal. Too high and it becomes protective and drops revenues, and the too low and the government revenues also suffer. Seems like a more natural limiter of the State, than turning every business into tax collectors (via income, sales, etc.) which leads to huge opportunities for graft and corruption.
I read Steve Keen's Debunking Economics and realized I'm an idiot and shouldn't be reading about economics.
A challenging list! I think I may have read...one of these books.
I did, however, go back to your article on George Reisman. You wrote:
"Wage-laborers aren’t the only consumers. Capitalists are also consumers. The money they use to consume is the profit they receive from their ownership of businesses, paid to them in dividends, royalties, profit shares, and so on. The “missing” $3000 of food and clothing is paid for out of the profits. The capitalists eat a lot of expensive food and wear a lot of fancy clothes."
From this it's clear that profits are made--and who makes them. But I cannot for the life of me figure out on this basis alone *from where* the profits *derive*. Isn't it at least plausible that they are partially derived from wages, in addition to dividends etc?
Also, have you looked into the writings of Fred Foldvary? He attempted to merge the Georgist and Austrian schools of economics.
https://www.progress.org/authors/fred-foldvary
I did not know that they figured the rent equivalent of home prices in GDP! That's wacky! Oh, for the time to read your list!
For those with less time, I'd recommend the works of Mark Skousen for understanding the Austrian School. Also Skousen is considerably less dogmatic; he is capable of conceding points to those he opposes, even Marx. He's also not allergic to numbers.
And my big gripe with the dogmatic Austrians I have read and encountered: no ability to consider transitions from a broken fractional reserve economy to a more sustainable arrangement. The prescriptions I have read consists of just letting the malinvestments rot. This is bothersome.
For those with a REALLY short time to read, here is an ultra simple macroeconomic thought experiment, which is semi-Austrian, but actually looks for graceful means out of a depression: https://greenandfree.org/SustainableEconomics/BusinessCycle.php
I'm surprised you don't mention Schumpeter.
It seems he was correct in his prediction that "capitalism" would collapse and be replaced with socialism.
Today, every country operates using a huge dose of socialist doctrines and practices. Propaganda and subversion are not uncommon, I'm afraid.
In my opinion, part of the reason why Europe produces less than it should and consumes so much is because of the mental damage caused on people by socialist practice: public health, public education, public works.
Pure capitalism more or less forces people to remain mentally sane if they want to prosper economically. Same for companies. But in socialism, it is actually better to be crazy. Sometimes psychotically violent. Look at big companies. They act like a crazy person. And they don't suffer sanctions from the regime.
But was Schumpeter a free trader, or did he see in his prophetic work that it was actually better to run everything on nationalist-socialist principles?