Source: Facebook

–“Do you consider yourself an Austrian?”–

I have evolved (by accident) into a specialist in natural law (reciprocity) and rule of law (non-discretion), resulting in markets(voluntary cooperation) in all walks of life. Part of this specialization is an extraordinarily precise criteria for truthful speech, the result of which is completing the scientific method.

So since Austrian econ is the closest possible model to rule of law, I tend to consider myself somewhere between austrian and chicago, with a bias probably toward chicago.

Austrian econ is an appropriated term. Because there are two branches : Mengerian, which is fully integrated into mainstream thought, and Misesian, which is not.

I’ve written exhaustively about the failures of Mises and Rothbard in particular even if Mises came very close to one of the most important discoveries in economic history.

He calls this positivist (justificationary) discipline ‘praxeology’, but this is pseudoscientific. If you however, combine mises with popper (falsificationism), and mathematical intuitionism and the operationalist movement in physics, you realize that mises tried to make a positive axiomatic logic out of economics, rather than realize he had discovered falsificationism in economics. And then rothbard came along and ruined Mises reputation so badly that we can’t rescue it.

To say you are an Austrian today probably means nothing other than that you seek to improve institutions of cooperation, and are rather firm in the belief that the business cycle must be allowed to self correct regularly or it will only increase and expand corrections until a ‘collapse’.

To be a ‘praxeologist’ in the positivist stense requires you’re a bit of an idiot – because in fact, economic phenomenon at any scale must eventually be discovered empirically. On the other hand, as a falsificationist, to say ‘If I can’t construct that phenomenon from rational human choices then it can’t be true” means you’ve learned the lesson that Mises inarticulately tried to teach us.

As far as I know Austrian Econ today favors the study of behavior, entrepreneurship(individual choice), political economy(institutional impact on economies), and preservation of rule of law over rule by discretion. So the state is the provider of cooperative institutions.

As far as I know Chicago tends to maintain these but emphasize monetary policy moreso – with the state as insurer of last resort.

As far as I know Saltwater (Mainstream) tends to seek to maximize consumption at the expense of rule of law – replacing it with rule by discretion, with the state as the direct manipulator of the economy.

These are actually moral predispositions which is why people self select into these specializations.

I’m a scientist in that discipline we call law (cooperation). And as such I favor the austrian and chicago methods of action over the saltwater.