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Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2016

Scott Burns

For nearly 80 years, the field of macroeconomics has largely been shaped by the aftermath of the Keynesian revolution. Many economists have argued that this revolution and the…

Abstract

For nearly 80 years, the field of macroeconomics has largely been shaped by the aftermath of the Keynesian revolution. Many economists have argued that this revolution and the subsequent internal and external disputes it has sparked have had the unfortunate side effect of crowding out much of what was good in macro-level analysis before it, leading to the dissatisfactory state of macroeconomics we have today. In the search for alternative paths for macroeconomics, I focus on two separate but compatible traditions: monetary disequilibrium (MD) theory and the Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT). I argue that scholars in these traditions employed a far richer micro-theoretic explanation for the business cycle well before Keynes’s General Theory. Unfortunately, their ideas were not united in time to mount a sufficient counterattack to the Keynesian crusade. My goal is to unite the best elements of these two traditions by providing what I believe is the “missing link” that can help connect these alternative paths: free banking theory.

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Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-962-6

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Book part
Publication date: 25 August 2021

Alexander Linsbichler

Austrian economist Ludwig Mises’s central role in the socialist calculation debates has been consensually acknowledged since the early 1920s. Yet, only recently Nemeth, O’Neill…

Abstract

Austrian economist Ludwig Mises’s central role in the socialist calculation debates has been consensually acknowledged since the early 1920s. Yet, only recently Nemeth, O’Neill, Uebel, and others have drawn particular attention to Mises’s encounter with logical empiricist Otto Neurath. Despite several surprising agreements, Neurath and Mises certainly provide different answers to the questions “what is meant by rational economic theory” (Neurath) and whether “socialism is the abolition of rational economy” (Mises). Previous accounts and evaluations of the exchange between Neurath and Mises suffer from attaching little regard to their idiosyncratic uses of the term “rational.” The paper at hand reconstructs and critically compares the different conceptions of rationality defended by Neurath and Mises. The author presents two different resolutions to a detected tension in Mises’s deliberations on rationality: the first is implicit in Neurath’s, O’Neill’s, and Salerno’s reading of Mises and faces several interpretational problems; the author proposes a divergent interpretation. Based on the reconstructions of Neurath’s and Mises’s conceptions of rationality, the author suggests some implications with respect to Viennese Late Enlightenment and the socialist calculation debates.

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Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including A Symposium on Carl Menger at the Centenary of His Death
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-144-0

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1999

Leland B. Yeager

This essay offers a review of von Mises’ classic Nation, State and Economy(1919). It focuses specifically on the contexts of liberty, the issue of language and nation.

544

Abstract

This essay offers a review of von Mises’ classic Nation, State and Economy(1919). It focuses specifically on the contexts of liberty, the issue of language and nation.

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Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 26 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

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Book part
Publication date: 23 July 2016

Peter J. Boettke, Christopher J. Coyne and Patrick Newman

This chapter provides a comprehensive survey of the contributions of the Austrian school of economics, with specific emphasis on post-WWII developments. We provide a brief history…

Abstract

This chapter provides a comprehensive survey of the contributions of the Austrian school of economics, with specific emphasis on post-WWII developments. We provide a brief history and overview of the original theorists of the Austrian school in order to set the stage for the subsequent development of their ideas by Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek. In discussing the main ideas of Mises and Hayek, we focus on how their work provided the foundations for the modern Austrian school, which included Ludwig Lachmann, Murray Rothbard and Israel Kirzner. These scholars contributed to the Austrian revival in the 1960s and 1970s, which, in turn, set the stage for the emergence of the contemporary Austrian school in the 1980s. We review the contemporary development of the Austrian school and, in doing so, discuss the tensions, alternative paths, and the promising future of Austrian economics.

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Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-960-2

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1994

Leland B. Yeager

Addresses the theory of capital and interest of Eucken. Explains howEucken works out the temporal aspects of the economic process indifferent monetary systems, market structures…

485

Abstract

Addresses the theory of capital and interest of Eucken. Explains how Eucken works out the temporal aspects of the economic process in different monetary systems, market structures and economic systems. The theory is critically evaluated. Eucken made essential contributions to the theory of capital and interest (ranking alongside the works of Böhm‐Bawerk, Wicksell, Cassel, Fisher, Allais, Hirschleifer and a few other economists). The profession would benefit from closer acquaintance with his ideas.

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Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

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Book part
Publication date: 31 August 1995

Abstract

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Advances in Austrian Economics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-516-1

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Article
Publication date: 18 May 2012

Walter E. Block

The purpose of this paper is to shed critical light on micro‐finance.

3719

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to shed critical light on micro‐finance.

Design/methodology/approach

This scheme is managed from an economic perspective.

Findings

Micro‐finance comes to us as a left wing attack on the free enterprise system; as such, it ought to be opposed by all freedom lovers, at least in its present format. Other baggage weighing it down is, if not absolute fraud, then, what might well be considered at least serious chicanery. A further criticism is the cult‐like behavior now surrounding it. However, is micro‐finance per se necessarily fraudulent? Can it only be favored by critics of laissez faire capitalism? What of micro‐finance shorn of all such encumbrances? Should it then be supported? No. Even the Platonic Ideal of micro‐finance has serious difficulties. This claim is a matter of prudential judgment, not praxeology. But, even a pure‐as‐the‐driven‐snow variety of this scheme still violates the economic concepts of specialization and division of labor, an appreciation of the infant industry fallacy, and several other basic building blocks of the dismal science. There are other better ways to “cure poverty” than this misbegotten scheme. This one, paradoxically, exacerbates impoverishment by placing investment resources in hands less capable of making it grow than would otherwise be the case.

Practical implications

It would be unwise to invest in or support this scheme.

Social implications

Society should instead rely upon free enterprise banking, the occupy movement to the contrary notwithstanding.

Originality/value

It takes a minority position on this very popular institution.

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Humanomics, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0828-8666

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 2001

James Fisher, Ellen Harshman, William Gillespie, Henry Ordower, Leland Ware and Frederick Yeager

In late 1999, Congress enacted financial modernisation legislation that dramatically deregulated the financial services industry and expanded the powers of financial institutions…

173

Abstract

In late 1999, Congress enacted financial modernisation legislation that dramatically deregulated the financial services industry and expanded the powers of financial institutions in the USA. In keeping with this deregulation and expanded powers, the regulatory landscape and enforcement mechanisms also changed. While many applaud this legislation, others point to previous US experience where financial deregulation overwhelmed federal regulators and resulted in massive failures of financial institutions and, consequently, in huge federal bailouts. The authors examine here the prospect of supplementing regulation with certain forms of private intervention. Specifically, they address the question: is there a role for whistleblowing and bounty hunting as means of supplementing existing regulation in the financial services industry?

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Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

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Book part
Publication date: 19 February 2020

Samuel Demeulemeester

This chapter discusses the “seigniorage argument” in favor of public money issuance, according to which public finances could be improved if the state more fully exercised the…

Abstract

This chapter discusses the “seigniorage argument” in favor of public money issuance, according to which public finances could be improved if the state more fully exercised the privilege of money creation, which is, today, largely shared with private banks. This point was made in the 1930s by several proponents of the “100% money” reform scheme, such as Henry Simons of the University of Chicago, Lauchlin Currie of Harvard and Irving Fisher of Yale, who called for a full-reserve requirement in lawful money behind checking deposits. One of their claims was that, by returning all seigniorage profit to the state, such reform would allow a significant reduction of the national debt. In academic debates, however, following a criticism first made by Albert G. Hart of the University of Chicago in 1935, this argument has generally been discarded as wholly illusory. Hart argued that, because the state, under a 100% system, would be likely to pay the banks a subsidy for managing checking accounts, no substantial debt reduction could possibly be expected to follow. The 100% money proponents never answered Hart’s criticism, whose conclusion has often been considered as definitive in the literature. However, a detailed study of the subject reveals that Hart’s analysis itself appears to be questionable on at least two grounds: the first pertains to the sources of the seigniorage benefit, the other to its distribution. This chapter concludes that the “seigniorage argument” of the 100% money authors may not have been entirely unfounded.

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Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including a Symposium on Public Finance in the History of Economic Thought
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-699-5

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Book part
Publication date: 30 November 2022

David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart

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Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including a Symposium on the Work of François Perroux
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-715-5

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