Cancun and China

Re: [spiers] Cancun and China


In a message dated 9/23/03 5:23:30 PM, ramoslucky16@yahoo.com writes:

<econ class in the near future on line? Something to help us understand
what is currently going on better. I would definitely take it.>>

Thanks, but I barely have time to teach this class... I did read a good
intro to econ last summer... "Economics for Real People" ...here it is a
Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0945466358/qid=1064363183/sr=8-1
/ref=sr_8_1/103-7093281-9622211?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Amazon is pairing it with Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" ... a
classic.

They call economics the dismal science, and it was for me until long ago when
I walked into China from Hong Kong and wondered why China was poor and hong
kong was rich. Then it got interesting. I quickly learned marxism was a fraud
(Chairman Mao agreed) and free markets generated wealth. Keynes is marxism
lite, and Friedman has since regretted monetarism (as did Greenspan recently at
Aspen meet). The Chicago school of econ is a good gateway drug, it addresses
real situations; the supply side economists want to keep the price of gold
stable, but that requires the government stay in the business of managing money,
which always fails.

None of the above are really economics anyway, they are schemes for
manipulating people, just versions of social engineering. The only school
worthy of
the name "economists" are the so-called "austrian school."

Their prescription is freedom of the sort Jefferson, et al, were advocating
and we have moved far away from that. Hong Kong was formed about the same time
as USA and with the same philosophy... they seem to have kept closer to the
ideal. In fact the free-est countries seem to be smaller, multicultural,
sound currency (private comanies issue the currency in hong kong), unilateral in
trade policies, weak political structures (and minimal government), strong
property rights ...

One recurring theme in conversing with thriving small biz people all over the
world, the successful seem to operate from an "austrian economics" outlook
even though they may have never heard of it. It does seem to progress from
natural law, so maybe that is why.

John

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