U.S. Economy

Rothbard sees much of economic history as a product of government interventions in the market.

Jefferson believed that peaceful coercion was the perfect republican solution to the worsening commercial crisis.

It doesn't make the country richer when politicians spend money they don't have.

The Depression is supposed to be Exhibit A of the alleged instability of the free market left to its own devices, while the New Deal represents the indispensable corrective power of the state.

The United States imposes import quotas that substantially raise domestic sugar prices, harming domestic consumers to benefit politically powerful domestic sugar producers.

Looks at causes of the 1929 crash and ensuing depression, with lessons for today. Recorded at Mises University 2010.

"Within the Misesian-Hayekian framework, the only permanent solution to existing malinvestment is to allow its liquidation and the readaptation of the structure of production."

The exercise of arbitrary or dictatorial power is, of course, the whole purpose and function of all those agencies, commissions, and czars.

"Even mainstream economists recognize the role that price discrimination can play in allowing producers and consumers to exploit potential gains from trade."

Tom Kowitz and Michele Gaudin of WGSO 990AM, New Orleans, interview Professor Walter Block, 17 July 2010.