Free Republic

Question: Hello Paul! Do you ever plan to present the ideas of economists that adhere to the Austrian School of Economics (Students of Von Hayek or Von Mises)? Their understanding of the nature and causes of the business cyle enabled them to foresee much of what has happened in the last few years. (Peter Schiff and Marc Faber are successful examples.) Thanks for your friendly commentary!Paul Solman: Yes, the resurgence of the Austrian School is worth a look, and was suggested to me by none other than Robert MacNeil a few weeks ago after Rand Paul's victory in Kentucky. Look...

".. you can't fix debt intoxication with another bottle of whiskey. What we're doing now will inevitably lead to another crisis, this one much worse than the last. Burdened with the bad paper they refused to unload, the banks will get into cash flow trouble as their attempt to extract ever-larger amounts of money from everyone else in society to paper over their own insolvency will ultimately fail. The Federal Government will see the market back up rates irrespective of what they try to do, just as Greece has. This will force borrowing costs higher, and ultimately make destruction of...

Once in a while, a book comes along that shakes so many of your core beliefs that you are left questioning either the integrity of what you have read or your own knowledge. In this particular case, I had the privilege of a sneak peek at The Return of the Great Depression by Vox Day and with most certainly can state, it is the latter. RGD as it shall be referred to from now on, as can be inferred from its title makes a very compelling case as to the state of our economy and where this nation is potentially...

It is a cliché that if we do not study the past we are condemned to repeat it. Almost equally certain, however, is that if there are lessons to be learned from an historical episode, the political class will draw all the wrong ones — and often deliberately so. Far from viewing the past as a potential source of wisdom and insight, political regimes have a habit of employing history as an ideological weapon, to be distorted and manipulated in the service of present-day ambitions. That’s what Winston Churchill meant when he described the history of the Soviet Union as...

Barack Obama in his own words during a speech at a recent NATO Conference

“There’s a lot of -- I don’t know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing, and people are pursuing their interests, and everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular politics,” he said in response to an Austrian reporter’s question.

George Bush’s critics rightly roasted him for his tortured syntax and waterboarded grammar, and used it to make the claim that the graduate of both Harvard and Yale was an idiot.  Well, perhaps, but I don’t recall him ever claiming that Austrian was a language.  It takes a highly-esteemed intellect, it seems, to miss the fact that Austrians mainly speak German:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr7zhnctF4c   Obama: It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There’s a lot of — I don’t know what the term is in Austrian...

President Barack Obama made a world-class gaffe in front of the entire planet's press during his news conference in Strasbourg, France. The transcript was released by the White House on April 4: Q Sonja Sagmeister from a little country, Austria, from Austrian Television. Mr. President, you said you came here to learn and to listen. So a quite personal question -- what did you learn from your personal talk with the European leaders? And did this change in a certain way your views on Europe and its politics? PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's an interesting question. I had already formed relationships with...

Q Sonja Sagmeister from a little country, Austria, from Austrian Television. Mr. President, you said you came here to learn and to listen. So a quite personal question -- what did you learn from your personal talk with the European leaders? And did this change in a certain way your views on Europe and its politics? PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's an interesting question. I had already formed relationships with many of them. ... There's a lot of -- I don't know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing -- and, you know, people are pursuing their interests, and...

Palaiz [sic! - Palace is spelled Palais in French] de la Musique et Des Congres Strasbourg, France 4:32 P.M. (Local) ---[SNIP]--- [Full press release at link above]  Q Sonja Sagmeister from a little country, Austria, from Austrian Television. Mr. President, you said you came here to learn and to listen. So a quite personal question -- what did you learn from your personal talk with the European leaders? And did this change in a certain way your views on Europe and its politics? PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's an interesting question. I had already formed relationships with many of them. Some of...

"WILL CAPITALISM SURVIVE?" was the question before the lunch table Wednesday. "It hasn't been tried," I replied, "at least not since the McKinley administration and certainly not since 1914," when the Federal Reserve started operations in earnest. In doing my conservative curmudgeon act, I probably came across as supercilious. But my response also reflected my reaction to the smug contempt toward free-market philosophy in general and Ronald Reagan and his lesser successors in particular expressed elsewhere in the press of late. The credit crisis and the ensuing global economic contraction have failed to make an impression on academe, where free-market...

The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new communiqué from the Army of Islam in Gaza, in which the group urges the Austrian government to release Muhammad Shawqi Mahmoud from jail. In March 2008, Mahmoud was sentenced to four years in prison for belonging to a terrorist organization. Mahmoud, a central figure in the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), was involved in producing a March 2007 GIMF video that threatened Austria and Germany if the countries did not withdraw their troops from Afghanistan.

Vienna - Austrian far-right parliamentarian Susanne Winter was convicted Thursday of incitement because of her anti-Muslim statements, including the claim that Islam's prophet Mohammed was a paedophile. A court in Winter's home town of Graz also found the 51-year-old politician guilty of humiliating a religion. She was sentenced to a fine of 24,000 euros (31,000 dollars) euros and a suspended prison term of three months, Austrian news agency APA reported. The politician, who took a seat in parliament last fall for the Freedom Party (FPOe), made the anti-Islamic remarks in January 2008. She also proposed in a discussion with students...

"Do You Austrians Have a Better Idea?" Daily Article by Robert P. Murphy | Posted on 2/2/2009 12:00:00 AM A lot of people get annoyed with Austrian economists because they tend to be so dogmatic (we prefer the term consistent) and because they cloak their strictly economic claims with self-righteousness (we prefer the term morality). After a good Austrian bashing of the latest call to steal taxpayer money and waste it on something that will make a given problem worse, the stumped critics will often shout, "Oh yeah? Well do you guys have a better idea?"Now, in truth, someone...

WASHINGTON — A new analysis shows that California would get a whopping $21.5 billion under an economic stimulus plan that’s expected to be approved by the House next week, making it the biggest winner among the 50 state On Thursday, staffers of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee estimated that California would receive $4.5 billion to spend on highways, bridges and other projects.Other stimulus money would be aimed at programs for child care, job training and energy assistance for the poor, among other things. Under the House Democratic plan, the biggest source of aid to states — $79 billion —...

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Former Democratic Assemblywoman Nicole Parra has a new job in the Schwarzenegger administration coordinating economic development. Parra will earn $128,124 directing the governor's regional development issues in the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Parra, who termed out last year, earned headlines when assembly Speaker Karen Bass evicted her from her Statehouse office for not supporting her party's budget proposal. Parra, from Hanford, represented the 30th Assembly District from 2002 to 2008. After terming out, she supported Republican Danny Gilmore in his successful bid to succeed her.

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility for kidnapping two Austrian tourists last month in Tunisia in an audio recording aired Monday on Al-Jazeera television. A man who identified himself as Salah Abu Mohammed said in the recording that the terrorist group kidnapped the two Austrians on Feb. 22 in retribution for Western cooperation with Israel, but said the hostages were in good health. "We tell Western tourists that at the same time they are flowing into Tunisian lands seeking joy, our brothers are being slain in Gaza by the Jews with the collaboration of the Western...

Two Democrats have introduced legislation sought by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that could broaden voter support for a twice-delayed, $9.9 billion high-speed-rail bond on the November ballot. A spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, Sabrina Lockhart, said Thursday that the administration worked with the rail board to draft the Galgiani and Ma bill. The bill by Assemblywomen Cathleen Galgiani of Tracy and Fiona Ma of San Francisco would allow the bonds to be used for all segments of the proposed 700-mile rail system. The bond's current language dedicates the money only for the proposed segment between the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas.Ma and...

Just minutes before a midnight deadline, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have placed on the Feb. 5 presidential primary election ballot an advisory resolution urging President Bush to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Schwarzenegger said in his veto message such a vote would be superfluous when voters can determine the future course of Iraq policy with their votes for president.