Amar Bhide on Hayek, Innovation & Entrepreneurial Judgment

In The Harvard Business Review. Highly recommended.

Peter Boettke

Gets some well deserved press.

The ever dishonest Paul Krugman

Gets called to account one more time for lying about Hayekian business cycle theory.

Scott Sumner warns against Rajan & White

Don’t listen to the guys who — you know — got just about everything right over the past decade.

Let’s not pay attention to economists who — you know — actually understood what was happening before it happened.

We can’t let that happen.

The Road to Serfdom — now in its 12th week on the Amazon Top 100 list

Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom enters its 12th week on the Amazon’s Top 100 bestsellers list, this week at #73.

Catching up on things

The “Taking Hayek Seriously” blog will continue at a “vacation” level of activity until sometime after the beginning of the school year, mid-September or so.

Dr. Hayek, Dr. Keynes

And the Fat Man. A parable for our times.

Best article yet

on the reality of current economic situation and how we got here.

The impossibility of socialist planning — The Pantry Proof

The Pantry Proof against socialist economic planning.

ht ricketyclick

20 miles of empty lumber rail cars

I’m driving past 20 miles of these empty railroad lumber transport cars in Eastern Oregon, which are being stored on an unused rail spur. The cars have been there for 2 years. A living image of the Hayekian malinvestment boom and bust cycle:

Data: the boom-bust consumer s…

Data: the boom-bust consumer spending recalculation cycle http://bit.ly/9GphKe

Costco sells Hayek by the pall…

Costco sells Hayek by the pallet http://bit.ly/duBxNM

Hayek goes wholesale http://…

Hayek goes wholesale http://bit.ly/cFNRpC

Hayek on deficits and the Reagan tax cuts

F. A. Hayek interviewed by the NY Times, Dec. 1, 1982:

“On the scale on which [tax cutting] is being tried, I’m a little apprehensive.  I’m all for reduction of government expenditures but to anticipate it by reducing the rate of taxation before you have reduced expenditure is a very risky thing to do.”

“The only way you can finance deficits is by inflation.  You cannot raise this amount of money by genuine borrowing.  You borrow from banks, which create credit for the purpose.  A large government deficit is a certain way to inflation.”

Hayek on Reagan & “Supply Side Economics” in 1985

From the  March 25, 1985 issue of Profil 13, translated by an anonymous blogger:

“[Reagan's] politics? When the government of the United States borrows a large part of the savings of the world, the consequence is that capital must become scarce and expensive in the whole world. That’s a problem.”

“You see, one of Reagan’s advisers told me why the president has permitted [massive deficits] to happen, which makes the matter partly excusable: Reagan thinks it is impossible to persuade Congress that expenditures must be reduced unless one creates deficits so large that absolutely everyone becomes convinced that no more money can be spent .. [Reagan believes he can] persuade Congress of the necessity of spending reductions by means of an immense deficit. Unfortunately, he has not succeeded!!!”

Bingo

Arnold Kling has rediscovered another Hayek insight:

“Most unoccupied houses have close to zero marginal value to the vast majority of consumers, just as most unemployed workers have zero marginal product to the vast majority of firms.”

The distinction between economic and non economic goods seems lost on any economist who has not read Menger, but this conceptual insight stands as the very first building stone of economic science.

Audio — Shenoy on Hayek vs Keynes

A YouTube video.

“The Evolution of Rule of Law in Hayek’s Thought, 1935-1955″

A new working paper from Steven Ealy.

Download – Eamonn Butler’s great little book on Hayek

Eamonn Butler’s excellent short study of Hayek’s economics and social philosophy is now available on the internet as a pdf document.  The book is Hayek:  His Contribution to the Political and Economic Thought of Our Time.

The Adam Smith Institute’s

F. A. Hayek page.  Of particular interest — “Key Concepts in Hayek’s Thought”.

ht Molivam42.