Of plumbers, philosophers, and would-be “DeFamers”

There has been some discussion on the Mises Yahoo! Group regarding an attack that a Brad DeLong — a man who does not register on my radar — directed towards a book written by Ludwig von Mises, the dean of the Austrian school of economics. The target of the attack was The Theory of Money and Credit — a book I have not read.

What makes this particularly interesting was that the book was mentioned in the December edition of The American Spectator by unlicensed celebrity plumber Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber.”[1] When Lew Rockwell posted this on the Mises Blog, more than a couple of regular visitors reacted with a certain degree of disbelief. What would a plumber — an unlicensed one, at that matter? — be doing reading up on an unorthodox school of politico-economic thought?[2]

I myself thought the same thing; then I thought, why not? What would a freelance jack-of-all-trades like myself be doing reading Mises? As I’m a contract laborer for the institute named after the man, I’m “closer to the action.” But Joe is not, which upon further thought makes his disclosure all the more notable. It would be interesting to discover how he discovered the writings of Mises.

I link to DeLong’s post without reading it myself only to provide the resource to readers who care to examine the evidence. However, this comment on the Mises list gives me reason not to waste the time (of course, I spent the time writing this post):

The closest he comes to a critique is declaring The Theory of Money and Credit to be “totally bats.” Which, of course, is name-calling, not a critique. If I were to “respond”, it would be by saying that DeLong’s selection of quotations seems haphazard at best. Most of it is just fragments connected by ellipses, chosen in such a way as to prevent the reader of the quotation from having much clue what Mises was actually saying. The effect is exactly what DeLong wants: making Mises look like a mad man, as the method of quotation “sounds” like someone who has lost their mind and whose rambles turn into mumbling between the disconnected thoughts.

Which is very far from what Mises’s writing is actually like.

I can confirm this with absolute certainty. I am in the middle of reading Mises’ magnum opus, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics; he writes in an impressively logical, concise, but dense manner. To use ellipses when quoting this man comes pretty close to misrepresentation; one would do well to cite full paragraphs in many cases. This makes DeLong’s selective-prooftexting attack seem pathetic, based on secondhand information.[3]

DeLong will have to try harder to have this blogger pay attention to him; indeed, I have spent too much time with this post.

Notes

[1] Wait until next month for the current issue to appear online; others have tried to locate it online and failed.

[2] However, none other than Lew Rockwell asserts,

Had progress in economic thought not been interrupted by Keynesian theory and the rise of positivism in the social sciences, we would not even be speaking of the Austrian school. Misesian theory would be economics proper (emphasis added).

[3] To be sure, Mises has a treasure trove of relatively short quotations as well. But you will need to delve into his writings to appreciate the wisdom contained in the short snippets.

Illustrating Liberty: Krugman/Caveman

[Illustrating Liberty is a new, irregular feature on this blog featuring the occasional "Political Photoshoppery" of Aristotle A. Esguerra.]

When I received Chris Brown’s approved Mises.org Daily Article, “‘Neanderthal’ Economics,” the basis for an image came immediately to mind — the metrosexual GEICO Caveman. Then I read the article, which basically takes the writings of ‘court economist,’ New York Times columnist, Ivy League™ professor, and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman to task, and the idea started to crystallize further. Sadly, high-resolution images of the Caveman are not readily available for high-quality mashups, which is a big disadvantage for anyone looking to purchase a book of my work.[1]

The first idea for the image was to have the Caveman reading the Times at the restaurant scene that made “I’ll have the roast duck with the mango salsa” a hit catchphrase amongst boob-tubers and sports fans. Fortunately there was a screencap of (barely) passable quality along with a medium-res image of a Times front page floating around Google Images, which I combined to form this:

"'Neanderthal' Economics" illustration proposal, Aristotle A. Esguerra, Nov. 25, 2008.

BK Marcus, working independently of me, sent me his own proposal in which he modified another screencap, this time of the commercial based on the talking-head news:

"Neanderthal Vs. Keynesian," BK Marcus, November 2008.

Great minds think alike?

I thought it might be interesting to see if we could get the estimable Dr. Krugman on-screen. Fortunately, one of the few high-quality shots of Krugman is from his appearance on “Meet the Press.” After taking the background out from behind his head and replacing it with one closer to the GEICO/Madison Avenue original, we have the final result:

"Krugman/Caveman," BK Marcus and Aristotle A. Esguerra, Nov. 25, 2008

Read the article to find out what Chris Brown calls ‘Neanderthal’ economics. Here’s a hint: my money’s with the Caveman.[2]

Notes

[1] There is also that thing about “intellectual property” with which to contend.

[2] And by that I don’t mean that my car is insured with GEICO. Even though it is.

Illustrating Liberty: “The Apotheosis of Washington”

[Illustrating Liberty is a new, irregular feature on this blog featuring the occasional "Political Photoshoppery" of Aristotle A. Esguerra.]

Anonymous, The Apotheosis of Washington. Watercolor on glass (reverse painting), 62.9 × 85.1 cm. Morristown National Historical Park, New Jersey.

This post isn’t about an original work at all; in fact, I did very little to come up with the image that accompanied Lew Rockwell’s Monday article for Mises.org, “The Myth of Good Government.” It was the initial shock that such an image existed — and was quite popular for a while — that prompted me to write this post.

BK Marcus, editor extraordinaire and blogger at lowercase liberty, sent me an image similar to this one last weekend suggesting that it run as the image to the Rockwell piece. Stunned at the existence of such a work, and thinking it was just another Internet mashup, I performed a Google image search on “apotheosis washington” — what else could it be called? — and sure enough, a version of this picture popped up. (I chose the version pictured here because the frame added a certain regal absurdity to the entire piece.)

Poking around to find out more about this painting led me to the website of the New York Public Library’s C.W. McAlpin Collection. Apparently the original engraving and etching by John James Barallet spawned many knockoffs, of which this is one.

I thought that the Barallet engraving was absurd, but I wasn’t prepared for this one. However, I burst out laughing in response to viewing it. I would hope that George himself would too.

In retrospect, I shouldn’t be shocked that such an image was produced. Most every ‘great’ nation — self-proclaimed or otherwise — in every time and place have monuments and statues that seemingly attempt to raise mere mortals to the status of demigods; Lenin, Mao, Lincoln, and FDR to name a few. The only difference between Washington and the others I mention is that, given the choice between attempting to retain power and relinquishing it, Washington chose the latter, and in doing so set a presidential precedent that has mostly survived to this day — unitary executive or not.

Upon further thought, that’s worth celebrating. A bit, anyway.

Illustrating Liberty: “The Fed Versus the World”

[Illustrating Liberty is a new, irregular feature on this blog featuring the occasional "Political Photoshoppery" of Aristotle A. Esguerra.]

"The Fed Versus the World" (version 4 -- final), Aristotle A. Esguerra

Gary Danelishen, a graduate student in applied economics at Auburn University, submitted a most interesting article to the Mises Institute that was run today. “Checkernomics: The Game Is Solved” notes the similarities shared between the analytical processes of Austrian-school economic thinkers and those involved in the University of Alberta’s Chinook Project, which has for all intents and purposes solved the game of checkers.

[Read the article and comment on the Mises blog.]

Composing the basic concept of this illustration was easy; it would be a checkers game between the world and the Federal Reserve. I searched for appropriate images of the world, a checkerboard, and the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., and then composed an image based on these three.

"The Fed Versus the World" (version 1), Aristotle A. Esguerra

Version 1 of this illustration left some things to be desired. Most notably, I was unaware that, unlike in chess where White makes the first move, Black makes the first move in checkers. So I didn’t place the opponents at the correct ends of the playing field. (I think that by now, even the directors of the Federal Reserve are disabused of the notion that they “move first” in the larger scheme of things. Certainly they set interest rates, etc. But now as everyone can see, it’s always in reaction to something bigger than they.)

"The Fed Versus the World" (version 2), Aristotle A. Esguerra

Version 2 of the illustration substitutes the carpet checkerboard photo with one that more closely reflects the reality of the situation. The world is now properly seated as the “prime mover”. Still, the checkerboard seems out of place. Furthermore, it doesn’t reflect the reality that this game between the Fed and the world has been going on for quite some time; one could even argue it’s in endgame status. So, it was back to the drawing board.

"The Fed Versus the World" (version 3), Aristotle A. Esguerra

It became clear that a Google image search wasn’t going to give me the endgame position I desired — at least not in a photo format. I would have to build the checkerboard myself. Having found a suitable endgame position at CheckersStrategy.net — one where the outcome is certain regardless of who moves first — I went about building the board. Note that even if White (the Fed) were to play first from this position, the best outcome would be a draw.

Constructing the checkerboard from scratch also allowed me to address the nagging perspective clash between the previous boards and the image of the Federal Reserve Building (of which there are few aerial photos online).

"The Fed Versus the World" (version 4 - final), Aristotle A. Esguerra

The third version was going to be the final version, until it became obvious that there needed to be a way to make the world’s pieces stand out more clearly, especially for smaller versions of the image. Black wasn’t going to cut it.

And then the solution dawned on me: How about…gold? After all, one could make the argument that it’s literally the world’s currency. Additionally, I made the Fed’s pieces semi-transparent, recalling the fiat nature of Fed-issued currency, as well as Thomas Jefferson’s statement made to an Edward Carrington in 1788: “Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”

Illustrating Liberty: “Yet Another GM Bailout”

[Illustrating Liberty will be a new, irregular feature on this blog featuring the occasional "Political Photoshoppery" of Aristotle A. Esguerra.]

"GM's ATM," Aristotle A. Esguerra, Nov. 9, 2008

As a relatively new member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s editing team, I have begun to contribute illustrations for upcoming Daily Articles. My first illustration ran today in conjunction with the article, “Yet Another GM Bailout,” which was written by Auburn University undergraduate Briggs Armstrong. Here is his first paragraph:

General Motors has once again approached the federal government with its hand out. It should not be forgotten that in September of 2008, Congress gave the “big three” automakers a loan totaling $25 billion. Now they are back. This time they say that with a mere $50 billion they can turn things around and become profitable in the future. The management of GM and Ford as well as the UAW have been meeting with Nancy Pelosi to arrange a deal. GM claims that if the government does not give them the money they demand it will spell doom for the company and thus the entire US economy.

If you wish to comment on Armstrong’s article itself, you can do so on the article’s accompanying blog post on the Mises Economics Blog.

GM's ATM (first draft), Aristotle A. Esguerra, 2008.11.07.

A first draft of this illustration incorporated a Chevrolet Malibu sedan, a product that for all intents and purposes GM actually ought to be somewhat proud of. Twenty years late to the game, they finally have a piece of machinery that is competitive with the family sedans coming from Japanese and Korean nameplates. (To think that even once-lowly Hyundai has leapfrogged the Not-So-Big 2.5 in perceived quality in those same twenty years is pretty sobering, or ought to be for those involved with Detroit iron.)

But it occurred to me that it might be more appropriate to use a couple of more “vehicles of symbolism,” so to speak; thankfully I was able to obtain appropriate shots of the Hummer H3 [1] and the upcoming Chevrolet Camaro.

It should be noted that I don’t have anything against owners of GM products in general (no pun intended) or the featured cars in particular; I myself would love to get behind the wheel of the upcoming Camaro. But the symbolism (at least to me) is clear: Hummer as an icon of jingoistic SUV exuberance, Camaros as representative of boyish irresponsibility.

Finally, the line up the stairs of the U.S. Capitol Building was part of the original photo. But it is an appropriate element that points out what Frederic Bastiat neatly terms “universal plunder” in his 1850 work, The Law. They’re just attempting to use the walk-in service instead of the drive-up teller.

Notes

[1] A former boss of mine had an H3 as a company car; he would complain constantly about the vehicle’s unreliability.