All Posts Tagged With: "world war II"
Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”
As a soldier, politician, and writer, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874–1965) made a deep imprint on world history for more than half a century. He is best known for rallying his countrymen during the fateful Battle of Britain when he was prime minister—thereby, many people believe, stemming the flood that was sweeping Adolf Hitler to [...]
11Jun2009 | Robert Higgs | 53 comments | ContinuedReal Jobs Create Wealth
If the government’s projects were truly worthwhile, they would be undertaken by private efforts, and in their quest for profits, entrepreneurs would handle them more efficiently.
Remember this when President Obama begins to boast about how successful his stimulus plan is.
21May2009 | John Stossel | 9 comments | ContinuedThe Great Depression and World War II
What about World War II? Did it end the Great Depression? More generally, is war good for the economy? I answer both in the negative and borrow here from Ludwig von Mises: “War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings.” As Higgs points out, because of the array of interventions in the wartime economy, war materiel was valued incorrectly and therefore the GDP data overstate economic conditions. Moreover, conscription and arms production gave a misleading employment picture
21May2009 | Art Carden | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Two-Price System: U.S. Rationing During World War II
As the United States mobilized for war after mid-1940, the government’s demands for munitions and related resources began to put pressure on certain markets, and soon prices began to rise. In 1941 they rose faster: from December 1940 to December 1941, the producer price index increased by 17 percent, the consumer price index by 10 [...]
24Apr2009 | Robert Higgs | 4 comments | ContinuedPaul Krugman Flunks Capital Theory
Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is said to have bested commentator George Will over what prolonged the Great Depression during a joint appearance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” back in November. But all Krugman really did was show that he, as a Keynesian, holds an unrealistic Play-Doh model of [...]
1Apr2009 | Sheldon Richman | 4 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – April 2008
- Globalization by Donald J. Boudreaux Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
- Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves
- Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie by Clayton E. Cramer Reviewed by George C. Leef
- The European Economy Since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond by Barry Eichengreen Reviewed by Waldemar Ingdahl
The German Economic Miracle and the “Social Market Economy”
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE.
This summer marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the post-World War II German “economic miracle.” When the war ended in Europe in 1945, Germany was in a shambles. Its major cities had been destroyed either from Allied bombing or urban combat. Millions of its citizens had died [...]
Book Reviews – November 2007
- Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe
by Robert Gellately Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
- Depression, War, and Cold War
by Robert Higgs Reviewed by Burton Folsom, Jr.
- Great Philanthropic Mistakes
by Timothy Sandefur Reviewed by George C. Leef - Elements of Justice
by David Schmidtz Reviewed by Aeon J. Skoble
Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelts America, Mussolinis Italy, and Hitlers Germany, 1933-1939
By Wolfgang Schivelbusch Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
1Jan2007 | agardner | 0 comments | ContinuedJohn Kenneth Galbraith: A Criticism and an Appreciation
Last April John Kenneth Galbraith died at the age of 97. Galbraith was one of America ’s most famous economists and a self-proclaimed liberal (in the American sense of “statist” rather than in the European sense of “believer in freedom”). His fame came not from his technical accomplishments in academic economics but from his awesome [...]
1Dec2006 | David R. Henderson | 0 comments | ContinuedWhen the Government Took Over U.S. Investment
In the oft-quoted final chapter of The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes concluded that if we are to avoid a chronic tendency toward economic depression, the state will have to undertake, among other things, “a somewhat comprehensive socialisation of investment . . . though this need not exclude all manner [...]
1Sep2006 | Robert Higgs | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – August 2006
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Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WW II Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan
by A. C. Grayling
Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling -
How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution
by Richard A. Epstein Reviewed
by George C. Leef -
Saving Our Environment from Washington
by David Schoenbrod Reviewed by Jane S. Shaw
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The Quotable Mises
Edited by Mark Thornton Reviewed by William H. Peterson
How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor
Ask a typical American how the United States got into World War II, and he will almost certainly tell you that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Americans fought back. Ask him why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he will probably need some time to gather his thoughts. He might say that the [...]
1May2006 | Robert Higgs | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Myth of Wartime Prosperity
Whenever an earthquake or a tornado causes great damage, some reporter somewhere claims that on net it will boost the local economy since the rebuilding effort will create jobs and increase business for local merchants. Similarly, whenever a war breaks out, the same reporter can be counted on to emphasize the economic stimulus it allegedly [...]
1Dec2004 | Thomas E. Woods Jr. | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Conscription Idea
Dean Russell is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.
“The principle of voluntarism should not be compromised.” That policy on civilian manpower was recommended to the National Security Council in a May, 1954, report from the Office of Defense Mobilization.
The report suggests an extensive program of voluntary incentives as [...]
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