<blockquote>"In recent years, economics, under the dominant influence of formalism, positivism and econometrics, and preening itself on being a hard science, has displayed little interest in its own past. It has been intent, as in any 'real' science, on the latest textbook or journal article rather than on exploring its own history. After all, do contemporary physicists spend much time poring over eighteenth century optics?
In the last decade or two, however, the reigning Walrasian-Keynesian neoclassical formalist paradigm has been called ever more into question, and a veritable Kuhnian 'crisis situation' has developed in various areas of economics, including worry over its methodology. Amidst this situation, the study of the history of thought has made a significant comeback, one which we hope and expect will expand in coming years. For if knowledge buried in paradigms lost can disappear and be forgotten over time, then studying older economists and schools of thought need not be done merely for antiquarian purposes or to examine how intellectual life proceeded in the past. Earlier economists can be studied for their important contributions to forgotten and therefore new knowledge today. Valuable truths can be learned about the content of economics, not only from the latest journals, but from the texts of long-deceased economic thinkers."
- Murray N. Rothbard, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith (
pdf), page ix & x (
Source -
Past & Present)
"...to sustain a higher standard of living, the production structure—the capital structure—must be permanently “lengthened.” As more and more capital is added and maintained in civilized economies, more and more funds must be used just to maintain and replace the larger structure. This means higher gross savings, savings that must be sustained and invested in each higher stage of production. Thus, the retailers must continue buying from the wholesalers, the wholesalers from the jobbers, etc.
Increased savings, then, are not wasted, they are, on the contrary, vital to the maintenance of civilized living standards."
- Murray N. Rothbard,
The Great Depression, Page 59</blockquote>
'Country Mired in Debt...'<blockquote>'The American dream signifies many things to many people. The dream has evolved over time. If we are to look at history and our fascination of the Western, the dream once meant the freedom to be a rugged individual in a country that had no boundary. You were on your own with the frontier. Yet that dream ended once the country was connected from coast to coast and with the Great Depression, many in society actually felt that some compact between citizen and the government would be helpful especially in distressing times. We oscillate as a society from moments where we desire zero government involvement to moments where the government seems to be the last resort. With our current economic crisis, many Americans are rethinking the makeup of the dream.'
- Dr. Housing Bubble,
Wave Goodbye to the Bankrupt Joneses: Deconstructing the American Dream. The Shifting Financial and Societal Goals of a Country Mired in Debt, March 26th, 2009</blockquote>
... & The Nine Trillion<blockquote>'Congressman Alan Grayson questions Federal Reserve Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman about the trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve is lending, spending, or carrying in off balance sheet obligations. The footage demonstrates the IG doesn’t really have a sense of how the money is being used.'
- Rocky Vega,
Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?, 05/08/09
'So I take Coleman's inability to answer key questions to be a feature, not a bug. The Fed of New York probably can answer Congressional questions, is taking care to limit what it conveys to the Board so as to keep the information from Congress and the public. Note in the questioning the emphasis on "high level reviews".'
- Yves Smith,
Federal Reserve Inspector General Unable to Answer Basic Questions on Where the Trillions Went, May 12, 2009</blockquote>