Debunking Austrian Economics 101 (Updated)

I have updated my “Debunking Austrian Economics 101” post below. Many new posts are now included, such as, for example, against Austrian price theory, the Rothbardian view of fractional reserve banking, and Austrian apriorism.

I have yet to see any substantive Austrian engagement with the Post Keynesian critique of their theories, and this is not really that surprising, since any moderately well-read person with a knowledge of Post Keynesian economics – informed by economic history and some decent background in analytic philosophy – could crush the Austrian cultists in debate without breaking a sweat.

Please note that not all the posts actually debunk Austrian theories, as some are merely descriptive, and allow the reader to understand what the Austrians believe. Some posts examine the history of the school. A few posts are even constructive in that Post Keynesians and some Austrians can agree on certain points (such as the posts on Ludwig Lachmann).

In my view, a useful division of modern Austrians would be as follows:
(1) The Anarcho-capitalists
E.g., Murray Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann;

(2) The minimal state/classical liberal Austrians in the tradition of Mises
This variety often supports praxeology and utilitarianism;

(3) Hayek’s economics, with a minimal state, and with an empirical (or Popperian) approach to economic method, in place of praxeology;

(4) Moderate subjectivist Austrians
E.g., Israel Kirzner and Roger Garrison;

(5) Radical subjectivists like Ludwig M. Lachmann (1906–1990), and Austrians influenced by him.
Debunking Austrian Economics 101

The links are organised into the following sections:
(1) The History, Classification, and Subgroups of Austrian Economics
(2) Debunking Austrian Apriorism and Praxeology
(3) Ludwig Lachmann and Radical Subjectivism
(4) Against the Pure Time Preference Theory of Interest Rates
(5) Against Say’s Law
(6) Austrians and the Concept of Uncertainty
(7) Against the Austrian Theory of Money
(8) Against Mises’s Regression Theorem
(9) Against the Austrian View of Deflation
(10) Against the Austrian Theory of Inflation
(11) Austrian and GDP
(12) Against Vulgar Austrians
(13) Hayek’s Bigotry and Support for Authoritarianism Exposed
(14) Hayek’s Interventionism
(15) Austrian Myths on Government Debt
(16) Questionable or Failed Austrian Predictions
(17) Against Free Trade / Law of Ricardian Association
(18) Against Austrian Interpretations of the Great Depression
(19) Austrian Myths about the 19th century Gold Standard Era
(20) Austrians Misrepresent the Post-1945 Boom in America
(21) Against Rothbard
(22) Against Ron Paul
(23) Austrian Myths about Ancient Rome
(24) Austrian Misrepresentations of Keynesianism
(25) Austrian Misrepresentations of Modern Monetary Theory
(26) Austrians and Equilibrium Theory
(27) Debunking Austrian Ethical Theories
(28) Mises and Fascism
(29) Keynes and Hayek
(30) Debunking the Austrians on the Recession of 1920–1921
(31) Fractional Reserve Banking is not Fraud (against the Rothbardians)
(32) Against the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT)
(33) The Socialist Calculation Debate
(34) Against the Austrian Theory of Prices
(35) Free Bankers misunderstand Hayek’s Liquidationism
(36) Against Misesian Economic Coordination and Calculation
(37) Against Free Banking
(38) Against Robert Murphy
(39) Keynesian versus Austrian Debate
(40) Against Rothbardian Notions of Justice
(41) Probability Theory
(42) Mises and Freudian Pseudoscience
(43) Austrians and Prediction
(44) Austrians and Open Borders
(45) Against Privatised Roads
(46) Mises on War
(1) The History, Classification, and Subgroups of Austrian Economics
“Friedrich von Wieser and Eugen von Philippovich von Philippsberg: Austrian Economists and Fabian Socialists,” October 21, 2010.

“The Different Types of Austrian Economics,” December 5, 2010.

“The Types of Pro-Free Market Libertarians,” January 30, 2011.

“A Classification of Libertarianism,” December 20, 2011.

“An Overview of the Major Schools of Economics,” January 31, 2011.

“Bibliography on Austrian Economics,” May 26, 2011.

“Some Quick Thoughts on Austrian Economics,” May 30, 2011.

“Questions for Austrians Before You Debate Them,” June 2, 2011.

“Why are there no Austrian Socialists?,” June 3, 2011.

“The Neoclassical Wing of the Austrian School,” June 5, 2011.

“The “Dreaded” Post Keynesians?,” August 29, 2011.

“Roger Koppl on Modern Austrian Economics,” December 10, 2011.

“Butos and Koppl on Varieties of Subjectivism: Keynes and Hayek,” December 30, 2011.

“A Question for Austrians: Who Wrote This?,” August 9, 2012.

“Friedrich von Wieser on Progressive Taxation,” July 2, 2013.

“Rescuing Menger from the Austrians,” August 27, 2012.

“Was There an ‘English Subjectivist School?,’” May 17, 2013.

“Wieser Advocated Fiat Money,” May 25, 2013.

“Vaughn on the Early History of the Austrian School,” June 23, 2013.

“The Early Austrians and Walrasianism,” November 7, 2013.

“The English Language, Pedantry and Libertarianism,” April 22, 2014.

“Some Introductory Books on Austrian Economics,” August 23, 2014.

“How Noah Smith Should Have Criticised Austrian Economics,” July 20, 2014.

“Kirzner Lecture on Austrian Economics,” October 6, 2014.

(2) Debunking Austrian Apriorism and Praxeology
“Mises’ Praxeology: A Critique,” October 1, 2010.

“Limits of the Human Action Axiom,” February 28, 2011.

“Hayek on Mises’ Apriorism,” May 23, 2011.

“Mises and Logic,” August 26, 2011.

“Karl Popper’s View of Mises,” October 2, 2012.

“My Post on Praxeology gets some Attention,” March 7, 2012.

“Mises Flunks Evolution 101,” April 2, 2013.

“What is the Epistemological Status of Praxeology and the Action Axiom?,” July 27, 2013.

“Barrotta’s Kantian Critique of Mises’s Epistemology,” July 28, 2013.

“David Friedman versus Robert Murphy,” August 4, 2013.

“Mises Fails Philosophy of Mathematics 101,” August 30, 2013.

“Bob Murphy All At Sea on Geometry and Economic Epistemology,” August 31, 2013.

“Mises’s Non Sequitur on synthetic a priori Knowledge,” September 2, 2013.

“Tokumaru on Mises’s Epistemology,” September 3, 2013.

“Reply to a ‘Red Herring on Praxeology,’” September 6, 2013.

“Mises versus the Vienna Circle,” September 7, 2013.

“Mises’s Flawed Deduction and Praxeology,” September 8, 2013.

“Hoppe’s Caricature of Empiricism,” September 10, 2013.

“Hoppe on Euclidean Geometry,” September 11, 2013.

“Robert Murphy gets Mises’s Epistemology Wrong,” September 13, 2013.

“Hoppe on Euclidean Geometry, Part 2,” September 14, 2013.

“Mises on Kant and Praxeology,” September 15, 2013.

“Mises was Confused about the Analytic–Synthetic Distinction,” September 15, 2013.

“What is the Epistemological Status of the Law of Demand?,” September 19, 2013.

“A Simple Question for Austrian Apriorists,” November 20, 2013.

“Mises, Action and Uncertainty,” December 4, 2013.

“Córdoba on Praxeology and Economics,” December 7, 2013.

“Schuller’s Challenge to Misesian Apriorists has never been answered,” December 7, 2013.

“Mises versus Ayer on Analytic Propositions and a priori Reasoning,” March 16, 2014.

“David Gordon on Praxeology and the Austrian Method: A Critique,” March 13, 2014.

“Why Mises’s Praxeological Theories are not Necessarily True of the Real World,” March 15, 2014.

“Mises and Empiricism,” April 17, 2014.

“Mark Blaug was Right on Mises’ Method,” April 30, 2014.

“Why Should we reject the Existence of Synthetic a priori Knowledge?,” May 23, 2014.

“Detlev Schlichter on Mises’ Apriorism,” June 5, 2014.

“Robert Taylor versus David Ramsay Steele on Praxeology,” June 6, 2014.

“John Quiggin on Apriorism in Austrian Economics,” July 28, 2014.

“Hutchison on the History of Hayek’s Views on Economic Methodology,” August 2, 2014.

“Hayek on Prediction in the Social Sciences,” August 6, 2014.

“Walter Block’s An Austrian Critique of Mainstream Economics: A Critique on Epistemology,” October 8, 2015.

(3) Ludwig Lachmann and Radical Subjectivism
The only sensible wing of the Austrian school (comparatively speaking).
“Ludwig Lachmann on Government Intervention,” July 9, 2011.

“A Startling Admission from Ludwig Lachmann,” July 11, 2011.

“Austrians on Public Works and Fiscal Stimulus,” November 20, 2011.

“Audio Lecture by Ludwig M. Lachmann,” December 21, 2011.

“Ludwig Lachmann: Bibliography and Resources,” December 31, 2011.

“Lachmann Endorsed Keynesian Stimulus in a Depression,” February 8, 2012.

“Who Said this About Austrian Economics?,” July 2, 2012.

“Lachmann and Post Keynesianism on Prices,” August 1, 2012.

Lachmann on Liquidity Preference, October 26, 2012.

“Caldwell on Lachmann on Equilibrium Prices,” November 6, 2012.

“Lachmann on Speculative Markets and Economic Complexity,” September 18, 2013.

“Do Modern Austrians ever Read Lachmann?,” October 13, 2013.

(4) Against the Pure Time Preference Theory of Interest Rates
“Robert P. Murphy on the Pure Time Preference Theory of the Interest Rate,” July 13, 2011.
Robert P. Murphy, an actual Austrian, debunks the pure time preference theory of interest.

“Observations on the Pure Time Preference Theory of Interest,” June 27, 2013.

“Mises’s ‘Originary Interest’: Another Useless Real Theory of the Interest Rate,” June 28, 2013.

(5) Against Say’s Law
“The Myth of Say’s Law,” October 7, 2010.

“Say’s Law Presupposes Aggregate Demand as a Meaningful Concept,” May 28, 2011.

“Say Repudiated Say’s Law,” December 1, 2011.

“Jean Baptiste Say on Failures of Aggregate Demand,” December 1, 2011.

“Say’s Law: An Overview and Bibliography,” April 13, 2013.

(6) Austrians and the Concept of Uncertainty
“A Note on Mises and the Concept of Uncertainty,” August 1, 2011.

“Austrians Mangle Business Uncertainty,” July 22, 2012.

“‘Regime Uncertainty’: The Austrian Poor Man’s Version of Fundamental Uncertainty,” September 7, 2014.

(7) Against the Austrian Theory of Money
“The Quantity Theory of Money: A Critique,” July 18, 2010.
While not, strictly speaking, an Austrian theory, many internet or vulgar Austrians repeat fables about the quantity theory of money.

“Austrian Measures of the Money Supply,” March 5, 2011.

“Keynes on the Special Properties of Money,” May 8, 2011.

“Hayek and the Myth of Neutral Money,” June 23, 2011.

“David Graeber’s Response to Robert Murphy,” September 9, 2011.

“Gold as Commodity Money and its Elasticity of Production,” November 18, 2011.

“Rothbard on the Bill of Exchange,” December 11, 2011.

“Money as Debt,” December 26, 2011.

“Menger on the Origin of Money,” January 5, 2012.

“The Origins of Money,” January 8, 2012.

“Mises on the Origin of Money,” January 12, 2012.

“David Graeber on the Origins of Money,” January 23, 2012.

“David Graeber versus Robert Murphy: A Review,” January 24, 2012.

“Quiggin on the Origin of Money,” February 10, 2012.

“Money as a Unit of Account and its Origins,” February 11, 2012.

“Observations on Non-Commercial Money,” February 18, 2012.

“Hayek Grasps Endogenous Money,” March 16, 2012.

“‘Funny Money’: A Loaded Phrase,” May 12, 2012.

“More on Goldsmiths’ Notes and the Act of 1704,” May 13, 2012.

“A Note on Menger on the Nature and Origin of Money,” July 28, 2012.

“Money Has Direct Utility,” October 25, 2012.

“Menger’s Nuanced View on the Origin of Money,” November 6, 2012.

“The Origin of Money and Coinage in Western Civilisation: The Case of Ancient Greece,” April 5, 2013.

“Could China back its Currency with Gold?,” March 23, 2014.

“Huerta de Soto gets it Wrong on the Gold Standard,” December 20, 2014.

“Libertarian Gold Standard Myths Never Die,” January 13, 2015.

“George Selgin versus David Graeber on the Origin of Money,” March 30, 2016.

(8) Against Mises’s Regression Theorem
“Mises’s Regression Theorem: A Critique,” January 13, 2012.

(9) Against the Austrian View of Deflation
Some Austrians think deflation is desirable; others do not. Hayek most notably changed his mind and condemned “secondary deflation.” The Austrians hold inconsistent views on deflation.

“Hayek on Secondary Deflation,” January 24, 2011

“Rothbard Refutes Rothbard on the Effects of Deflation,” January 28, 2011.

(10) Against the Austrian Theory of Inflation
“The Austrian Theory of Inflation: Myths and Reality,” April 15, 2010.

“Are Cantillon Effects an Argument Against Government Spending? ,” September 27, 2011.

“Two Austrian Definitions of Inflation,” November 22, 2011.

“Austrians and the Definition of ‘Inflation,’” August 8, 2013.

“Hayek the Evil Inflationist!,” February 6, 2014.

“Bob Murphy on 1970s Inflation,” April 24, 2014.

“Austrians and the Definition of ‘Inflation’ Again,” July 8, 2014.

“The Original Economic Use of the Word ‘Inflation’?,” August 4, 2014.

“Hysterical Hyperinflation Austrians – Still at it after all these Years,” February 10, 2015.

(11) Austrian and GDP
“Austrian Substitutes for GDP – They are Aggregates!,” January 22, 2012

“Epic Fail from William L. Anderson,” March 8, 2012.

“What are the Austrian Objections to GDP?: A Critique,” March 21, 2014.

“Why a Common Libertarian Objection to GDP as an Aggregate is Ridiculous,” March 20, 2014.

(12) Against Vulgar Austrians
Many internet Austrians are so ignorant they do not even understand fundamental Austrian concepts.

“Prediction, Empiricism and Austrian Economics,” August 31, 2011.

“Austrian Nonsense About Economic Calculation,” February 3, 2012.

“Economic Calculation Yet Again,” February 7, 2012.

“Economic Calculation, Part 3,” February 7, 2012.

“Some Discussion of Aggregates in the Blogosphere,” March 26, 2012.

“Austrians Can’t Get their Story Straight on the Effects of Austerity,” May 25, 2012.

“Economic Calculation Revisited,” July 29, 2012.

“Murphy versus Huerta de Soto on the Government’s Ability to Increase Employment and Output,” December 23, 2012.

“Is This What Vulgar Austrians Mean by ‘Economic Calculation’?,” July 29, 2012.

“Austrians Should Read their Mises,” March 15, 2013.

“When Austrians Throw Reality to the Wind,” October 11, 2013.

“Vulgar Austrians do not Understand Austrian Price Theory (Updated),” July 10, 2014.

“What is Vulgar Internet Austrianism?,” July 12, 2014.

(13) Hayek’s Bigotry and Support for Authoritarianism Exposed
“Hayek the Ethnic Bigot and the Perils of the Ad Hominem Fallacy,” January 14, 2012.

“Hayek and Pinochet: Endless Love!,” July 9, 2012.

(14) Hayek’s Interventionism
“Hayek on Monetary Stabilisation in a Secondary Deflation,” August 6, 2011.

“Did Hayek Advocate Public Works in a Depression?,” September 25, 2011.

“When Did Hayek Renounce Liquidationism?,” January 1, 2012.

“Steven Horwitz on Stimulus Spending and Hayek,” August 24, 2012.

“Hayek the Evil Socialist,” January 1, 2012.

“Hayek on Aggregate Demand in a Depression,” March 21, 2013.

(15) Austrian Myths on Government Debt
“Robert Murphy versus Paul Krugman on Government Debt,” January 29, 2012.

“Mises on War Debt: Not What you would Expect,” May 9, 2013.

(16) Questionable or Failed Austrian Predictions
“It’s 2011 and Still No Hyperinflation,” January 11, 2011.

“Mises Did Not Predict the US Stock Crash of 1929,” May 30, 2011.

“Keynes on the End of the Gold Exchange Standard,” June 21, 2011.

“Another Failed Prediction by Mises,” December 2, 2011.

“Austrians Predicted the Housing Bubble? – But so did Post Keynesians and Marxists,” December 14, 2011.

“Hayek and the Stock Market Crash of 1929: So Much for His Predictive Powers,” December 28, 2011.

“Lionel Robbins and the Myth of Hayek’s Prediction of the Great Depression,” February 5, 2012.

“Remember This?,” February 9, 2013.

“Sumner versus Schiff and ShadowStats,” August 1, 2013.

“Did Austrians Never Predict Hyperinflation?,” March 31, 2014.

(17) Against Free Trade / Law of Ricardian Association
“The Early British Industrial Revolution and Infant Industry Protectionism: The Case of Cotton Textiles,” June 22, 2010.

“Mises on the Ricardian Law of Association: The Flaws of Praxeology,” January 25, 2011.

(18) Against Austrian Interpretations of the Great Depression
“Smoot Hawley and the US Contraction of 1929–1933,” February 26, 2011.

“Herbert Hoover’s Budget Deficits: A Drop in the Ocean,” May 24, 2011.

“Roosevelt’s Record on Unemployment: The Myth and Reality,” June 10, 2011.

“Debunking Catalán on the Recession of 1937–1938,” August 16, 2011.

“What Hoover Should have Done in 1931,” January 26, 2012.

“Steven Horwitz on Herbert Hoover: Mostly Misleading,” February 20, 2012.

“Another Austrian Fable,” September 25, 2012.

“More Fake History of the Great Depression,” September 28, 2012.

“Robert Murphy’s Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression, Chapter 1: A Critique,” November 20, 2012.

“Robert Murphy’s Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression, Chapter 2: A Critique,” November 22, 2012.

“Murphy on US and Canadian Unemployment during the 1930s: A Critique,” December 8, 2013.

“US and Canadian Private Investment 1929–1939,” December 8, 2013.

“Herbert Hoover Rejected Keynesianism,” April 9, 2013.

“That ‘Liquidationism’ Passage in Hoover’s Memoirs,” April 9, 2013.

“US Unemployment in the 1930s,” July 3, 2013.

“Herbert Hoover Myths?,” July 17, 2013.

“Blaming Herbert Hoover for the Wrong Reasons,” July 20, 2013.

“Monetary Disequilibrium Austrians are Clueless about Debt Deflation,” July 24, 2013.

“Hoover’s High Wage Policy and the Great Depression,” July 30, 2013.

“Horwitz on the Post-WWII Boom,” August 20, 2013.

“Mises’s Explanation of the Great Depression: A Critique,” January 26, 2014.

“Murphy on Sticky Wages,” January 29, 2014.

“Salerno’s Response to Krugman on Mises and the Great Depression,” January 29, 2014.

“Magliulo on ‘Hayek and the Great Depression of 1929,’” February 6, 2014

“Mises and the Great Depression in Austria,” May 12, 2014.

(19) Austrian Myths about the 19th century Gold Standard Era
“US Unemployment in the 1890s,” January 24, 2012.

“US Unemployment, 1869–1899,” January 26, 2012.

“Per Capita GDP Growth Rates During the Gold Standard Era,” September 11, 2012.

“Rothbard on the US Economy in the 1870s: A Critique,” September 24, 2012.

“The Gold Standard did not Prevent Price Inflation,” October 26, 2012.

“Woods on ‘Sound Money’ and Deflation: A Critique,” March 17, 2013.

“The Classical Gold Standard Era was a Myth,” March 18, 2013.

“The Profit Deflation of the 1890s,” June 13, 2013.

“Alfred Marshall’s Judgement on the “Depression” of 1873–1896,” June 13, 2013.

“S. B. Saul on the Profit Deflation of the 1873–1896 Period,” June 14, 2013.

“The 1870s Economic Crisis in America: Reality versus Rothbard,” October 5, 2015.

“Huerta de Soto gets it Wrong on the Gold Standard,” December 20, 2014.

“Libertarian Gold Standard Myths Never Die,” January 13, 2015.

(20) Austrians Misrepresent the Post-1945 Boom in America
“Keynesianism in America in the 1940s and 1950s,” January 22, 2011.

“The Post-1945 Boom in America,” July 15, 2011.

“Thomas E. Woods on Keynesian Predictions vs. American History: A Critique,” May 29, 2012.

“What Did Paul Samuelson really say about the Post-WWII US Economy?,” May 31, 2012.

“Paul Samuelson on the Post-1945 Boom,” January 4, 2013.

“Alvin Hansen Predicted the Post-1945 US Boom,” January 4, 2013.

“More on Alvin A. Hansen’s Prediction of a Post-1945 Boom,” January 6, 2013.

“The Success of America’s Command Economy in WWII,” August 21, 2013

“Why Did WWII Lift America Out of Depression?,” August 21, 2013.

(21) Against Rothbard
“Rothbard on Monopoly Price on the Unhampered Market,” July 24, 2011.

“Rothbard on Torture,” October 3, 2011.

(22) Against Ron Paul
“Ron Paul versus Paul Krugman,” May 1, 2012.

(23) Austrian Myths about Ancient Rome
“Inflation and the Fall of the Roman Empire,” June 12, 2011.

“Debt Deflationary Crisis in the Late Roman Republic,” June 16, 2011.

(24) Austrian Misrepresentations of Keynesianism
“William L. Anderson Flunks Keynesian Economics 101,” May 25, 2011.

“The Concept of “Animal Spirits” is a Red Herring,” June 27, 2011.

“Austrians have No Sense of Humour,” August 24, 2011.

“Keynes and Pyramid-Building: What He Really Meant,” August 25, 2011.

“Turning Stone into Bread?,” December 2, 2011.

“Keynes on Mises’s Theory of Money and Credit,” March 11, 2012.

“Fascism and Keynesianism?,” May 22, 2012.

“Robert P. Murphy Gets it Wrong on Stimulus in Sweden and the US,” May 22, 2012.

“Prychitko on Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis (FIH),” June 20, 2012.

“Libertarians Support Pyramid Building,” February 24, 2013.

“Murphy on Keynesianism and Great Recession,” March 15, 2013.

“A Poor Critique of Keynes,” November 19, 2013.

(25) Austrian Misrepresentations of Modern Monetary Theory
“Robert Murphy Mangles MMT,” June 27, 2012.

“Robert Murphy on MMT: An Unimpressive Critique,” December 15, 2012.

“Robert Murphy at Sea on MMT,” November 15, 2013.

(26) Austrians and Equilibrium Theory
“Mises’s Three Concepts of Equilibrium,” June 23, 2011.

“Hayek and the Concept of Equilibrium,” September 20, 2011.

“Hayek and Equilibrium as a Starting Point for an Austrian Trade Cycle ,” September 21, 2011.

“Equilibrium Amongst the Austrians,” January 28, 2012.

“Did Mises believe in a Tendency to Equilibrium?,” June 8, 2012

“Catalán, Straw Man Arguments and Mises’s View of Equilibrium,” June 9, 2012.

“Mises on the Tendency to Equilibrium in Market Economies,” June 10, 2012.

“Rothbard on the Tendency to Equilibrium in Market Economies,” June 10, 2012.

“The Austrian View of the Market’s Tendency to Equilibrium,” June 11, 2012.

“The Divide in Austrian Economics on Equilibrium,” October 11, 2012.

“Mises versus Lachmann on Equilibrium Prices,” December 17, 2012.

“Austrians and the Market’s Tendency to Equilibrium,” December 21, 2013.

“Supply and Demand Equilibrium and Menger’s Price Theory,” December 19, 2013.

“Kirzner on the Law of Supply and Demand in Austrian Economics,” January 24, 2014.

“Does the Market Tend to Drive Profits to Zero?,” January 11, 2014.

“A Fundamental point about Hayek’s Early Career,” October 12, 2014.

“Mises’ ‘Unhampered Market’ Fantasy World,” November 16, 2014.

(27) Debunking Austrian Ethical Theories
There are at least two positions taken by Austrians on ethics: (1) some (like Mises) support a kind of utilitarianism/consequentialism, and (2) others support natural rights (Rothbard) or argumentation ethics (Hoppe).

“Economics and Ethics: A Brief Survey,” October 8, 2010.

“Ethical Theories: A Classification,” June 9, 2011.

“Was Mises a Socialist?: Why Mises Refutes Himself on Government Intervention,” October 7, 2010.

“Rothbard on Mises’ Utilitarianism: Why the Systems of Mises and Rothbard both Collapse,” October 8, 2010.

“Would Anarcho-Capitalists Allow the Earth to be Destroyed?,” February 28, 2011.

“Coercion and the ‘Taxation is Theft’ Argument,” May 25, 2011.

“More on ‘Taxation is Theft’,” May 26, 2011.

“Rothbard’s Argument for Natural Rights: A Critique,” August 15, 2011.

“Mises on Utilitarianism,” September 2, 2011.

“A Note on the Libertarian Asteroid Dilemma,” September 15, 2011.

“Hoppe on Argumentation Ethics,” October 23, 2011.

“Libertarianism and Christianity: A Contradiction in Terms?,” November 22, 2011.

“Government is Not Inherently Evil,” January 1, 2012.

“The Horror of Rothbardian Natural Rights,” June 7, 2012.

“Rothbard’s Argument for Natural Rights and the Absolute Right to Private Property is Totally Flawed,” June 10, 2014.

“The Insanity of Rothbard’s Ethics in Relation to Children,” March 12, 2016.

(28) Mises and Fascism
“Mises on Fascism in 1927: An Embarrassment,” October 27, 2010.

“Mises the Hypocrite: When Reality Trumps Praxeology,” March 8, 2011.

“Keynes’s Remarks in the German Edition of the General Theory,” June 7, 2011.

“Liquidationism and early 1930s Germany: Not a Good Mix!,” August 15, 2014.

(29) Keynes and Hayek
“Hayek and Keynes: Not So Far Apart?,” April 19, 2011.

“Who Cares if Hayek Won the Nobel Prize in Economics?,” April 26, 2011.

“Hayek vs. Keynes Round 2: Amusing Rubbish,” May 4, 2011.

“Bruce Caldwell on Hayek versus Keynes,” June 28, 2011.

“The Personal Relationship of Hayek and Keynes,” July 1, 2011.

“Skidelsky versus Selgin on Keynes and Hayek,” August 4, 2011.

“Skidelsky versus Selgin: The Full Version,” August 13, 2011.

“Another Keynes versus Hayek Debate,” November 14, 2011.

“Nicholas Wapshott Lecture on Keynes versus Hayek,” November 19, 2011.

“Krugman, Hayek versus Keynes and the Austrians,” December 9, 2011.

(30) Debunking the Austrians on the Recession of 1920–1921
“The US Recession of 1920–1921: Some Austrian Myths,” October 23, 2010.

“There was no US Recovery in 1921 under Austrian Trade Cycle Theory!,” June 25, 2011.

“The Depression of 1920–1921: An Austrian Myth,” December 9, 2011.

“A Video on the US Recession of 1920-1921: Debunking the Libertarian Narrative,” February 5, 2012.

“The Recovery from the US Recession of 1920–1921 and Open Market Operations,” October 4, 2012.

“Rothbard on the Recession of 1920–1921,” October 6, 2012.

“The Recession of 1920–1921 versus the Depression of 1929–1933,” February 2, 2014.

“Debt Deflation: 1920–1921 versus 1929–1933,” February 3, 2014.

“US Wages in 1920–1921,” February 10, 2014.

“The Causes of the Recession of 1920–1921,” February 11, 2014.

“The ‘Depression’ of 1920–1921: The Libertarian Myth that Won’t Die,” October 31, 2014.

“US Monetary Policy and the Recession of 1920–1921,” December 5, 2014.

“Rothbard on the Recovery from the US Recession of 1920–1921,” December 28, 2014.

“Did Austrian Libertarians Read The Forgotten Depression: 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself Properly?,” March 12, 2015.

(31) Fractional Reserve Banking is not Fraud (against the Rothbardians)
“Hayek’s Original View of Fractional Reserve Banking,” February 29, 2012.

“Fractional Reserve Banking, Option Clauses, and Government,” January 31, 2012.

“Are the Public Ignorant of the Nature of Fractional Reserve Banking?,” December 17, 2011.

“Why is the Fractional Reserve Account a Mutuum, not a Bailment?,” December 17, 2011.

“Callable Option Loans and Fractional Reserve Accounts,” December 16, 2011.

“Future Goods and Fractional Reserve Banking,” December 15, 2011.

“Rothbard on the Bill of Exchange,” December 11, 2011.

“Hoppe on Fractional Reserve Banking: A Critique,” December 11, 2011.

“The Monetary Production Economy and Fiduciary Media,” December 11, 2011

“Fractional Reserve Banking: An Evil?,” June 26, 2010.

“The Romans and Fractional Reserve Banking,” February 23, 2011.

“Gene Callahan on Fractional Reserve Banking,” February 18, 2011.

“Lawrence H. White refutes Huerta de Soto on Fractional Reserve Banking,” February 22, 2011.

“Selgin on Fractional Reserve Banking,” June 1, 2011.

“Schumpeter on Fractional Reserve Banking,” June 12, 2011.

“If Fractional Reserve Banking is Fraudulent, Why isn’t the Insurance Industry Fraud?,” September 29, 2011.

“The Mutuum Contract in Anglo-American Law,” September 30, 2011.

“Rothbard Mangles the Legal History of Fractional Reserve Banking,” October 1, 2011.

“More Historical Evidence on the Mutuum Contract,” October 1, 2011.

“What British Law Says about the Mutuum Contract,” October 2, 2011.

“If Fractional Reserve Banking is Voluntary, Where is the Fraud?,” October 3, 2011.

“Huerta de Soto on the Mutuum Contract: A Critique,” August 11, 2012.

“A Simple Question for Opponents of Fractional Reserve Banking,” August 17, 2012.

“Chapter 1 of Huerta de Soto’s Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles: A Critique,” August 31, 2012.

“Huerta de Soto on Justinian’s Digest 16.3.25.1,” September 1, 2012.

“Huerta de Soto on Banking in Ancient Rome: A Critique,” September 2, 2012.

“Bibliography on the Irregular Deposit (depositum irregulare) in Roman Law,” September 6, 2012.

“Rothbard on ‘Deposit’ Banking: A Critique,” July 22, 2014.

“Carr versus Carr (1811) and the History of Fractional Reserve Banking,” July 23, 2014.

Mutuum versus Bailment in Banking,” July 24, 2014.

“Foley versus Hill and the History of Fractional Reserve Banking,” July 29, 2014.

“A Critique of Murray Rothbard on the Origins and Legal Basis of Fractional Reserve Banking,” July 30, 2014.

“Coggs v. Bernard and the History of English Bailment Law,” July 31, 2014.

“The Mutuum Contract in Henry de Bracton and English Law,” August 1, 2014.

“Fractional Reserve Banking is a Fundamental Part of Capitalism,” August 8, 2014.

“A Critique of Rothbard on the History of English Bailment Law,” August 11, 2014.

“The Banking Contract in 19th Century US Law,” August 16, 2014.

“Rothbard on how Fractional Reserve Banking would be illegal in Anarcho-Capitalism,” March 2, 2016.

“The Filthy Anti-Capitalist Mentality – of Austrian Economics,” October 17, 2015.

(32) Against the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT)
“Austrian Business Cycle Theory: Its Failure to explain the Crisis of 2008,” October 18, 2010.

“Kirzner on Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” May 30, 2011.

“ABCT and Idle Resources,” June 6, 2011.

“Austrian Business Cycle Theory: Epicycles on Epicycles,” June 6, 2011.

“The Natural Rate of Interest: A Wicksellian Fable,” June 6, 2011.

“Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) and the Natural Rate of Interest,” June 18, 2011.

“Mises’s “Evenly Rotating Economy” (ERE) and ABCT,” June 20, 2011.

“Austrian Business Cycle Theory: The Various Versions and a Critique,” June 21, 2011.

“Mises’s “Originary Interest Rate” Theory,” June 21, 2011.

“The Differences Between Mises and Hayek on ABCT,” June 23, 2011.

“Hayek and the Myth of Neutral Money,” June 23, 2011.

“Milton Friedman on ABCT,” June 24, 2011.

“There was no US Recovery in 1921 under Austrian Trade Cycle Theory!,” June 25, 2011.

“Vaughn on Mises’s Trade Cycle Theory,” June 29, 2011.

“Hayek on the Flaws and Irrelevance of his Trade Cycle Theory,” June 29, 2011.

“Mises’s Versions of ABCT,” July 1, 2011.

“ABCT and Full Employment,” July 1, 2011.

“Hayek’s Trade Cycle Theory and its Appeal to Socialists,” July 1, 2011.

“Robert P. Murphy on the Sraffa-Hayek Debate,” July 19, 2011.

“Bibliography on the Sraffa-Hayek Debate,” July 20, 2011.

“Robert P. Murphy on the Pure Time Preference Theory of the Interest Rate,” July 13, 2011.

“Lachmann on Trade Cycle Models,” August 27, 2011.

“David Glasner on Hayek versus Sraffa,” September 10, 2011.

“Hayek and the Concept of Equilibrium,” September 20, 2011.

“Hayek and Equilibrium as a Starting Point for an Austrian Trade Cycle,” September 21, 2011.

“ABCT without a Unique Natural Rate of Interest?,” September 22, 2011.

“Did Hayek Advocate Public Works in a Depression?,” September 25, 2011.

“ABCT and the Flow of Credit,” October 6, 2011.

“Michael Emmett Brady on Hayek’s Concept of Uncertainty,” October 11, 2011.

“Austrians Predicted the Housing Bubble? – But so did Post Keynesians and Marxists,” December 14, 2011.

“Hayek’s Natural Rate on Capital Goods, Sraffa and ABCT,” December 27, 2011.

“Hayek’s Trade Cycle Theory, Equilibrium, Knowledge and Expectations,” January 4, 2012

“Equilibrium Amongst the Austrians,” January 28, 2012.

“Hülsmann on Mises’s Business Cycle Theory,” February 11, 2012.

“Bloggers Debate the Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” February 12, 2012.

“Jonathan Finegold Catalán on Free Banking and ABCT,” May 14, 2012.

“Why Isn’t the Boom of 1946-1948 a Problem for Austrians?,” June 2, 2012.

“Rothbard Shoots Himself in the Foot: Why the ABCT is Anti-Capitalist,” June 25, 2012.

“Bruce Caldwell on the Flaw in Hayek’s Early Business Cycle Theory,” July 8, 2012.

“What was the Greatest Mistake of Lionel Robbins’s Life?,” August 9, 2012.

“Some Critical New Work on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” October 9, 2012.

“Repapis on Hayek’s Business Cycle Theory,” October 10, 2012.

“Hayek on his Simplified Capital Theory Assumptions in Prices and Production,” October 15, 2012.

“Why Did Hayek get a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences?,” November 10, 2012.

“Critics of the Classic Hayekian Business Cycle Theory,” December 13, 2012.

“The Natural Rate of Interest in the ABCT: A Definition and Analysis,” February 26, 2013.

“The Natural Rate of Interest and the Austrian Business Cycle Theory: A Reply,” January 30, 2013.

“Jonathan Catalán Puzzles over the Hayekian ABCT,” March 8, 2013.

“Minsky versus ABCT,” May 31, 2013.

“Marshall on Menger’s Orders of Capital Goods,” June 24, 2013.

“Why the Austrian Business Cycle Theory is Wrong (in a Nutshell),” August 3, 2013.

“Reply to Juan Ramón Rallo on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” August 3, 2013.

“Response to Jonathan Finegold Catalán on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” August 3, 2013.

“Reply to Juan Ramón Rallo, Part 2,” August 4, 2013.

“Reply to Juan Ramón Rallo, Part 3,” August 4, 2013.

“Reply to Juan Ramón Rallo, Part 4,” August 5, 2013.

“Reply to Juan Ramón Rallo, Part 5,” August 6, 2013.

“Wicksell’s Natural Rate and Homogenous Capital,” September 25, 2013.

“Daniel Kuehn on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” December 5, 2013.

“Critics of the Classic Hayekian Business Cycle Theory (Updated),” December 6, 2013

“John Hicks on Hayek’s Business Cycle Theory,” July 18, 2014.

“A Candid Admission from Hayek?,” July 20, 2014.

“Another Problem with the Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” September 28, 2014.

“Mises’ Early Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” September 29, 2014.

“A Brief Outline of Mises’ ABCT,” September 30, 2014.

“Kaldor on Austrianism versus Friedmanite Monetarism,” October 3, 2014.

“Hayek’s Prices and Production (1935), Lecture I: A Summary,” October 19, 2014.

“Hayek’s Prices and Production (1935), Lecture II: A Summary,” October 20, 2014.

“Hayek’s Prices and Production (1935), Lecture III: A Summary,” October 21, 2014.

“Hayek’s Prices and Production (1935), Lecture IV: A Summary,” October 22, 2014.

“Where in the ABCT are Stock Market Bubbles supposed to be the Mechanism by which Capitalist Economies are destabilised?,” August 29, 2015.

“Hutchison on the Socialist Calculation Debate,” August 3, 2014.

“Keynes on Economic Calculation,” September 19, 2014.

“A Day in Rothbardian Anarcho-Capitalist Paradise,” August 7, 2014.

“Philip Pilkington on Austrian Capital Theory,” August 27, 2014.

“How did Wicksell, the early Austrians and Keynes define the Natural Rate of Interest?,” October 4, 2014.

“Rothbard on the Natural Rate,” November 5, 2014.

(33) The Socialist Calculation Debate
“Austrians Rewrite the History of the Socialist Calculation Debate,” October 2, 2012.

“Note on the Socialist Economic Calculation Debate,” October 3, 2012.

“Mises on Rational Economic Planning under Syndicalism and ‘Economic Calculation’ in Keynesian Economies,” October 28, 2012.

“Vulgar Austrians, Economic Calculation and Capitalist Economies,” December 12, 2012.

“Mises on Mixed Economies and Socialism: He is Incoherent,” March 24, 2013.

“Mises and Rothbard on Communist Prices,” January 5, 2014.

(34) Against the Austrian Theory of Prices
“Hayek on ‘The Flow of Goods and Services,’” March 20, 2013.

“Kirzner on Hayek on Prices,” May 22, 2013.

“Salerno on Market-Clearing Prices in Austrian Theory,” June 21, 2013.

“William Hutt’s Fantasy World Economics,” October 3, 2013.

“When Austrians Throw Reality to the Wind,” October 11, 2013.

“Do Modern Austrians ever Read Lachmann?,” October 13, 2013.

“Rothbard’s Clueless Statements on Costs of Production and Price,” November 7, 2013.

“Vulgar Austrians do not Understand Austrian Price Theory,” November 7, 2013.

“Böhm-Bawerk had No Theory of Administered Prices,” November 10, 2013.

“A Bibliography on Austrian Price Theory,” November 15, 2013.

“Mises on Market Clearing Prices and Demand Curves: A Critique,” November 26, 2013.

“Mises on the Prices of Factor Inputs: A Critique,” November 27, 2013.

“Why Hayek’s Theory of Prices and Knowledge is Flawed,” November 30, 2013.

“Mises on Marginal Cost: A Critique,” December 3, 2013.

“Reality Refutes Mises on Costs and Prices,” December 9, 2013.

“Administered Prices Discredit the Austrian Economic Theories of Mises,” December 10, 2013.

“Supply and Demand Equilibrium and Menger’s Price Theory,” December 19, 2013.

“Austrians and their Incoherent Views on Administered Prices,” February 5, 2014.

“Rothbard’s Non-Refutation of Administered Prices,” February 1, 2014.

“Does this Passage show that Mises understood Mark-up Pricing?,” February 1, 2014.

“Mises and Rothbard on Communist Prices,” January 5, 2014.

“Firms have No Power to Compel any Buyer?,” February 2, 2014.

“Hayek on Market-Clearing Prices and Wages in his 1975 Talk to the American Enterprise Institute,” February 7, 2014.

“Reality versus Rothbard: Prices, Demand and Production in the Real World,” May 27, 2014.

“Why most Austrians do not Understand Modern Mark-up Pricing Theory,” May 25, 2014.

“Value and Price in Austrian Economics,” August 13, 2014.

“Are Subjective Utilities utterly incomparable even in principle?,” August 22, 2014.

“Hayek on Costs and Pricing,” October 28, 2014.

(35) Free Bankers misunderstand Hayek’s Liquidationism
“Hayek was originally a Liquidationist: Free Bankers are Wrong!,” August 13, 2013.

“Hayek the Stable MV Theorist?,” August 13, 2013.

“The Evidence for Hayek the Stable MV Theorist is still Feeble,” August 21, 2013.

(36) Against Misesian Economic Coordination and Calculation
“Mises and Hayek Dehomogenized?: A Note on a Schism in Modern Austrian Economics,” March 22, 2013.

“Salerno on Mises’s View of Coordination in Market Economies,” March 23, 2013.

“Hayek on the ‘Use of Knowledge in Society,’” March 30, 2013.

“Misesian Economic Calculation and Coordination in Market Economies: An Overview and Critique,” May 11, 2013.

“Witt on Hayek’s Ideas of Competition and Market Order,” April 25, 2013.

“Administered Prices Discredit the Austrian Economic Theories of Mises,” December 10, 2013.

(37) Against Free Banking
“Selgin, Lastrapes and White on ‘Has the Fed been a Failure?,’” February 29, 2012.

“Free Banking in Australia,” May 16, 2012.

“A Tale of Two Depressions: 1930s and 1890s Australia,” May 18, 2012.

“Why Did Canada Have no Mass Banking Failures in the Great Depression?,” September 12, 2012.

“Free Banking in Scotland,” April 12, 2013.

“Canada’s Banking Stability in the Early 20th Century and the 1930s,” December 14, 2013.

(38) Against Robert Murphy
“Robert Murphy versus Paul Krugman on Government Debt,” January 29, 2012.

“Robert Murphy Takes Issue with my Reading of Empirical Data on the US Stimulus,” April 29, 2013.

“Robert P. Murphy Gets it Wrong on Stimulus in Sweden and the US,” May 22, 2012.

“Murphy on Keynesianism and Great Recession,” March 15, 2013.

“Robert Murphy Should have Read his Mises,” September 25, 2013.

“Robert Murphy at Sea on MMT,” November 15, 2013.

“Murphy on US and Canadian Unemployment during the 1930s: A Critique,” December 8, 2013.

“Robert Murphy on Progressive Taxation and Subjective Utility,” August 20, 2014.

“How to Mangle Keynesian Theory,” September 8, 2014.

“Watch as Robert Murphy’s Analysis of Martin Wolf Implodes before Your Very Eyes,” November 12, 2014.

“Mises answers Robert Murphy on War Debt: Was Mises a Secret Keynesian?!,” February 15, 2015.

“Robert Murphy on Japan,” November 22, 2014.

“The Trolls on Bob Murphy’s Blog Embarrass him over Subjective Utility,” May 22, 2015.

“Robert Murphy defends the ABCT – even though he doesn’t accept the Wicksellian Natural Rate of Interest,” August 26, 2015.

“Debunking Murphy’s Contra Krugman: ‘Ep. 2 Is More Government Debt what the World Needs Now?’” (Updated), October 2, 2015

(39) Keynesian versus Austrian Debate
“Greg Hill on ‘The Moral Economy: Keynes’s Critique of Capitalist Justice,’” June 20, 2013.
This article provoked an epic debate between Greg Hill and the Austrian economist Steve Horwitz that can be read in Horwitz (1996), Hill (1996a), Horwitz (1998), and Hill (1998) (see post below).

“Greg Hill versus Steve Horwitz: A Keynesian–Austrian Debate,” June 4, 2013.

“Keynes versus the Austrian School,” August 11, 2013.

“Keynesians, Austrians, Demand, and Production,” January 27, 2014.

(40) Against Rothbardian Notions of Justice
“Steven Pinker on Deaths by Violence in Pre-state Societies, February 15, 2013.

“Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature, Chapter 3,” February 17, 2013.

“The Leviathan State Deters Crime,” February 17, 2013.

“Coercion is the Basis of all Market Societies,” June 7, 2013.

“Rothbard on Private Protection Agencies and Justice in his Libertarian World,” June 8, 2013.

“Rothbardian Private Law is a License for the Rich to Commit Crimes,” June 9, 2013.

“Was Medieval Iceland an Example of Anarcho-Capitalism?,” June 11, 2013.

(41) Probability Theory
“Mises and Keynes on Probability,” July 12, 2013.

“Mises on Probability,” July 13, 2013.

(42) Mises and Freudian Pseudoscience
“Praxeology and Psychoanalysis,” July 23, 2013.

“So Mises did not Subscribe to Freudian Pseudoscience?,” July 24, 2013.

(43) Austrians and Prediction
“How does an Austrian Praxeologist make Predictions?,” March 11, 2014.

“No Constants in Human Behaviour?,” March 9, 2014.

(44) Austrians and Open Borders
“Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Brave New World,” May 19, 2016.

“Hoppe on Mass Immigration,” May 20, 2016.

“Murray Rothbard loved Open Borders and Mass Immigration,” February 28, 2016.

(45) Against Privatised Roads
“The Stupidity of Libertarian Privatised Roads,” April 19, 2016.

(46) Mises on War
“David Glasner on Mises on War and Conscription in Self Defence,” November 18, 2014.

10 comments:

  1. Lord Keynes,

    “Limits of the Human Action Axiom,” February 28, 2011.

    is currently a bad link.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lord Keynes!

    Please see this:

    In his public finance lectures of the 1880s, Menger emphasized the importance of progressive taxation, denying the pay-to-benefit principle. (c) Austrian Economics in Transition; Edited by Harald Hagemann, Tamotsu Nishizawa and Yukihiro Ikeda

    http://www.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9780230222267_sample.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  3. What do you have to say about this?

    «Fascism entirely agrees with Mr. Maynard Keynes, despite the latter’s prominent position as a Liberal. In fact, Mr. Keynes’ excellent little book, The End of Laissez-Faire(l926) might, so far as it goes, serve as a useful introduction to fascist economics. There is scarcely anything to object to in it and there is much to applaud.» - Benito Mussolini

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A cheap attempt at guilt by association.

      So Mussolini praised the economics of Keynes' End of Laissez-Faire (1926). Yet that book does not advocate authoritarianism, racism or anti-democratic government -- merely a somewhat more interventionist liberal economics than in the 19th century. Lots of people agreed with this by the 1920s, even conservatives.

      Moreover, if you did your research, you would know that fascism as a historical movement never had a well defined economic program.

      The early fascists like Mussolini originally pursued laissez faire:

      “From 1922 to 1925, Mussolini’s regime pursued a laissez-faire economic policy under the liberal finance minister Alberto De Stefani. De Stefani reduced taxes, regulations, and trade restrictions and allowed businesses to compete with one another. ”
      Sheldon Richman, “Fascism,” Concise Encyclopedia of Economics
      http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Fascism.html

      That, then, is an endorsement of the economics of Mises and Hayek, not Keynes.

      Mises’ buddy the Austrian fascist Dollfuss (and later Schuschnigg) pursued deflationary policies that Mises would have agreed with:

      “In tackling the economic crisis the Dollfuss-Schuschnigg dictatorship pursued harsh deflationary policies designed to balance the budget and stabilize the currency. The government’s program featured severe spending cuts, high interest rates, and frozen wages. “

      http://socialdemocracy21stcentury.blogspot.com/2012/05/fascism-and-keynesianism.html

      Mises was even an adviser to Dollfuss. Are we to say, then, that Mises was a "fascist" and economics "fascist"?

      Delete
    2. correction:

      "*his* economics "fascist"?"

      Delete
  4. 'MH: The key to the Austrian School is their hatred of labor and socialism. It saw the danger of democratic government spreading to the Habsburg Empire, and it said, “The one thing we have to stop is democracy. Their idea of a free market was one free of democracy and of democratic government regulating and taxing wealthy rentiers. It was a short step to fighting in the streets, using murder as a “persuader” for the particular kind of “free markets” they wanted – a privatized Thatcherite deregulated kind. To the rentiers they said: “It’s either our freedom or that of labor.”
    Kari Polanyi-Levitt has recently written about how her father, Karl Polanyi, was confronted with these right-wing Viennese. His doctrine was designed to rescue economics from this school, which makes up a fake history of how economics and civilization originated.
    One of the first Austrian’s was Carl Menger in the 1870s. His “individualistic” theory about the origins of money – without any role played by temples, palaces or other public institutions – still governs Austrian economics. Just as Margaret Thatcher said, “There’s no such thing as society,” the Austrians developed a picture of the economy without any positive role for government. It was as if money were created by producers and merchants bartering their output. This is a travesty of history. All ancient money was issued by temples or public mints so as to guarantee standards of purity and weight. You can read Biblical and Babylonian denunciation of merchants using false weights and measures so see why money had to be public. The major trading areas were agora spaces in front of temples, which kept the official weights and measures. And much exchange was between the community’s families and the public institutions.
    Most important, money was brought into being not for trade (which was conducted mainly on credit), but for paying debts. And most debts were owed to the temples and palaces for pubic services or tribute. But to the Austrians, the idea was that anything the government does to protect labor, consumers and society from rentiers and grabbers is deadweight overhead.
    Above all, they opposed governments creating their own money, e.g. as the United States did with its greenbacks in the Civil War. They wanted to privatize money creation in the hands of commercial banks, so that they could receive interest on their privilege of credit creation and also to determine the allocation of resources.
    Today’s neoliberals follow this Austrian tradition of viewing government as a burden, instead of producing infrastructure free of rent extraction. As we just said in the previous discussion, the greatest fortunes of our time have come from privatizing the public domain. Obviously the government isn’t just deadweight. But it is becoming prey to the financial interests and the smashers and grabbers they have chosen to back.'
    http://evonomics.com/how-financial-parasites-and-debt-bondage/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Except many items like amoleh and Ugandan cowry shells were initially used as value by traders. Early money was metallistic, and acquired some chartalist elements over time; the strongest example being the Hut Tax used to drive/accelerate adoption of the pound sterling among African natives, and the fact that floating exchange rates are now possible.

      However, between metallistic and semi-chartalistic/chartalistic(the latter could technically exist, though still have its value 'driven' also by private sector productivity in practice, but still doesn't in any operational reality), I think money is primarily best described as 'Circuitist'- i.e. most money is endogenous Bank Money, evolved from metallistic money and its regulation at temples and treasuries, achieving ofcourse start of its true emanation in medieval Italy.

      Delete
  5. Incidentally, where would you place Peter Boettke (https://www.peter-boettke.com/) within your 5-group categorisation of Austrian economists?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello. I would like to know if there will be a review of the articles about ATBC by the austrian economist James Keeler? Specifically on «Relative Pricesnd the Business Cycle» amd «Empirical Evidence on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory». Also Francis Biesmans and Kristel Moget «Austrian business cycle theory: Empirical evidence»; Robert Milligan «An Empirical Examination of Austrian Business Cycle Theory», «The Austrian Business Cycle: a Vector Error-correction Model with Commercial and Industrial Loans»; Carl Celebi and Tobias Helmersson «Empirical Testing of the Austrian Business Cycle Theory: Modelling of the Short-run Intertemporal Resource Allocation» and Gregory Dempster and Anthony Carilli «Is Austrian Business Cycle Theory Still Relevant?».

    ReplyDelete
  7. Write a book on this. I for one don't want to waste any time reading their teleological nonsense.

    ReplyDelete