Agent theory versus micro theories

One of the main contributions of Austrian economics in general and of Mises in particular is the underlying general agent theory which is behind the mere specializations of consumer theory and producer theory. This one logic is far less clear in the economics of Marshall which of course is which is viewed today as standard micro theory.

Only men being priests as an exaltation of the woman

I guess that, in allowing only men to become priests, to marry the Church, a fundamental reason is this sort of femininity which pervades the Church as Christ's wife and mother of ours. Well understood, the prescription of only men becoming priests constitutes a veneration to femininity and the irreplaceable role of the woman as wife and a mother. In seeing only men being priests, we see the reflection of the Church being necessary feminine, and of women as being an utmost beautiful representation of the Church.

Capitalism and socialism

Capitalism can completely dispense of socialism, but socialism is going to always somehow be dependent on certain capitalist tenets and institutions.

Simplest way to start a band exchange regime

Technically, a floating exchange rate regime is the optimum.

But guess what: only a blackboard economist without ever going beyond his armchair could see this as a feasible project, at least for starting a new exchange regime coming from, say, a fixed exchange regime.

An option is a gradually stretching-out band.

However, the width as well as the slope of both floor and roof of the band is a very difficult question to ask, and if you do it in the wrong way (read, too fast) either exporters or importers are going to buy lobby for your band experiment to finish.

The key is that everybody gets gradually accustomed to the band.

A practical way of doing this is by just picking a preferably small amount of daily stretching out. I call this amount "rodin" (Spanish for training wheel).

Then each time the market exchange rate touches either the floor or the roof, you stretch out the band (reduce the roof or increase the roof) by the rodin amount.

How is the band to evolve? You don't know beforehand. If it is going to go predominantly down or up, or how fast is going to stretch out, all is a market matter.

Irrational market

"The market is irrational" is Economist for "I don't have a fricking idea of what is causing such and such behavior on this market".

"The market is irrational" can be translated into Noneconomist as "I am either stupid enough or lack enough training as to understand what the heck is going on with this damned market, but I'm also a little too arrogant as to acknowledge it."

The right to sell my freedom

Freedom includes the right to sell one's freedom.

Selling a song in a filleted form

A song is usually recorded on several separated tracks. I guess that it is good business to sell every track separetely. You practically don't lose sale on the packaged song but gain a market on its fillets or tracks.

Economic decisions

By definition of "economic" every decision is economic.

Market environmentalism

The more nature you consume, the more nature market either produces or otherwise protects.

The road to legalizing drugs

Do you want to legalize drugs? Allow the government to have a monopoly on them.

A true capitalist

A true capitalist is devoted to make money not to make politics.

Not really an exception

Markets failures are to market law as hydrogen globes are to gravity law.

We all save lives

I meet this guy and he says: "My work is to save lives. I'm a doctor". I answer: "Great! Mine too is to save lives!". He says: "Are you a doctor too?". I answer: "No, I'm an economist". He sees me frowning. I explain:

"An economist job is, for instance, to tell people how the economy is faring. This helps people to take decisions; in particular decisions related with the best way to finance colleges where medicine is taught, to finance profitable colleges and to shut down unprofitable ones. Other people decides on hiring or firing doctors, or on how to invest funds in order to pay hospital rolls.

By the way, all other people too helps in saving lives: the security officer outside the hospital, the traffic officer in the streets which helps doctors and security officers to arrive on time to their jobs, the man who sells the yachts which are the reason why some doctors decide to work at night, etc.

The fact that we only see the clock hands but not the pinions or ratchets are not an argument at all to conclude that only the hands are instrumental to allow a clock to work."

So, yes the doctor helps to save lives. He is the last part of a process not designed (and not designable!) by anyone but which nevertheless works. But as long as the doctor has a claim to say that he saves lives, anyone else has it too.

My summary of Knight's "Risk Uncertainty and Profit"

There is not such a thing as "systematic uncertainty". That's an oxymoron.

An ex-post zero sum game

The utmost feature of a forward commitment (forward, future, swap, etc.) is that ex-post if one party wins, the other party losses, ceteris paribus.

Market failure

If you find that markets fail, that's a proof of you lacking reading.

Intelligence and God

More intelligence is required to believe in God than to to be an atheist.

Time is a mere informational topic

Future is future only and as long as we are ignorant about it.

As long as we arrive at the logical mechanics of a system that system becomes for us in an eternal present.

Put another way: it is not merely that time is related to information. From the viewpoint of human thought, time is entirely an informational phenomenon. Uncertainty is not a feature of future, it is its essence. There where you don't find uncertainty, you don't have a future whatsoever.

There is not such a thing as time on the one hand and information on the other. There's only a one, un-separated, phenomenon: timeformation.

Two sorts of arbitrage

There are both commercial and productive arbitrage.

Commercial arbitrage is the typically-seen arbitrage consisting in buying cheap and selling dear commodities without incurring in transaction costs.

Productive arbitrage occurs always that there is a difference between the value of a finished good on the one hand, and a set consisting of an input plus a transaction expenditure on the other. In this sense, it is the most convenient to conceive of the set of inputs as a synthetic, such as the term is used in finance.

Since productive arbitrage is less obvious and require expectations on more issues, it is conceivable that there is easier to find businesses opportunities this way.

Productive arbitrage is the reason behind producing.

Always that the ratio between output and inputs through production is perceived as different from the price ratio between these two sets of commodities which can be expected to be achieved in the market, a decision to change the current level of production will occur.

General equilibrium never seen

The economy works, every single economic action is undertaken, precisely because and as long as the law of one price is not being accomplished.

The economy lives because there is no equilibrium.

Equilibrium and the law of one price are ultimate states. The economy always tends to them but never reach them beacause those states are themselves constantly changing due to disequilibrating forces (changes in preferences, technologies, and resource availability; and in general by our changing attitude towards resources).

Nevertheless, the market is that spontaneous order through which information flows towards entrepreneurs which then interpret them and act in order to make use of disequilibrium opportunities. By doing this entrepreneurs, this is all of us in our aim to improve our condition by buying cheap and selling dear, embody the very invisible equilibrating hand of the market, this is the economic or social manifestation of God, as it were.