Another hobby-horse, Boaz?

>>These doco's cover so much ground, at such a depth that you simply cannot absorb it in one go...nor can one understand 'today' compared to the 50s.. without it. The scariest part is the work of the ESALEN INSTITUTE<<

Presumably the Institute has secret links with the Fabians? And to the EDL? Naturally, also to the subversive activities of Al Gore himself?

The Esalen Institute is a tiny blip of Californian hippie nonsense, and about as relevant to the Austrian School as Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.

And the only dangerous part of est is the bill...

http://www.merivale.com/#/establishment/est

$39 for a starter? That's gonna hurt.

I am beginning to lose count of the mini-fads that you involve yourself with, Boaz. None of which, by the way, is at all conducive to calm, rational thinking. But if that is what amuses you, far be it from me to condemn it.

Still no update on Fortrose Cathedral, though, which is disappointing.

>>It will begin with a trip to my forebears tomb "Fortrose Cathedral" where you can ponder why it lies in ruins<<

Any chance that you might admit that you made it up, thinking that having illustrious Scottish ancestry might provide artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative?

Or is confession only for Catholics?

But let me not stray too far off topic.

The problem I find with the Austrian School is that it has the ability to point at problems, but is reticent on solutions. A bit like mother saying "I told you that you'd catch pneumonia if you went out in the rain", but failing to identify an alternative means to get to work each day. Accurate, but unhelpful.

There is little doubt that if all economies had stuck to Austrian School principles, we would not be experiencing the financial pain that we are at present. Or, more accurately, that the US and most of Europe are experiencing.

But I strongly doubt that we would be "better off", in any tangible way. And far more likely, we'd be mired in a low-growth, low-innovation, low-reward existence. Our economies would have been necessarily sluggish, since von Mises insists on accurate pricing of debt, and limiting growth to that which can be funded, largely, through savings.

It is of course impossible to turn back the clock to determine whether this would have created the same kind of growth in wealth of countries such as, say, China, whose population has been a major beneficiary of the floods of "anti-Austrian-School" cheap credit. Would they have been able to pull hundreds of millions out of poverty, as they did, if the engines of growth in the rest of the world not been turned up to 11?

Of course the second problem with the Austrian School is that they don't have any answers as to what we should do, now we have pneumonia. No medicine, no painkillers, no hospital bed, no nursing.

"It serves you right, you'll just have to lie there and suffer"

Unfortunately, this form of tough love will put several millions out of work, as we re-cut our fiscal cloth to von Mises' pattern. It really doesn't help, to sit back and say "If that's where you want to go, I wouldn't start from here."

Pericles,

Pretty much agree with your last post.

Take housing. Sure the Austrian school notes how govts contributed to the problem by keeping interest rates loans and encouraging dodgy loans to the poor, but they also need to discuss how such housing needs would have been met. In other words, given the fiscal crisis of many Western states, each policy idea and approach has its own strengths and weaknesses.

That is why I suggest that followers of the Austrian school follow up on how some of their ideas play out in real terms.