Comments (3)

• Eric

  See, Mises was wrong, economics IS an empirical experimental science. It's just like particle physics. First you smash everything up and then you examine the pieces that are left. Just like the great Depression and the current bubbles.

  And we even have our own DR. Higgs field.

  Published: November 24, 2008 12:31 PM

• Stanley Pinchak

  "Obviously neither the optimal amount of government intervention nor the optimal level of taxation is zero." Maybe it is just me, but I am not convinced by Posner's flippant remark. Analysis of the subjects of intervention and its subset, taxation, leads me to the conclusion that the general welfare and the psychic satisfaction of individuals in society can only increase as the amount of intervention decreases. But then again, I probably am not weighing the ordinal satisfaction of particular individual's wants in the "correct" fashion to see what Posner and the interventionists do. Perhaps I can work with some indifference curves and see if just a little more intervention by the state is justified.

  Overall this is a good article in that it shows how the court intellectuals provide the cover that the state requires for its initial expansion and then the explanation by Higgs shows how the state's retrenchment is never fully completed. I guess if the technocrats can fool themselves sufficiently into believing that the state is benevolent in its actions, then I can understand how they can sleep at night.

  Published: November 24, 2008 12:37 PM

• Inquisitor

  No, Mises was correct, though catastrophes like this serve as nice illustrations of general principles, and also they get people to wake up.

  Published: November 24, 2008 1:13 PM