Taking a Stand: Reflections on Life, Liberty, and the Economy

by Robert Higgs, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano (Foreword by)

Overview

In his academic work, Robert Higgs has dissected the government’s shrewd secret excesses that lead to the Welfare State, the Warfare State, and the Administrative State. For several decades he has unstintingly chronicled the federal, state, and local governments’ malfeasance in these many areas of life that all levels of government have intruded upon without Constitutional mandate. In this book, however, are essays that show a whimsical, introspective, and personal side of this world renowned scholar. From the myth that the government has derived its powers from the consent of the governed to the role of independent experts in formulating monetary and fiscal policy; from the government’s duplicity in announcing the unemployment rate in a given month to how the state entraps us, if you want to see a true polymath at work, these lofty, serious, sad, and illuminating essays will educate you beyond what you had thought possible about life, liberty, and the economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598132038
Publisher:	Independent Institute, The
Publication date:	05/01/2015
Edition description:	None
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Robert Higgs is senior fellow in political economy for the Independent Institute and the editor of the Institute’s quarterly journal, the Independent Review. He is also the author of several books, including Against Leviathan, Competition and Coercion, Delusions of Power, Neither Liberty Nor Safety, Resurgence of the Warfare State, and The Transformation of the American Economy 1865–1914, and the recipient of numerous awards, such as the Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty and the Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty. He lives in Lafayette, Louisiana. Judge Andrew P. Napolitano currently serves as the senior judicial analyst Fox News Channel (FNC) and provides legal analysis on both FNC and Fox Business Network (FBN). He is the author of five books: Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws; The Constitution in Exile, a New York Times bestseller; Dred Scott's Revenge; Lies the Government Told You, also a New York Times bestseller; and A Nation of Sheep. His writings have been published in several newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Foreword Judge Andrew P. Napolitano xv

Preface xix

Part I Politics and the State

1 It's Who You Know 3

2 What's the Point of Demonstrating? 5

3 Partisan Politics: A Fool's Game for the Masses 9

4 Democracy's Most Critical Defect 12

5 Nothing Outside the State 17

6 Consent of the Governed? 19

7 Why This Gigantic "Intelligence" Apparatus? Follow the Money 24

8 Can the Dead (Capitalism) Be Brought Back to Life? 28

9 The Welfare State Neutralizes Potential Opponents by Making Them Dependent on Government Benefits 32

10 The Systematic Organization of Hatreds 35

11 All Men Are Brothers, but All Too Often They Do Not Act Accordingly 38

12 Once More, with Feeling: Our System Is Not Socialism, but Participatory Fascism 40

13 Love, Liberty, and the State 43

14 Legitimacy 46

15 Political Problems Have Only One Real Solution 49

16 The Power of the State versus the Power of Love 51

17 State Power and How It Might Be Undermined 55

18 All Government Policies Succeed in the Long Run 58

19 Crisis of Political Authority? I Wish! 61

Part II On Doing Analysis in Political Economy

20 Ten Rules for Understanding Economic Development 67

21 Underappreciated Aspects of the Ratchet Effect 73

22 Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Political Economy 76

23 Can the Rampaging Leviathan Be Stopped or Slowed? 81

24 Higgs Is Just a Pessimist 87

25 My Question for the Doomsters: Then What? 90

26 Defense Spending Is Much Greater Than You Think 94

27 Which End, if Any, Is Near? 98

28 Communism's Persistent Pull 101

29 The Dangers of Samuelson's Economic Method 104

30 Don't Accuse Me of Blaming America When I Blame the Government 111

31 Extreme Aggregation Misleads Macroeconomists and the Fed 115

32 Why Do So Many People Automatically and Angrily Condemn Historical Revisionism? 120

33 Where Should the Burden of Proof Rest? 124

34 Politics and Markets: A Highly Misleading Analogy 128

35 Social Science IOI: Three Ways to Relate to Other People 132

36 Ten Fallacious Conclusions in the Dominant Ideology's Political Economy 135

37 Regime Uncertainty: Some Clarifications 138

38 Not Every Intellectual Gunman Is a Hired Gun 142

39 Truth and Freedom in Economic Analysis and Economic Policymaking 145

40 Austrian Economics: The Queen of the Experimental Sciences 152

41 Not All Countries Are Analytically Equal 154

42 Creative Destruction-The Best Game in Town 157

43 Thinking Is Research, Too! 161

Part III Money, Debt, Interest Rates, and Prices

44 Macroeconomic Booms and Busts: Déjà Vu Once Again 167

45 The Continuing Puzzle of the Hyperinflation That Hasn't Occurred 170

46 Money versus Monetary Base: An Elementary Yet Critical Distinction 173

47 The Euthanasia of the Saver 176

48 The Fed's Immiseration of People Who Live on Interest Earnings 180

49 Extraordinary Demand to Hold Cash: The Mystery Persists 183

50 More Monetary Peculiarities of the Past Five Years 187

51 A Bogus Example of Controlling Inflation with Price Controls 190

52 Monetary Policy and Heightened Price Volatility in Raw Materials Markets 193

Part IV Investment and Regime Uncertainty

53 Regime Uncertainty: Are Interest-Rate Movements Consistent with the Hypothesis? 199

54 Do the Post-Panic Changes in Corporate Bond Yield Curves Indicate Regime Uncertainty or Only Expectations of Increased Inflation? 203

55 The Great Divergence: Private Investment and Government Power in the Present Crisis 206

56 Private Business Net Investment Remains in a Deep Ditch 210

57 The Confidence Fairy versus the Animal Spirits: Not Really a Fair Fight 214

58 Important New Evidence on Regime Uncertainty 217

59 The Sluggish Recovery of Real Net Domestic Private Business Investment 221

60 Government Spending and Regime Uncertainty-A Clarification 225

Part V Boom, Bust, and Macroeconomic Policy

61 World War II: Still Being Touted as the Quintessential Keynesian Miracle 229

62 One More Time: Consumption Spending Has Already Recovered 232

63 U.S. Economic Recovery Remains Anemic, at Best 234

64 Likely Fiscal and Monetary Legacies of the Current Crisis 239

65 Counsel of Despair? 249

66 Unprecedented Household Deleveraging since 2007 252

67 An Overview of Recent Changes in Federal Finances 254

Part VI Labor Markets

68 Will the Real Rate of Unemployment Please Stand Up? 259

69 Short-Term Employment Changes in Longer-Term Perspective 262

70 Cessation of Labor Force Growth since 2008 266

71 Labor Markets Are Still in Bad Shape 269

Part VII Libertarianism

72 Are Questions of War and Peace Merely One Issue among Many for Libertarians? 275

73 Freedom: Because It Works or because It's Right? 282

74 The Salmon Trap: An Analogy for People's Entrapment by the State 286

75 Libertarian Wishful Thinking 289

76 "There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days": Genesis 6:4 292

77 The Rodney Dangerfields of the Ideological Universe 294

78 Classical Liberalism's Impossible Dream 297

79 Why the Precationary Principle Counsels Us to Renounce Statism 300

80 Modern Communications Technology-Savior or Soma? 302

81 On My Libertarian Catholicity 306

Part VIII Remembrances of Parents, Teachers, Colleagues, and Comrades

82 William Jess Higgs (March 21, 1909-October 15, 1977) 313

83 Work in Progress: A Boy and His Mom 316

84 Murray N. Rothbard: In Memoriam 321

85 Jiirg Niehans (November 8, 1919-April 23, 2007) 326

86 R. Max Hartwell (1921-2009) 329

87 Manuel F. Ayau (1925-2010) 331

88 Joseph Sobran (1946-2010) 332

89 Morris David Morris (February 10, 1921-March 12, 2011) 334

90 Siobhan Reynolds: A True American Heroine (1961-2011) 336

91 Anna Jacobson Schwartz (November 11, 1915-June 21, 2012) 339

92 Thomas S. Szasz (1920-2012) 341

93 James M. Buchanan (October3, 1919-January 9, 2013) 344

94 Armen Alchian (April 12, 1914-February 19, 2013) 347

95 Robert William Fogel (July 1, 1926-June 11, 2013) 349

96 Donald S. Barnhart (July 18, 1925-September 8, 2009) 353

Part IX Just for Fun

97 Mainstream Economists Will Have a Blast at This Year's Halloween Parties 357

98 "American Pie": Altered to Lament My Life and Times as an Economist 360

99 A Vulgar Keynesian Visits My Chamber 365

Index 367

About the Author 378

Editorial Reviews

"Robert Higgs begins Taking a Stand by thanking his students. But his list is much too short, for we are all his students. Often funny, and usually subversive of the conventional wisdom, this book spans a short period (2009-14) in Bob’s marvelously productive life. Chapters range from serious engagements with economic affairs to heartfelt eulogies—Bob’s ‘goodbye’ to Manuel Ayau cannot be read without tearing up—to parodies of the rock song ‘American Pie’ and the poem ‘The Raven.’ It is hard to convey the depth and value of this timely yet timeless book. But if Francis Bacon could be crossed with P.J. O’Rourke, that would come close.” —Michael C. Munger, professor of political science, economics and public policy; director, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program, Duke University


“More than anyone in our time, Robert Higgs wrestles with ‘James Madison’s Dilemma,’ that is, if we have created a government powerful enough to protect our rights and liberties, what is to prevent it from taking away those very rights and liberties? One may not agree with all of his recent musings in Taking a Stand, but they are invariably thought-provoking and admirable.” —Richard E. Sylla, Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets, New York University


“Full of fascinating insights, Taking a Stand illuminates Robert Higgs’s life-long search for the true causes of economic and social problems, by utilizing all possible means: theory, history, literature, and his own experience. Higgs’s emphasis on the crucial value of liberty has substantial implications for the future role of government in Asian countries and worldwide.” —Yuzo Murayama, professor and Vice President, Doshisha University, Japan


"Robert Higgs has been pounding Leviathan since before most of today’s libertarians were born. He has awakened new generations of students to the perils of unleashed politicians and lawless bureaucrats. In Taking a Stand, his passion and principles continue to fire folks up to stand up for their rights and liberties.” —James Bovard, author, Freedom in Chains, Lost Rights, and Terrorism and Tyranny


"Robert Higgs writes with passion and wit. No one cuts to the chase with more precision. Higgs’s engaging style makes Taking a Stand a pleasure to read.” —Lee J. Alston, Ostrom Chair, professor of economics, Indiana University


"In Taking a Stand, Robert Higgs dissects the myth of democratic government, juxtaposing it with the realities of the nation state and its systematic accretion of power, perquisites of office, and control over assets. He strips away comforting illusions of the beneficence of government, pointing out that customary justifications for its existence often conceal a lust for control. He explores the nature and legitimacy of government, its tactics and motivations, and the uncertainty and risks it injects into economic choices of the governed, with specific reference to the prospects for economic recovery in the current political environment. The book is highly readable and accessible to non-economists.” —Charlotte Twight, professor of economics, Boise State University

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