Ludwig von Mises, Frederich Hayek and other Austrians believed in the foolishness and errors inherent in attempting to macromanage an economy. None, however, expressed their objections quite as colorfully as Seth Klarman: QOTD: "Modern economies are too complex to be reliably modeled; their connections and correlations are loose and imprecise, the second- and third-order effects […]
The “Broken Window” fallacy was exposed by Frederic Bastiat over 150 years ago. It never fails to reappear every time there is a natural disaster. The fallacy is a marker of intellectual IQ. Those who commit the fallacy should not have any credibility, especially with regard to economics. Bastiat explained how those who saw a […]
Milton Friedman responds to the redistribution issue:
Outsourcing is a good thing, despite our two presidential opponents excoriating each other over it. Harry Binswanger provides a defense for outsourcing in a recent Forbes article. Here is an excerpt from the article: Americanism means individualism, but “Hire American” is collectivist, urging businesses to pay more just to patronize “our guys.” This is not […]
A clever presentation that includes Reagan educating Obama with some famous students participating:
The following piece from Nicholas Snow puts into perspective the game of government. By that, I mean government is unable to do something for you that they have not done first against someone else. Government has no money and produces nothing. Anything it has it has taken via coercion from some productive member of society. […]
The number of Obama supporters seems inversely related to his time in office. Many wonder what happened to “The One We Are Waiting For.” Obama assumed office in difficult economic times. After a couple of years of excuses, which included “the problems were worse than we knew” and the generic, all-purpose “it’s Bush’s fault,” Obama […]
For free-market layman economists, the differences between the Chicago School and the Austrian School are often blurred. Both often come to the same policy conclusions, but from very different perspectives. Robert Murphy, an Austrian, describes the differences here.
Milton Friedman’s TV series “Free to Choose” aired on PBS circa 1980. It probably did more good than any book or video before or since bringing free market principles to the masses. Apparently there is a remake of sorts coming to PBS. As I understand it, it retraces Friedman’s steps and visits around the world […]
This interpretation of Keynes through Hayek’s eyes was produced by Taking Hayek Seriously: Hayek was a close student of the economic of John Maynard Keynes — he was, after all, the one who made the “General Theory” necessary after his seismic detonation of Keynes’ earlier “Treatise”. So what did this master economist — one of […]
Suggested stops for the December rankings are provided below. These are mechanical calculations based on ETF volatility. As usual, the first column represents the price at the end of November and the second two columns represent possible stop levels. One is tighter than the other and whether you choose either or set your own is […]
The December rankings and performance of previous rankings are provided below. Suggested stop levels for each of the rankings will be provided in a separate post. December Selections
This update is based on market-close data as of November 22. Performance is based on beginning of that month’s rankings, assuming they were purchased and held for a full month. Stop placement or early selling would produce different results. So, too would different entry or exit prices. There is no way to account for early […]
The ranking of the 11 ETF Asset Classes routinely followed on this site is shown below. These rankings reflect the latest order produced by the algorithm used to rank individual ETFs. There have been some movements in these rankings reflecting recent market action.
The updated performance through November 13 is presented below. Additionally, the new rankings as of this same date are provided. Performance is based on the rankings as of November 1. The assumption is that you bought and held equal dollar amounts within a category and that you still hold these ETFs. If you entered at […]
Monty Pelerin's World discusses economic, political and financial issues from a free market perspective. All Posts
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