Tag: economics

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Economics Philosophy Political Video Link

The Conquest of The Conquest of Bread: Chapter 2

Kropotkin’s second chapter is a doozy. He makes a variety of really bad extrapolations, a bunch of incredibly ignorant anti-economic points, and then goes on to demand total expropriation of all goods, both capital and consumption, “private” and personal.

He bases this mostly on floppy definitions of “need” and “live,” as well as the usual incorrigible envy that motivates most actual socialists and communists.

Even worse, the next chapter is supposedly his argument for “anarchic” communism, but considering how he simply papered over the confiscation of all goods with some utopian nonsense, I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for a good argument, because it doesn’t look like one is coming.

Full show notes here.

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

Continue reading “The Conquest of The Conquest of Bread: Chapter 2”
Categories
Economics Philosophy Political Video Link

The Conquest of The Conquest of Bread: Preface and Chapter 1

Welcome to the first episode of my examination of Peter Kropotkin’s book “The Conquest of Bread.”

Episode notes can be found here.

This video can be found on Odysee, YouTube, and BitChute.

Kropotkin is a prominent example of the so-called anarchist strain of communists, which believed that social revolution would lead to the abolishment of private property in the means of production, further leading to a stateless method of organization through communes and labor associations.

The preface and first chapter, however, do not begin by explaining how to enforce the abolishment of private property without a coercive state. Kropotkin instead decides to open his book with a combination of bad economics, misread history, blindness to incentives, rhetorical flourish, and misunderstanding stemming from over-aggregation of the capital structure.

It isn’t a good start, but we’ll see where he goes from here!

Cited articles:
Ludwig von Mises, “The Rise of Capitalism”
https://mises.org/mises-daily/rise-capitalism

Lipton Matthews, “The Problem with Guilds: They’re Monopolistic and Wasteful”
https://mises.org/mises-wire/problem-guilds-theyre-monopolistic-and-wasteful

Robert P. Murphy, “Why Austrians Stress Ordinal Utility”
https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-austrians-stress-ordinal-utility

Murray N. Rothbard, “Ten Great Economic Myths”
https://mises.org/mises-wire/ten-great-economic-myths

Ludwig von Mises, “Planned Chaos”
https://mises.org/library/book/planned-chaos

Friedrich A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”
https://mises.org/mises-daily/use-knowledge-society

Intro music edited from a piece by Paul Yudin, courtesy Unsplash:
https://pixabay.com/users/paulyudin-27739282/

Categories
Culture Creation Economics Essay Gaming Philosophy Video Link

Mises’s Creative Genius and the Downfall of Triple-A Gaming

While I spend a little time reading making notes on Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread for my next series of videos, I figured I’d make a random fun video about an idea that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while.

You can just watch the video if you want, but I’ll put a text summary below if you prefer that.

Continue reading “Mises’s Creative Genius and the Downfall of Triple-A Gaming”
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Economics Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Appendix

The final section of Rothbard’s book is an extended discussion of Rothbard’s concepts of the Gross (or Net) Private Product, and an argument about how to calculate government depradations against the private product remaining in private hands.

The appendix contains a number of tables of data on economic statistics from 1929 through 1932, providing calculations of Private Product and Depradation as well.

One thing worth noting is that the Table VI in the Fifth Edition is an error. That table is supposed to contain government expenditure numbers but the receipt numbers from Table VII are reproduced there mistakenly.

The corrected content of Table VI is as follows:

FederalState & LocalTotal
19294913
19304.29.713.9
19315.59.715.2
19324.48.813.2
Corrected Table VI from page 345 of the fifth edition. All figures are in billions of dollars.

My reconstruction of Table VI comes from combining appropriate figures from Tables IV and V.

For my full show notes, go here.

Return to the series list here.

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

References

Census Bureau, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789-1945
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1949/compendia/hist_stats_1789-1945.html

NY Tax Foundation, The Tax Burden In Relation To National Income and Product
https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/tax-burden-relation-national-income-and-product/
(pdf direct link)
https://files.taxfoundation.org/legacy/docs/ra4.pdf

Fabricant and Lipsey, The Trend of Government Activity in the United States Since 1900
https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/trend-government-activity-united-states-1900
(specific section cited by Rothbard)
https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/trend-government-activity-united-states-1900/appendix-d-data-government-purchases-payrolls-transfers-and-expenditures

Categories
Economics Political Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Twelve

Chapter 12 is the wrap-up, about the last few months of Hoover’s term and Hoover’s unwarranted confidence in his actions. Along for the ride are some overall statistics from the start of the depression until he left office as well. There are also some ominous references to FDR’s incoming New Deal.

See my show notes here.

Return to the series list here.

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

References

Saloutos, Agricultural Discontent in the Middle West…
https://archive.org/details/agriculturaldisc00salorich

Fisher, 100 Percent Money
https://cdn.mises.org/100%20Percent%20Money_Fisher.pdf

Jones, Fifty Billion Dollars…
https://books.google.com/books/about/Fifty_Billion_Dollars.html?id=Ql8UAQAAMAAJ

https://archive.org/details/fiftybilliondoll0000jone

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

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

Willis, The Banking Situation
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7312/will93128-fm/pdf

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

Kent Cooper, Kent Cooper and the Associated Press
https://archive.org/details/kentcooperassoci0000coop

Ayres, The Chief Cause of This and Other Depressions
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Chief_Cause_of_This_and_Other_Depres.html?id=DpVszwEACAAJ

Phillips, Banking and the Business Cycle
https://mises.org/library/book/banking-and-business-cycle

Davies, Depression and Recovery
https://archive.org/details/depressionrecove0000dale

https://books.google.com/books/about/Depression_and_Recovery.html?id=E8ovAAAAYAAJ

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

Levinson, Unionism, Wage Trends, and Income Distribution
https://books.google.com/books/about/Unionism_Wage_Trends_and_Income_Distribu.html?id=oamMAAAAIAAJ

Morris, The AFL in the 1920s: A Strategy of Defense
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2519356

Monthly Labor Review 35 (3)
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/monthly-labor-review-6130/september-1932-608220?page=25

Monthly Labor Review 35 (4)
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/monthly-labor-review-6130/october-1932-608221?page=8

Categories
Economics Video Link

Inflation: The Econometric Mirage

Just some quick thoughts on why monetary inflation might look “good” from an econometric perspective, while hiding the negative effects.

The shortest argument seems to be that the “positive GDP” effects of monetary inflation hit immediately, while the “negative GDP” effects hit later. That allows politicians and economists to blame other factors for the downturn.

It’s also worth remembering that GDP makes the mistake of assuming a dollar spent by the government is equivalent to a dollar spent by the private sector, as far as satisfying the actual needs and wants of people.

I’ve handled that fallacy in this article at the Mises Wire.

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

Categories
Economics Political Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter 11, part 2

Most of this part of the chapter is devoted to the efforts and agitation to reflate prices up to their pre-depression levels.

Fortunately, quite a few of these efforts fizzled out, but enough made it into official policy that the economy suffered another blow at the end of the year, after a small uptick.

Continue reading “Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter 11, part 2″
Categories
Economics Philosophy Video Link

Aluminum Cans and the Nirvana Fallacy?

Today’s short video was inspired by an awful video about aluminum cans and the environment.

The Nirvana Fallacy is not the only mistake this guy makes, but it is the most frequent one.

False declarations of human “rights,” failure to understand the profit motive, a top-down view of the economy… there is a lot of foolishness to cover!

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

Categories
Economics Political Video Link

Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Eleven, Part One

Chapter eleven of America’s Great Depression covers Hoover’s continued flailing as during 1932 as all of his policies make the depression worse.

In this part, we’re covering about half of the chapter, up through the section “Governmental Relief,” ending on page 301 in the Fifth Edition. (Next week we will spend most of our time on the two sections detailing the inflation in 1932.)

Continue reading “Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, Chapter Eleven, Part One”
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.

Return to the series list 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