Mises Boot Camp

I thought this Boot Camp was a pretty good introduction, although it seems they employed a couple summer fellows to give lectures that I think could use some practice.  As usual Jeff Deist makes a great case for why we should be interested.

But its the Austrian's who aren't scientific.

I always find myself cringing at the phrase "not falsifiable by experience". I think it's because the reaction is always to the effect of calling Austrians non-scientific. The point isn't that it isn't falsifiable by "experience". The point is that under the "scientific method" itself for an experience to verify or falsify anything, to demonstrate cause and effect, it requires controlling all the variables--something fundamentally impossible in economics. This is the key issue I think most Austrians fail to make abundantly clear in their explanation of "experience".

I repeat, they fail to make it abundantly clear. They have a tendency to mention it, but not emphasize it's critical importance. This becomes obvious when people aren't immediately convinced of the correctness of the Austrian method.

The once widely used "ceteris paribus" phrase implies this used to be common knowledge.  The Austrians just didn't fall for scientism and physics envy.

Another campaign begins

8 years ago I started paying attention to the specific problems politicians were harping on most loudly.  Wall street speculation, corporate control of the economy, the military industrial complex, religious zealots of different faiths assuming power over governments here and abroad, "deregulation", etc.

By the time i'd absorbed a year+ of being bombarded with propaganda and the talk of oncoming recession, up to my eyeballs and ears in shit, i cast a vote for Barack Obama.  I was looking for hope and change.

The economy collapsed into recession that loomed on for years and my interest in worldly concerns grew.  I'd say reading Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson​ was a major eye opener that set me on a path to seek truth first, and action later.  How could this man make so many points of contention appear so easy to understand, as well as so obvious as to the truth?  5 years of self-study in economics later I find myself much closer to the truth, yet significantly removed from popular (allowable) opinion.

The past month or two have seen a revival of presidential politics and a surprising pair of hot ticket names.  Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.  In the USA, a self-described Socialist and a comb-over celebrity.  Perhaps that's enough said.

Economy to hell.  As I look back I see the useful idiot I was and how much further we've gone down the same road.