More From The House Of Rand
The Ayn Rand Institute appears to have a lot better luck in getting attention in the "mainstream" media than the Ludwig von Mises Institute or other more radical free market think tanks. Presumably this is due to Ayn Rand's past association with Greenspan, which has proven to be both good and bad for the official objectivist movement. On the one hand, it appears to be giving them more attention, on the other hand, many think that the disastrous results of the Greenspan era discredits objectivism and laissez faire economics.
Example number of this is this interview with ARI executive director Yaron Brook in newsweek, about Greenspan and the financial crisis. His answers are mostly good, except for the reply to this question, which followed after Brook had stated his opposition to bank bailouts:
"But scholars like Ben Bernanke, current head of the Federal Reserve, says one reason the Great Depression was so severe was that government waited three years before intervening, and let scores of banks fail before then."
To which Brook simply responded by pointing to how unemployment remained very high under Roosevelt. Which is true, but really isn't a response either to the assertion that for the first three years (when Hoover was president), the government pursued laissez-faire policies or that bank failures was a key reason for the depression.
The idea that Hoover pursued laissez faire policies and didn't intervene in the economy is completely false, as Hoover was the most interventionist president America had ever seen (later America has seen even more interventionist ones, including Roosevelt), as Rothbard documented in his book America's Great Depression. I understand that for sectarian reasons Brook will find it hard to officially quote Rothbard, but that shouldn't stop from being able to dispute the "Hoover pursued laissez faire policies"-myth in an interview.
As for the bank failures made the crisis worse-part, it is certainly the case that they do make the crisis deeper in the short-term, especially if wages are inflexible due to other government interventions. But they were hardly the primary cause of the Depression, and that argument do in fact apply to almost all larger companies, including car companies. And if the government bails out all failed companies (or at least all failed large companies) then we will get a Japanese-style zombie economy.
Meanwhile, Alex Epstein, has a blog post in the Telegraph, linking the current crisis to predictions made by Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand.
Example number of this is this interview with ARI executive director Yaron Brook in newsweek, about Greenspan and the financial crisis. His answers are mostly good, except for the reply to this question, which followed after Brook had stated his opposition to bank bailouts:
"But scholars like Ben Bernanke, current head of the Federal Reserve, says one reason the Great Depression was so severe was that government waited three years before intervening, and let scores of banks fail before then."
To which Brook simply responded by pointing to how unemployment remained very high under Roosevelt. Which is true, but really isn't a response either to the assertion that for the first three years (when Hoover was president), the government pursued laissez-faire policies or that bank failures was a key reason for the depression.
The idea that Hoover pursued laissez faire policies and didn't intervene in the economy is completely false, as Hoover was the most interventionist president America had ever seen (later America has seen even more interventionist ones, including Roosevelt), as Rothbard documented in his book America's Great Depression. I understand that for sectarian reasons Brook will find it hard to officially quote Rothbard, but that shouldn't stop from being able to dispute the "Hoover pursued laissez faire policies"-myth in an interview.
As for the bank failures made the crisis worse-part, it is certainly the case that they do make the crisis deeper in the short-term, especially if wages are inflexible due to other government interventions. But they were hardly the primary cause of the Depression, and that argument do in fact apply to almost all larger companies, including car companies. And if the government bails out all failed companies (or at least all failed large companies) then we will get a Japanese-style zombie economy.
Meanwhile, Alex Epstein, has a blog post in the Telegraph, linking the current crisis to predictions made by Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand.
posted by stefankarlsson at 4:36 PM
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