IMF Says China’s Currency No Longer Undervalued The International Monetary Fund announced on Tuesday that for the first time in over a decade China’s currency is no longer undervalued (SCMP). U.S. policymakers have long criticized China’s artificial weakening of the renminbi,
Epistemology 
Don’t Forget the Reasons People Don’t Believe in Your Social Cause
When it comes to Austrian economist and political thinker Friedrich Hayek, conservatives and libertarians are at odds. While conservatives like Hayek’s opposition to big government, they may disagree with his views on social progress. In the same vein, libertarians agree
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The Motte and Bailey Doctrine in Mainstream Economics
A “motte and bailey doctrine” is a style of argument (and informal fallacy) that’s based on a motte-and-bailey castle. The bailey is a big courtyard and where people live and work and generally want to be. The motte is a mound
Conservatism Against Rolling Back the State
American historian Robert Conquest is getting up there in years. The Hoover Institution fellow is just three years shy of the big 1-O-O. Despite having received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (and various other awards from different countries), few people
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The Revolt against Rationalism
This article is excerpted from The Clash of Group Interests, “The Clash of Group Interests,” part 4 (1945; 2011). Reprinted from Mises.org The most remarkable fact in the history of our age is the revolt against rationalism, economics, and utilitarian
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The Philosophy of the Pseudoprogressives
[This article originally appeared in Plain Talk, February 1950. It is included in Planning for Freedom.] 1. The Two Lines of Marxian Thought and Policies In all countries which have not openly adopted a policy of outright and all-around socialization
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Positive Methodology in Language
The iconoclastic religion of scientism looks to have achieved a new victory. Reporting in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Michael Chorost informs us that neuroscientists recently uncovered how the brain reacts to language, and what it means in understanding words
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On Krugman’s Arrogance
Economist Paul Krugman’s New York Times column dropped off my reading list months ago. His conscious effort to become a kind of parody of himself, a holier-than-thou hero fighting off the scourge of ignorant free marketeers, was too much of
Cultonomics and the Austrian School
Mainstream economists have long derided the Austrian School as a “cult”. Professor Walter Block recounts stories from Nobelists Gary Becker and James Buchanan off-handedly referring to the cultish Austrians. When pressed by Professor Block, Becker said, “By a cult I
What Academic Freedom?
“Academic freedom” is one of those phrases that evokes little protest and little emotion. In fact, these days it has become pretty boring. The concept is taken purely at face value. In our liberal age, the open vetting of ideas
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Noahgreement on similarities between Austrians and New Classicals
I’ve got a confession to make: my favourite economics blog name is Noah Smith’s “Noahpinion”. It’s a really great blog name. With the niceties out of the way, let’s address Smith’s latest screed: “How the New Classicals drank the Austrians’
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Can the State Justify Welfare Spending?
The purpose of this brief essay is to present an argument that state spending on welfare, which necessarily rests on the state’s power to extract funds from the public, cannot be justified. An argument in favor of state sponsored welfare
The Ultimate Microfoundation: Human Action
Much fuss is made in macroeconomic circles over so-called “microfoundations”: microeconomic justifications for macroeconomic models, as opposed to macro models that make ad hoc assumptions about utility, preferences, and price setting. People like to bring up the “Calvo pricing model”,
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Keynesians Wrong on Sequester Just Like Stimulus
It is well known that the Christina Romer / Jared Bernstein report, issued in January 2009 when Obama first came into office, got things exactly backwards. At the time, unemployment in the U.S. was 7 percent and change. Romer, who
Subjective Value and Objective Good
Value is subjective. This is one of the cornerstones of modern economics. What’s known as the “marginal revolution” of the late 19th century was responsible for bringing the axiom from intellectual musing to orthodox dogma. Three economists - Leon Walras,
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The Use of Knowledge at the Bank of Canada
The Bank of Canada’s latest quarterly review suffers from the fatal conceit. Although technically the whole central banking system is a fatal conceit, one of the articles particularly highlights the complete ignorance and arrogance of Canada’s central bankers. Nii Ayi
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Poloz’s First BoC Interest Rate Statement
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said that interest rates will remain low and the economy will grow due to “accommodative financial conditions.” His logic goes: The US economy is recovering ergo Canadian exports will grow therefore solid Canadian business
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Econ 101 with Stephen Poloz
On June 19th, Stephen Poloz gave his first major speech as Governor of the Bank of Canada. Reading through it, it’s clear that Poloz – like his predecessor – has no real understanding of economics. So I’ve decided to pick
Cannot Wipe Even Your Own A** but Will Run the Country
For the last few days, story of one Komal Ganatra has been making headlines in India. Her dad, now retired, earned his living as a school teacher in India. Five years back, she was married off to an Indian immigrant
What’s So Special About Economics?
Unlike what is commonly believed, economics is not about money, or profit, or investments, or capitalism, or wages, or unemployment or stocks and bonds or about any other buzzword you may have heard or read in the media. Yes, economics does study
