Penis Size and Economic Growth

Awesome

Gandhi on Industrialization

"Industrialization is, I am afraid, going to be a curse for mankind. Exploitation of one nation by another cannot go on for all time. Industrialism depends entirely on your capacity to exploit, on foreign markets being open to you, and on the absence of competitors . . . India, when it begins to exploit other nations—as it must if it becomes industrialized—will be a curse for other nations, a menace to the world."

This quote didn't make Gandhi look very good. He was an educated man, probably exposed to economics. So what happened? He just didn't get it, it appears. So lets look at his other quotes:

"I know that man cannot live without industry. Therefore, I cannot be opposed to industrialization. But I have a great concern about introducing machine industry. The machine produces much too fast, and brings with it a sort of economic system which I cannot grasp. I do not want to accept something when I see its evil effects which outweigh whatever good it brings with it."

Having concern is Hnot so bad.

But still, you have to just give him a D on economics.

Did border restrictions kill the US economy?

A very long and involved Sumner article. But the most interesting part is just one paragraph interests me:

"Imagine I’m debating Tyler Cowen on the question of whether the 2006 wealth was real in 2006. What’s at stake? I might argue that the wealth was 100% real, but later policies like immigration crackdown and tight money reduced the wealth later on."

So the idea here is that maybe there really was no housing bubble, but there would have been enough demand for the houses being built if more people were being let into the country. Very interesting.

New blog Free Banking

Here

The first article I read was by someone named Larry White.

Scroll down to the article where he mentions "those who believe in the rule of law".

Well...

First, I don't believe in the rule of law. I believe in natural law.

Second, there is nothing inherently immoral about money creating, even token money creation.

What is immoral is that we have a society where people are essentially forced to use US currency, hence it becomes fiat currency.

So the question then becomes, is the gold standard a second best alternative to a society with a truly free monetary system?

No, its not a "second best" option. Because a government imposed gold standard leads to economic depressions imposed by the government. I suspect NGDP targeting is the real second best option.

The heart of my disagreements with the Austrians are:
1. How attractive would a 100% gold reserve standard be in a free society? (Not very, in my opinion).
2. Is fractional reserve banking fraud? (In my opinion, no).
3. What is the second best option while we wait on a free society?

June jobs report

According to market watch, the private sector added 57,000 jobs, while the public sector lost 39,000 jobs, for a net total job addition of 18,000. And May and April saw their job totals revised downward by 44,000.

So as libertarians we can take heart that jobs are being moved from the public sector. And yet, we know that our society is not at the level of of human flourishing it coud be if it desisted from agression.

This particular article, mentions the debt limit, wich is a whole nother topic.

Sumner on Fed Inflation

Here he explains the rising gas prices and QE2. He seems convincing. Even if we have a moral problem with the government, can't we describe its actions in an intelligent manner, as Sumner does, rather than a cartoon method, as the Austrians do?

Murphy Says "Sell US Assets"

I like it. Certainly preferable raising taxes.

Notice that the mainstream will pay attention to an Austrian economist if he actually has a good idea.