Philosophy and Methodology

Recorded at Mises University 2009.

Recorded at Mises University 2009.

Recorded at Mises University 2009.

As a result of his misunderstanding of economic theory, the Pope failed to see the connection between every depression we have experienced in modern times and governments' intervening in the free market — the very system that, if left free of distributive-justice actions on the part of governments, would guarantee the attainment of the common good.

An expansion of the money supply will cause discoordination, in the way that Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard have patiently explained — and Krugman has ignored. And if expansion proceeds by means of more bank credit, the upshot will be renewed malinvestment. To oppose monetary expansion is not moralism but simple common sense.

But there are a few great voices left, and others not so great that are still telling the truth, and these the individual may amplify prodigiously.

The precept of methodological individualism has shown its usefulness in the explanation of the origin of money.

To make things even worse, the unintended adverse consequences of government "solutions" undermine the premier example of unintended positive consequences in society — the "invisible hand" of market mechanisms that arise from self-ownership and lack of coercion.

He took to laissez faire economics, not because of its utilitarian support, but because of his abhorrence of political intervention.

Price formation is the specific economic characteristic of the economy — as distinct from all the other social, historical, and technical characteristics — and that all specifically economic events can be comprehended within the framework of price formation.