Other Schools of Thought

Presented by Joe Salerno at the Mises Circle in New Orleans, 5 November 2011.

What if, instead of Marxist or quasi-Marxist paradigms, literary critics adopted the theories of free-market economics?

Contrary to the assertions of these pundits, an economy does not need mountains of debt — whether government or private — in order to grow. Corporations can still raise needed financing through issuing equity. There are pros and cons to debt financing, but it isn't necessary for a strong economy.

The government creates a demand for these services out of thin air: the existence of ambassadors is what leads to the work done by ambassadors. They do not take their services to market to sell them to anyone who happens to be a willing buyer.

They thought they could create a world that could circumvent the long-held laws of economics simply by dismissing these laws as illegitimate.

When politics isn't fomenting conflict, raising time preferences, and stupefying the nation, it is attenuating progress. Contrary to the incessant jabbering on the need for "change," all politicians despise change. Change erodes political power and undermines regimes.

From Man, Economy, and State, narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

The Treasury needed someone who could clothe the bareness of financial heresy with a plausible nontransparent drapery. Mr. Keynes was taken into the British Treasury as its principal adviser, seated on the board of the Bank of England, and elevated to the peerage as Baron Keynes of Tilton.