Raghu Rajan is a very good neoclassical economist who has made important contributions to banking, finance, the theory of the firm, corporate governance, economic development, and other fields. He is also taking over as head of India’s central bank . Rajan is no Austrian, but he has a quasi-Austrian take on the financial crisis, and far greater
Further to my previous post on scientism : Steven Pinker has entered the fray, with a full-throated defense of the “scientific method,” to be applied anywhere and everywhere. Skirting decades worth of thorny controversies about the philosophy, history, and sociology of science (going back at least to Hayek in the 1940s ), he simply asserts that
Happy birthday to Ron Paul, Distinguished Counselor of the Mises Institute and longtime supporter of Austrian economics. Here’s Dr. Paul with Henry Hazlitt, Murray Rothbard, and Lew Rockwell, from a 1987 dinner in honor of
Here is a very good piece by Amar Bhidé, “Wanted: A Boring Leader for the Fed.” Bhidé, like the Austrians and sensible mainstream economists like John Taylor and Raghu Rajan, is deeply concerned about the principle that the “independent” Fed should assume, and exercise, vast discretionary powers. “Instead of casting about for a new maestro, we
“Do we really want a system in which one person’s personality type has such a huge effect on the global economy,” I asked in a critique of the Fed. Today’s Economist vividly illustrates my point, in making the case for Yellen over Summers: Both Ms. Yellen and Mr. Summers are “doves,” rightly worrying more about economic weakness than any threat
It was nice of Noah Smith to mention the Austrian school in his recent Atlantic column on the poverty of mainstream macroeconomics. It would have been even better, however, if he had the slightest understanding of what Austrian economists do. Smith rightly points out that mainstream economists are increasingly regarded as little better than witch
Nicholas Wapshott is the British journalist who produced 2011’s Keynes-Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics , an entertaining but ephemeral tale of Cambridge in the 1930s (here is John Cochran’s less-than-flattering review ). Wapshott sees himself as an important critic of “free-market orthodoxy,” but his grasp of economic theory,
Carol Connell, author of several insightful articles on Fritz Machlup (including “Fritz Machlup’s Methodology and The Theory of the Growth of the Firm” in the 2007 QJAE ), has a new book, Reforming the World Monetary System: Fritz Machlup and the Bellagio Group . The book deals with Machlup’s attempts in the 1960s to organize a group of elite
I am wary of adding yet another conceptual margin for entrepreneurial action but I highly recommend a new (and for the moment, ungated) paper in the Scandinavian Economic History Review by the distinguished economic historian Joel Mokyr on “cultural entrepreneurship.” Starting from a broadly Schumpeterian perspective, Mokyr focuses on individuals
Watched Skyfall on a plane the other day. A well-made and entertaining film. Old fogies like me will appreciate the retro Bond touches. But it’s hard to be a libertarian and fully enjoy these sorts of movies, especially in today’s political climate. The surveillance / national security state is glorified every day in the mainstream press; do we
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.