Saturday, June 11, 2011

Bachmann: "When I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises."

From today's WSJ profile of  Michelle Bachamann:
Ms. Bachmann is best known for her conservative activism on issues like abortion, but what I want to talk about today is economics. When I ask who she reads on the subject, she responds that she admires the late Milton Friedman as well as Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams. "I'm also an Art Laffer fiend—we're very close," she adds. "And [Ludwig] von Mises. I love von Mises," getting excited and rattling off some of his classics like "Human Action" and "Bureaucracy." "When I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises."
I will be really impressed when she mentions Murray Rothbard.

But what is clearly going on here is that politicians can't ignore the Ron Paul Revolution. You have Pawlenty sounding anti-government, and now this from Bachmann.

Remember, Ronald Reagan was a supposed fan of Ludwig von Mises. During his period as president, the money supply (M2) climbed from $1.8 trillion to $3 trillion. Some student of Mises. Is this what we have in Bachmann?

According to the the WSJ profile, Bachmann is:
 ...also no fan of the Federal Reserve's decade-long policy of flooding the U.S. economy with cheap money. "I love a lowered interest rate like anyone else. But clearly the Fed has had competing goals and objectives. One is the soundness of money and then the other is jobs. The two different objectives are hard to reconcile. What has gotten us into deep trouble and has people so perturbed is the debasing of the currency."

That's why, if she were president, she wouldn't renominate Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman: "I think that it's very important to demonstrate to the American people that the Federal Reserve will have a new sheriff" to keep the dollar strong and stable.
What the hell does this mean, we need a "new sheriff" to head the Fed? This is like calling for a new leader of the mafia. Unless she's talking Joe Salerno or Doug French, (and she's not), color me unimpressed.

Bottom line, it is great to see the debate moving toward the thought of Ludwig von  Mises. That's where the debate should be, but when it comes to understanding Mises, it's the guy talking about ending the Fed, not "replacing the sheriff" that has this game won, Ron Paul. Nearly 30 years ago,  Dr. Paul wrote a damn good book about Mises: Mises and Austrian Economics: A Personal View


(HT2StephenSearer)

11 comments:

  1. Bob -

    Maybe you were right on this one...
    This does sound more like cornering the rhetoric of Ron Paul and his followers, more than anything substantial.

    You missed noting that the "sheriff" language is exactly the same language used by Time (or whichever MSN outlet it was) that ran the story about Elizabeth Warren - the new "sheriff in town".

    I added a little update about Ann Coulter's new book "Demonic" which seems to have spun the thesis of my book with Bill Bonner "Mobs and Messiahs" into one of her immensely popular and no doubt funny books aimed at furthering the partisan debate - i.e. only liberals and Democrats illustrate mobs behavior and thinking.

    In that context, I'm beginning to agree with you that Bachmann might simply be steering the libertarian rhetoric toward the Republican party.

    Too bad.

    I thought for a while she was really more open to thinking about it.

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  2. RW,

    She's just name dropping. If she truly read Mises, she'd advocate for the elimination of the Fed and most agencies. She's faking it.

    David

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  3. Bachman knows she has to steal away Ron Paul's sector to get at Romney. Hopefully Ron can poke the holes in her story well enough that people will see through the charade.

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  4. Is it possible to read, understand, and buy into von Mises and still vote for the awful Patriot Act? Just asking, 'cause she did.

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  5. I got to agree with Ombibulous. Two faced. These people are just filler for the elite. They do not want a free thinker, they want a servant to do their bidding. Dr.Paul does not fit this mold. Our handlers know very well that come crunch time the electorate will totally support the b.s. line they are given. Same old same old, they are more interested in someone's wiener. Thinking, Mises, Rothbard? What's up with that and on a beach! Right.

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  6. Support for Ron Paul from the left:

    http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=36265

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  7. Michelle Bachmann:
    Occasional understudy of Ron Paul and presidential wannnabe. IOW Sarah Palin on tranquilizers.
    End of story.

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  8. "When I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises."

    Must get a bit smelly - been dead for 38 years.

    "Weekend at Ludwigs"

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  9. Check out Daily Bell interview with Mark Skousen, the creator of Freedom Fest and a reliable barometer of Republican sentiment.

    He explicitly calls Ron Paul's positions on the Fed, on the gold standard and on the IRS "extreme".

    Speakers at FreedomFest will include Dick Morris.

    Need I say more.

    That's "Brand Freedom," subsidized by the Ex-Im Bank and your tax dollars.

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  10. If she really cared about this country and Mises, she would step aside and put all of her energy behind Ron Paul.

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  11. I too think this is a propaganda tool meant to attempt to woo Ron Paulians to her side for future support. Why on earth would she be interested in the economic guru of the 'Libertarian' philosophy she has so clearly shown she hates? She is a NEOCON tool, a protégé of the evil Bill Kristol, and mindless Evangelic who praises 'Intelligent Design,' a 6000 year old Earth, and endless wars for Empire. Like some 10 year old who has lied his entire life, no one should believe anything which comes out of this woman's mouth. She could claim to have been wrong all along and do an about face, and I STILL would not trust her. Once a NEOCON, ALWAYS a NEOCON.

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