Tag: economics

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Economics Essay Political Video Link

MMT’s Barely-Hidden Totalitarian Bias

My latest article published by the Mises Institute is another look at MMT, only this time we’re taking a completely different route.

My article:
https://mises.org/mises-wire/mmts-barely-hidden-totalitarian-bias

Have you ever heard of the infamous German Foreword to Keynes’s General Theory? In it, he basically admits his system is best-suited to one with centralized, totalitarian control of the economy. Without such control, the government can only partially implement Keynes’s recommendations, and utopia remains just out of reach–so long as liberty is permitted.

Continue reading “MMT’s Barely-Hidden Totalitarian Bias”
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Economics Philosophy Political Video Link

Bad Theory and Willful Blindness

The Conquest of The Conquest of Bread, Ch. 13

Chapter 13 is titled “The Collectivist Wages System” and it is a tissue of faulty comparisons, bad conclusions stapled to obsolete theories, and nonsensical figures attached to shifting goalposts.

Continue reading “Bad Theory and Willful Blindness”
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Economics Philosophy Political Video Link

Don’t Worry, Kropotkin Says It’s Better this Way

The Conquest of
The Conquest of Bread:
Chapter 12

Chapter 12 is supposed to be Kropotkin’s answers to objections, but (perhaps unsurprisingly) he only goes after a few cursory criticisms and even his answers to those are seriously flawed.

Full show notes here.

Practically every argument Kropotkin makes is even better satisfied by private property, free markets, and voluntary exchange.

There are even some terrifying positions he takes that basically confirm that his “voluntary associations” are simply the coercive state with a prettier name. They have the potential to be even more tyrannical than the most callous private employer.

This video available on Odysee, YouTube, and BitChute.

Intro quote is from “Kropotkin’s Ethics and the Public Good,” by Williamson M. Evers:
https://mises.org/journal-libertarian-studies/kropotkins-ethics-and-publc-good

Article reference:
“Sweatshops: A Way Out of Poverty,” an interview with Benjamin Powell
https://mises.org/mises-daily/sweatshops-way-out-poverty

Intro music edited from a piece by Music for Video, courtesy Pixabay:
https://pixabay.com/users/music_for_video-22579021/

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Economics Philosophy Video Link

Kropotkin’s Economics Without Trade-Offs

The Conquest of The Conquest of Bread: Chapters 10 and 11

More bizarre economic ignorance from Kropotkin in these two chapters, which demonstrate his inability to comprehend the concept of trade-offs–specifically in labor comfort and safety and in the quality and/or durability of capital goods.

Full show notes here.

Continue reading “Kropotkin’s Economics Without Trade-Offs”
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Economics Video Link

Ancient Money and MMT Mistakes

Short video today because where I really want you to go is over to the Mises Institute’s channel and check out these two:

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Economics Philosophy Political Video Link

Unsafe for Every Need

The Conquest of
The Conquest of Bread,
Chapters 5-9

We’re speedrunning these chapters of Kropotkin’s book because they’re basically repetitions of the same mistakes and fallacies again and again, only applied to different types of goods.

Full show notes here.

Continue reading “Unsafe for Every Need”
Categories
Economics Philosophy Political Video Link

The Conquest of The Conquest of Bread, Part 4

Take Everything, Let “Society” Sort It Out!

Chapter 4 is titled “Expropriation,” and (perhaps unsurprisingly) it is another chapter of assertions not backed up by significant arguments.

Full show notes available here.

Continue reading “The Conquest of The Conquest of Bread, Part 4”
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Economics Philosophy Video Link

Historical Cherry-Picking and Non-Arguments: The Conquest of Bread, Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of the book is titled “Anarcho-Communism,” so I was expecting to finally get Kropotkin’s great argument for how to establish communes without a state apparatus forming.

What I got was a series of weird historical cherry-picking and declarations pretending to be arguments.

Detailed notes available here.

Continue reading “Historical Cherry-Picking and Non-Arguments: The Conquest of Bread, Chapter 3”
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Economics Gaming Video Link

Why Tim Cain Needs Entrepreneurs

Responding to an interesting but occasionally misguided video by Tim Cain, called “Do Devs Know What Gamers Want?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA-P3p7PdEc

Tim makes some good points about how some of the feedback game developers get can be vague, open to multiple interpretations, and/or contradictory.

Get a copy of my outline for this video here.

This video is available on Odysee, YouTube, and BitChute.

Continue reading “Why Tim Cain Needs Entrepreneurs”
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Economics Video Link

Practically a Detective Thriller: Edward Fuller on Keynes, Socialism, and IS-LM

Check out Fuller’s talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZYAFaHSsZY

Normally the Mises Institute’s Austrian Economics Research Conference has interesting and novel talks. Usually they’re a bit dry and directed toward an audience that knows Austrian economics quite well.

However, this year, Edward Fuller brought the house down with a lecture on Keynes that is not only fascinating, it is a fantastic example of detailed historical work, hunting down and confirming original and nearly-lost sources, showing evidence to people and getting entirely unexpected responses, and several other staples of a really good mystery or thriller.

It starts off a little slow, mildly threatening to be the same kind of “Keynes was a socialist” talk you’ve probably heard before, but after a few minutes, Fuller dives into some unexpected sources and makes some new points on that front, before going into a detailed investigation of an extremely prominent economic model and its true origins.

It unfolds like a detective story–to the point where I was afraid of putting spoilers into my recommendation for it. If you like economics or mysteries, go give it your time–you won’t regret it.

My video is available on Odysee, YouTube, and BitChute.

Thumbnail image is a caricature of Keynes by David Low
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keynes_caricature_Low_1934-1.jpg

Pre-order my new novel, releasing April 7th:
Pursuit of the Heliotrope
https://a.co/d/7eWrZeh