Monday, April 30, 2012

Unofficial eponymous Laws and phrases of Political Economy



Horwitz’s First Law of Political Economy:
“No one hates capitalism more than capitalists.”

Horwitz's favorite phrase of Political Economy:
"It's a feature, not a bug."
Explanation: "Libertarians... argue that corporate influence over the State is not a “bug” in the political process that can be fixed by better people or restrictions, but rather a feature of that process, in the sense that one of the purposes of the State is to serve the interests of those with the most to spend and the most to gain from intervention."

Woods's Law #1:
"Whenever the private sector introduces an innovation that makes the poor better off than they would have been without it, or that offers benefits or terms that no one else is prepared to offer them, someone—in the name of helping the poor—will call for curbing or abolishing it."

Woods' Law #2:
"The 'progressive' Left always prefers a neoconservative to an antiwar libertarian."

"People tend to specialize in what they are worst at. Henry George, for example, is great on everything but land, so therefore he writes about land 90% of the time. Friedman is great except on money, so he concentrates on money. Mises, however, and Kirzner too, always did what they were best at."

Hayek's Law: (as coined by Mark Skousen)
"Hayek's Law states that the economy takes a long time to recover after an unsustainable boom (1995-99). The excesses of the previous boom create an investment structure that cannot be easily dismantled and transferred to new uses." (also see more insight from Rothbard's wisdom)



Laws by Unknown people

"Individuals generally attack most vehemently the ideas they themselves once held."