...in a society that combines high time preference with compulsory redistribution of property and politically charged elections, crime and violence are more likely to ensue.
These comments correlate well with those made in two excellent papers from the recent AEDC of the Mises Institute:
"Why Libertarianism Is Flourishing in Polish Universities" - comments on how the European Central Bank fudges inflation numbers to placate citizens affected by monetary policies.
"Knowing Murray in the Early Years and Why Rothbard and Rand Would Relish 2024" | J. Michael Oliver - comments on impending inflation and tax increases as the dollar further erodes
In his writings, Chick Fil A founder, the late Truett Cathy documents on his philosophy to growth of his business. Under pressure from his board to set hard annual targets of profits and number of new locations, he protested, saying that growth is the consequence of providing the customer with good value and anyone dealing with the company - including suppliers and competitors - should be left with a positive impression at all times.
Thus, setting targets for inflation is completely wrong. An end to the Federal Reserve and returning to a gold standard and 100% private financing of all markets and private investors should be the goals.
"Put another way, when the hitting of numerical targets becomes a political action item, the underlying measure is subject to manipulation." This statement encapsulates exactly the problem with all government and many business statistics that come from the source itself--manipulation is human nature when people have incentives to do so and there are few if any outside checks. We saw it with Enron, and we see it every day in schools, too, that focus on test results and the percentage of students attending college and other such metrics. Although I never saw any outright manipulation or changing of test data while I was a teacher, I know the tests changed to become less demanding, and we teachers often were able to select and thus game how we were assessed.
It's a clear case of the fox guarding the henhouse. Public company CEOs are masters of it. A certain legendary CEO under-reserved his insurance business for years, thus inflating profits massively during his tenure. The results were not apparent until several years after he retired.
I'm sure there's a connection here between the test-score dependency in children and the later focus on numerical measures in business performance. I would describe it as an excessive results-orientation instead of a process-orientation.
These comments correlate well with those made in two excellent papers from the recent AEDC of the Mises Institute:
"Why Libertarianism Is Flourishing in Polish Universities" - comments on how the European Central Bank fudges inflation numbers to placate citizens affected by monetary policies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEOnd9O89UA
"Knowing Murray in the Early Years and Why Rothbard and Rand Would Relish 2024" | J. Michael Oliver - comments on impending inflation and tax increases as the dollar further erodes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWp8lV-PzVM
In his writings, Chick Fil A founder, the late Truett Cathy documents on his philosophy to growth of his business. Under pressure from his board to set hard annual targets of profits and number of new locations, he protested, saying that growth is the consequence of providing the customer with good value and anyone dealing with the company - including suppliers and competitors - should be left with a positive impression at all times.
Thus, setting targets for inflation is completely wrong. An end to the Federal Reserve and returning to a gold standard and 100% private financing of all markets and private investors should be the goals.
Thanks for the recommendations, Kent. I'm looking forward to watching both of them.
"Put another way, when the hitting of numerical targets becomes a political action item, the underlying measure is subject to manipulation." This statement encapsulates exactly the problem with all government and many business statistics that come from the source itself--manipulation is human nature when people have incentives to do so and there are few if any outside checks. We saw it with Enron, and we see it every day in schools, too, that focus on test results and the percentage of students attending college and other such metrics. Although I never saw any outright manipulation or changing of test data while I was a teacher, I know the tests changed to become less demanding, and we teachers often were able to select and thus game how we were assessed.
It's a clear case of the fox guarding the henhouse. Public company CEOs are masters of it. A certain legendary CEO under-reserved his insurance business for years, thus inflating profits massively during his tenure. The results were not apparent until several years after he retired.
I'm sure there's a connection here between the test-score dependency in children and the later focus on numerical measures in business performance. I would describe it as an excessive results-orientation instead of a process-orientation.