THIRTY-FIVE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ANSWERED 259They would say that economic phenomena are what are called
“emerging properties”. They seem to come out of nowhere.
They come out of the decisions of tens of thousands, or mil-
lions, or tens of millions or hundreds of millions of market
participants all individually expressing a certain preference,
but collectively producing results that no individual could
possibly foresee.
I get into debates with hard shell Austrian economists
all over the world. I am not anti-Austrian economics. I think
Austrian economics has a lot to offer. The only thing I would
say is that science moves on, and there are new tools that we
can use to get an even better understanding of the world.
I like to use Austrian economics the same way Einstein
used Newton. Einstein produced a special theory of relativity,
which overthrew part of what Newton said about gravity. That
doesn’t mean Newton was a dope; it just means Newton took
the science so far and Einstein built on it. Einstein would agree
with that, and said as much.
Likewise, it doesn’t mean Austrian economics is wrong, but
that complexity theory can advance the state of the art. The
way I shut down the debate is by saying that if von Mises were
alive today, he would be a complexity theorist.
- How is it that the “powers that be” still allow you
access when you warn everyday investors about the things
policymakers are doing to muck up the economy?
The short answer is that no one allows me to do anything.
I do what I want.
This is a very loaded question. It suggests that I am a
government puppet and that the government is a monolithic,
unified force. All of that is wrong and untrue.
I do a lot of work for the US government. I have been a
government contractor, I’ve worked on government projects,
I talk to government officials all the time. If you knew how