by Jonathan Newman
Mises.org
We need Mises now more than ever. The Federal Reserve is weighing which month to increase their target rate by a quarter of a percentage point, sending the media into a flurry whenever Janet Yellen so much as sneezes. As millions of US voters fall behind a self-avowed socialist, Venezuela’s socialist experiment is crashing and burning: Coca-Cola has shut down operations, toilet paper is a luxury item, power outages are regular, and violence and looting are on the rise. This is a prime opportunity to show others the prescience of Mises.
Only the strong Misesian arguments against central banking and socialism can explode (as Mises himself would say) the claims of their contemporary defenders. Mises’s arguments are the strongest because of his unyielding dedication to constructing and maintaining an economic methodology that produces unassailable conclusions. His business cycle theory carries the same certainty as the laws of diminishing marginal utility, comparative advantage, time preference, and other rock-solid economic principles, as an outgrowth of the same line of logical thinking. His critique of socialism is unparalleled among other critiques in its inescapable consequences for socialism in both theory and practice.