The Federal Reserve: Love it or Hate it

[iron81]

For the austrians here, what statistics should we be using to measure the health of an economy?

[hmkpoker]

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For the austrians here, what statistics should we be using to measure the health of an economy?

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This is like asking the Austrians, "Ok, so if you don't like democracy, how SHOULD we pick our national leaders?"

[iron81]

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For the austrians here, what statistics should we be using to measure the health of an economy?

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This is like asking the Austrians, "Ok, so if you don't like democracy, how SHOULD we pick our national leaders?"

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I'm pretty good in ACese, but this flew completely over my head. You guys keep saying how everyone's life will be better under AC, but where would the evidence show up?

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if the fed is so good why do they outlaw competition?

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This isn't any more true than the first 10 times its been claimed:

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Andrew Williams, a spokesman for the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C.:

"There is no law that says goods and services must be paid for with Federal Reserve notes. Parties entering into a transaction can establish any medium of exchange that is agreed upon." Link

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[DcifrThs]

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For the austrians here, what statistics should we be using to measure the health of an economy?

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This is like asking the Austrians, "Ok, so if you don't like democracy, how SHOULD we pick our national leaders?"

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so analogously Austrians don't believe in measuring the health of an economy like those who don't believe in democracy don't believe in picking their leaders?

so how would you suggest we judge if an austrian system was working better or worse than what we have now? you have to have some measures to judge the difference, right? am i missing something obvious that states that the second austrian economics is enstated it is uncontestably obviously optimal and we no longer need to worry about trying to measure the health of an economy?

or is it that no matter what the "state" of the economy is at present, it isn't important to austrian economics (this could be the case, i just don't know) since it holds no barring on the case for austrian economics.

is this what you meant? if not, what do you mean by that analogy?

Barron

[tolbiny]

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For the austrians here, what statistics should we be using to measure the health of an economy?

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The goal of economic improvement is to improve people's quality of life. You have to measure (or try to measure) standard of living.

[GoodCallYouWin]

DecipherThis :

I recommend the following lecture that will explain to you exactly why you and the 'shock' theory of modern economics are wrong [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

http://mises.org/multimedia/mp3/MU2007/22-Garrison.mp3

[AlexM]

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For the austrians here, what statistics should we be using to measure the health of an economy?

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Percentage of income spent above "sustenance" level, measured at the 10th, 30th, 50th, 70th and 90th percentiles. Figure out a base cost of how a cheap, well balanced diet per month (probably around $30-$50) and any overage qualifies as non-sustenance. Rent for a single bedroom in a rural area; enough electricity for cooking and hot water but not for air conditioning; etc. I imagine a person could easily live healthily on around $300 a month (probably less, but that's reasonable), so go with that.

Note that medical care counts as a luxury for this.

Mind you, I just made this up off the top of my head. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[iron81]

There's a related thread in EDF.

[ianlippert]

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There's a related thread in EDF.

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I think our thread is much better [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]