Sunday, December 18, 2011

Richard Ebeling: On Mises, Central Planning and Facing Down Russian Tanks

Don't miss this week's Robert Wenzel Show. I spoke with economics Professor Richard Ebeling. 

We discussed why Ludwig von Mises was a great economist, central planning, what's going on in Russia right now and about Richard in Moscow facing down Russian tanks.




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3 comments:

  1. He's a good, clear thinker and speaker. Thanks for the interview, Bob.

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  2. That was an awesome interview, he stuck to straight economics for the most part.

    Just out of curiosity, did anybody else notice that Ebeling kinda sounds like Alan Alda?

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  3. Mises' argument against central planning is much more straightforward: it is that in the absence of prices, no economic calculation is possible
    --and the "theoretical" substitutes put forward by the likes of Lange mean nothing, as they imply omniscience about substitution relationships which no outside observer can actually know anything about.

    And this impossibility is but an instance of a more basic truth, which is at the base of the "marginalist" revolution, which is that value judgements can only be defined as the result of a confrontation of personal plans with property constraints.
    One of the consequences of which truth being that prices only reflect value judgements, and serve as indicators of perceived scrarcity, to the extent that they are ratios of actual products exchanged by responsible owners; otherwise, they do not and accounting makes no sense.
    Of course, it means that government or "national" "accounting" do not actually reflect economic reality.

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