[LS]

I didn't say the Chicago school analyzes the everything correctly. You might be surprised to learn that I debated Uncle Miltie on a boat going down the Danube about the benefits of government control of any money supply---I was opposed. I do say that Friedman had the 1920s pretty well pegged, but should be modified by Barry Eichengreen's analysis of the weaknesses of the gold standard and Wanniski's study of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff.

The same scholars you mildly denigrate, though, are the VERY people who exposed Galbraith and blasted them out of the water. What is interesting about these scholars is that they generally agree on the Great Depression, yet they come from a pretty diverse ideological and political background. My more important point, though, is that if the Rothbardian/Austrian notions are sound, they could be presented and debated and, more important, proven by scholarship. Economics, ultimately, can be reduced to numbers. What should concern you is that these people don't even get in the arena. There is a "Journal of Austrian Economics," but there is also a "Journal of Marxist Economics" (or some such title). The Marxists cannot debate with evidence their positions, thus they create their own little sandbox. That is what I'm afraid the Austrians have done.

[rohry]

We have cross talked here. I'll try to respond to your latest post:

"I didn't say the Chicago school analyzes the everything correctly."

You are right, you didn't. Bad assumption on my part.

"I do say that Friedman had the 1920s pretty well pegged, but should be modified by Barry Eichengreen's analysis of the weaknesses of the gold standard and Wanniski's study of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff."

Never heard of Barry but I lean towards Wanniski's theory of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff causing major problems.

"My more important point, though, is that if the Rothbardian/Austrian notions are sound, they could be presented and debated and, more important, proven by scholarship. Economics, ultimately, can be reduced to numbers. What should concern you is that these people don't even get in the arena."

I'm not a academic so I don't know if their ideas get "in the arena." I do know that I can read their thoughts on the Internet and they sound convincing to me. Is the Internet part of the arena?