Month: September 2024

Categories
Economics Political Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Ten

Chapter ten covers the events of 1931. Basically, after massive state intervention didn’t fix the problem in 1929 or 1930, Hoover gets the great idea that more government intervention will fix the problem in 1931 and 1932… with disastrous results.

Up until 1930, Hoover had (at least) resisted the swan song of massive government control over the economy and huge federal relief programs. During 1930, that resistance waned and set the stage for the rest of the depression.

Alternative places to watch the video are on Odysee, BitChute, and YouTube.

Get my full notes here.

References

(FYI, Rothbard cites a bunch of defunct journals and magazines in this chapter that are practically impossible to find outside of university library archives these days, but I did my best.)

Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare
https://archive.org/details/economicspublicw0000ande/page/n3/mode/2up

Clark, Central Banking under the Federal Reserve System…
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/central-banking-federal-reserve-system-314

Aldrich, The Causes of the Present Depression and Possible Remedies
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Causes_of_the_Present_Depression_and.html?id=iijIAAAAMAAJ

Dorfman, The Economic Mind in American Civilization…
https://mises.org/library/book/economic-mind-american-civilization-1606-1865-volume-one

Bernstein, The Lean Years…
https://archive.org/details/leanyearshistory0000bern_f7p8/page/n5/mode/2up

Warren, Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression
https://archive.org/details/herberthoovergre0000warr_f2d0

Hayes, Activities of the President’s Emergency Committee for Employment
https://books.google.com/books/about/Activities_of_the_President_s_emergency.html?id=7QHJAAAAMAAJ

Congressional Record 75, including January 11, 1932
https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_january-04-19-1932_75/page/1654/mode/2up

Monthly Labor Review 32 (1931), including p. 834
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/monthly-labor-review-6130/april-1931-608201?page=62

Wolman, Wages in Relation to Economic Recovery
https://books.google.com/books/about/Wages_in_Relation_to_Economic_Recovery.html?id=Vh1QAQAAMAAJ

Angly, Oh Yeah?
https://books.google.com/books/about/Oh_Yeah.html?id=rTWMAAAACAAJ

Salary and Wage Policy in the Depression
https://archive.org/details/salarywagepolicy0000unse/page/n3/mode/2up

Harrod, The Life of John Maynard Keynes
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.462199

(I had no luck finding any electronic resource for the very old Barron’s issues referenced in footnote 17 on page 270)

Putnam, Is Wage Maintenance a Fallacy, in Journal of the American Bankers’ Association
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015086750646&q1=putnam&start=1

Divine, American Immigration Policy
https://archive.org/details/americanimmigrat0000divi/page/n7/mode/2up

Abbott, Public Assistance
https://archive.org/details/publicassistance0001edit/page/n3/mode/2up

Schlesinger, The Crisis of the Old Order, 1919-1933
https://archive.org/details/ageofrooseveltcr0000unse/page/n3/mode/2up

Fusfeld, The Economic Thought of Franklin D. Roosevelt
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Economic_Thought_of_Franklin_D_Roose.html?id=tRZUQwAACAAJ

Monthly Labor Review 33 (1931) containing p. 1341-1342
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/monthly-labor-review-6130/june-1931-608203?page=10

Wendt, The Role of the Federal Government in Housing
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/Federal-Government-in-Housing.pdf

Nash, Herbert Hoover and the Origins of the RFC
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1892269

Monthly Labor Review 33 (1931), containing pages 1049-1057
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/monthly-labor-review-6130/november-1930-608195?page=9

Frederick, Readings in Economic Planning
https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/228876
alternate link:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Readings_in_Economic_Planning/Xo_XAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=frederick%20%22readings%20in%20economic%20planning%22

Loth, Swope of G.E.
https://archive.org/details/swopeofgestoryof00loth/page/n5/mode/2up

Donham, Business Adrift
https://archive.org/details/businessadrift0000wall

Coit, Mr. Baruch
https://archive.org/details/mrbaruch00coit_0

The Magazine of Wall Street including December 14, 1929, unfortunately I could find no better link…
https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/QKxLAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjU6OH-gd-IAxWCkO4BHXobAEIQre8FegQIAxA1

Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt
https://archive.org/details/democraticroosev00tugw

Stocking, Stabilization of the Oil Industry…
https://www.jstor.org/stable/46

Watkins, A Planned Economy Through Coordinated Control of Basic Industries
https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Planned_Economy_Through_Coordinated_Co/aOcyHAAACAAJ?hl=en

Categories
Essay Philosophy Political

First Thoughts on “Political Violence”

Seeing a lot of people, including libertarians, oddly enough, pronouncing these blanket oppositions to what the corporate media calls “political violence.”

This is another case of people failing the Bastiat test–looking only at the bare surface level of such a policy, and failing to account for its secondary effects.

Worse yet, these oppositions actually seem to preach from a moral perspective, and not merely a strategic one. Yet another blundering oversight.

Because what kinds of activities do you have to disavow in order to oppose “political violence?”

Continue reading “First Thoughts on “Political Violence””
Categories
Economics Political Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Nine

In chapter nine, Rothbard covers the ups and downs of 1930. This year is particularly interesting because it seemed as if the quick actions in the last quarter of 1929 had fixed the problems. In the first half of 1930, the general public thought things were looking good, considering how markets had bounced back and how a massive propaganda campaign was targeted at making them feel secure.

Of course, the additional inflationary spending of late 1929 and early 1930 only made the problem bigger while papering over it for a short time.

Continue reading “Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Nine”
Categories
Economics Political Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Eight

Rothbard covers the very start of the Depression in this chapter, basically the second half of 1929, with some historical digressions to set the stage.

The biggest takeaways from this chapter are that Hoover bullied industry into keeping wage rates up and construction expanding. He also went along with farm cartelization efforts over the previous fifteen years and tried to control many crop prices via the Federal Farm Board, which was catastrophically ineffective but tried over and over again.

Show notes here.

Continue reading “Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Eight”
Categories
Economics Political Video Link

The Unrealized Gains Tax Trap

No extensive notes for this one, I just keep seeing people shilling for this idiotic unrealized gains tax, and I felt compelled to say something.

As Bastiat tells us, it’s not just the immediate effects of a policy we should look at, it’s the longer-term and more subtle effects that we must understand before we implement it.

Continue reading “The Unrealized Gains Tax Trap”
Categories
Political Video Link

Free Speech Needs Decentralization

Governments are attacking free speech and privacy hard these days. We’ve got horrifying anti-speech laws in the U.K., Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France, and threats coming from governments all around that people who create platforms that make privacy accessible to regular people will be blamed and jailed for the actions of others.

We even have a Vice Presidential candidate here in the U.S. who has said, “no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech.”

There are all kinds of problems with these actions, and people need to fight back to hold onto their free speech rights and privacy.

Continue reading “Free Speech Needs Decentralization”
Categories
Economics Political Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Seven

Chapter seven of the book attempts to explain Hoover’s interventionist policies and chart their progress in the period from 1920-1929.

Show notes here.

Continue reading “Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Seven”
Categories
Culture Creation Economics Political Video Link

Appearance on Spoken Words in New Mexico

One of the things I’m working on to promote libertarian values is working with the Free New Mexico Party, the state’s affiliate for the National Libertarian Party.

I’m the Vice Chair and the Secretary, and last week I sat down with the Chair, Dereck Scott, on the great web show Spoken Words in New Mexico.

You can find the show here, and I recommend checking out their other content, as well!

Dereck and I speak for over three hours about the difficulties facing the liberty movement in the U.S., including our worries about both Republican and Democratic policies.

Might as well plug the party website while I’m here, so:

https://freenewmexico.org

Categories
Economics Political Satire Video Link

Why Krugman Hates MMT

I had a fun thought the other day: Why is it that Keynesian shills like Paul Krugman usually don’t like Modern Monetary Theory?

After all, both of them promote the same irresponsible and destructive policies of massive government spending and interference with the market…

Continue reading “Why Krugman Hates MMT”
Categories
Economics Philosophy Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Six

This chapter is short, but really needs a little supplement from Rothbard’s other writings to really “get it.”

Don’t worry, I got your back. In the video, I identify two more passages that help explain why the goal of “stable prices” is counterproductive. They’re from Man, Economy, and State and Making Economic Sense.

Continue reading “Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Six”