#robert higgs

[wageronancap]

"mOsT LiBeRtARiAn pReSiDeNt"

Also, shout out to the like from Robert Higgs, who previously (many years ago) said this:

[tomorrowusa]

« Trump says trade wars are easy to win. In this regard, he apparently doesn’t even understand what winning means. The supposition that such a war can be won is a delusion. A trade war may serve Trump’s political ambitions by appealing to supporters ignorant of economics and easily bamboozled by anything wrapped in the flag, but the idea of a win-win trade war is the height of folly so far as economic rationality is concerned—not to mention its further suppression of economic liberties already being crushed by taxes and regulations. In fact, the only way to win a trade war is not to fight one. »

— Economist Robert Higgs, quoted in a post by Senior Fellow Emeritus Mark J. Perry of the conservative American Enterprise Institute in 2018.

While I don't agree with the AEI on a lot of things, they are on the mark when talking about trade wars. It will be interesting to see whether conservative economists who haven't gone MAGA will be speaking out over Trump's destructive trade war.

Trump has been getting orgasms over trade wars since his first term.

Trump doubles down: ‘Trade wars are good, and easy to win’

[returningtothecave]

Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children. In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.

Robert Higgs

[dartarikitariqat]

Los anarquistas no intentaron llevar a cabo un genocidio contra los Armenios en Turquía; no mataron de hambre deliberadamente a millones de Ucranianos; no crearon un sistema de campos de exterminio para matar judíos, gitanos y eslavos en Europa; no bombardearon decenas de grandes ciudades alemanas y japonesas ni arrojaron bombas nucleares sobre dos de ellas; no llevaron a cabo un "Gran Salto Adelante" que mató a decenas de millones de chinos; no intentaron matar a todas las personas con una educación decente en Camboya; no lanzaron una guerra agresiva tras otra; no implementaron sanciones comerciales que mataron quizás a 500.000 niños iraquíes.

En los debates entre Anarquistas y Estatistas, la carga de la prueba debe recaer claramente en aquellos que depositan su confianza en el estado. El caos de la anarquía es totalmente conjetural; El caos del estado es innegable y de hecho horrendo.

Robert Higgs

Discutir con estatistas es fácil, pero tampoco regales tu tiempo, no lo valen.

[theanarchistscookbook]

[thesociologicalcinema]

The "good/bad cop" question can be disposed of decisively. We need only consider the following: i. Every cop has agreed, as part of his job, is to enforce laws; all of them. ii. Many of the laws are manifestly unjust, or even cruel and wicked. iii. Therefore, every cop has agreed to act as an enforcer of laws that are manifestly unjust, or even cruel and wicked. There are no good cops. ~ Dr. Robert Higgs

[conza]

Higgs on Hulsmann and Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism

I have known Guido a long time, and when he was working on the book, I used to goad him by asking frequently, “When are you going to finish that Mises book?” I had no idea what a tremendous project that research was or what magnificent fruit it would bear. After reading it, I wrote to Guido as follows:

“I have finally finished reading your great book about Mises. When I use the word ‘great,’ I mean not simply that it weighs at least a kilo and contains more than 1,000 pages. I mean most of all that it is a magnificent scholarly achievement. I can’t remember when I have taken more pleasure from a book. It is a joy to read, in every way. The English is precise and polished, and everything is put just right. The research is amazingly broad, yet deep, too. The judgments are sensible and mature. The coverage–from the personal details to the content of Mises’s ideas to the context in which he lived and worked–is extraordinary, and the organization puts everything into comprehensible order. The bibliography is more than impressive. All in all, the book is simply an amazing accomplishment, and a fitting tribute to its great subject.

The Mises Institute deserves great credit, too, not only for its support of your work on this project, but also for producing a book that is a fine example of the publisher’s art: the typeface is clean and clear, and large enough to permit effortless reading; the layout is spacious and proper; the footnotes are where they should be, and they, too, are large enough to be read without a magnifying glass; the illustrations are splendid complements to the text; and the indexes are terrific. The work is thus not simply beautiful intellectually, but beautiful physically, as well.

If I had ever written anything half so wonderful–and I recognize that I lack the abilities to do so–I would consider my career a complete success, and feel myself justified in taking my ease, to rest on my laurels. I do not perceive that you have this plan in mind for yourself, and therefore the world will be the better, not only for your great book on Mises, but also for all the great achievements that lie in your future. I salute you, my friend, not without a touch of envy, but with my whole heart.”

[nec-plus-ultra]

Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children. In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.

Robert Higgs