Alive And Kicking, Dude

Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate group, has pronounced that the current economic crisis means "the end of libertarianism." (Thanks to Nimit Kathuria.)

His article begins with these words:

"A source of mild entertainment amid the financial carnage has been watching libertarians scurrying to explain how the global financial crisis is the result of too much government intervention rather than too little."

In reality, it is governments, politicians and their agents in the academia and the press who are "scurrying around." They are all saying that this crisis has not been caused by them, their central bankers, and their manipulation (not regulation) of interest rates and credit markets. And this is not a source of mild entertainment; rather, it is a source of horror – to see how low those on high can fall.

Take, for example, the British prime minister Gordon Brown. He says:

"The first financial crisis of the global age has now laid bare the weaknesses of unbridled free markets."

This statement smells of a nasty kind of mendacity. It reflects a deliberate intent to misguide the public into believing that: first, that financial markets are in fact "unbridled"; and second, that further and tighter bridles are the cure.

Of course, there cannot be a genuinely free market when the most important regulator of the economy, money, is just worthless paper supplied monopolistically by governments. There is a crisis today because of this government monetary system. The crisis has occurred not because businessmen are greedy. It has occurred because governments are greedier.

To Gordon Brown's credit, he also added: "… what is happening around the world is raising quite fundamental questions for the new global age about the right relationships between markets and governments."

These "fundamental questions" are being raised ONLY by libertarians the world over. In the USA, they are being raised by Ron Paul's grassroots Campaign for Liberty. I think Jacob Weisberg is intent on misleading public opinion by pronouncing the "end of libertarianism." In actual fact, more and more people, all around the world, including especially America, are coming around to understanding and appreciating the libertarian point of view. Libertarianism is not dying; it is growing. By leaps and bounds.

The libertarian demand is not for an "unbridled market." Of course, we are not for "regulation" – which is bureaucratic and hence affected by politics. The libertarian wants markets to function under the "Rule of Law" – a Law that is above democracy, above politics.

This means "sound money" – so the central banker's "promise" on a paper note is a valid contract that must be enforced. Along with sound money there must be "legitimate banking" – so that private bankers cannot create credit out of thin air: and this is what they do under the fraudulent "fractional reserve system" that central banks control. All this lending of money that does not exist must stop.

Thus, libertarians are not "intellectually immature, frozen in the worldview many of them absorbed from reading Ayn Rand novels in high school" – as Jacob Weisberg concludes. Theirs is a world-view based on much more than Ayn Rand. Libertarians have also studied Law and Economics – especially the great Austrians.

Indeed, this is The Moment for all libertarians. We are not dead. It is the Keynesians who are dying in droves. Libertarians are all alive and kicking. And kicking real hard, if I may add. So ignore Weisberg, dear reader.