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"By the collision of different sentiments, sparks of truth strike out, and political light is obtained." -- Benjamin Franklin
This week, The Wall Street Journal published my provocative op-ed entitled, "Obama's Alma Mater Sacks Its Only Free-Market Professor." The subtitle was, "Occidental College didn't renew Daron Djerdjian's contract, and colleagues suspect ideological bias."
It has generated over 500 comments from people so far online.
You can read the op-ed here: Opinion | Obama's Alma Mater Sacks Its Only Free-Market Professor.
It turns out that Occidental College, the only liberal arts college in the city of Los Angeles, is not living up to its image as an advocate of DEI -- diversity, equity and inclusion -- by not renewing the contract of Dr. Djerdjian, who had been teaching free-market economics for 14 years.
Daron Djerdjian and Mark Skousen at the Obama shrine at Occidental College.
On paper, Oxy (as it is fondly called) is committed to diversity when it comes to race, religion, gender and even political views. It has a shrine honoring President Barack Obama, who attended Oxy College for a couple of years before transferring to Columbia University. It also has named its football stadium after Republican stalwart Jack Kemp, who was the Oxy quarterback.
But the days of diversity are long gone. In a recent survey of the faculty, only one person admitted to be a "conservative Republican."
After writing the op-ed, a subscriber wrote me, "A long-time friend who graduated from Oxy in the early 60s, and made a lot of money, was prepared to leave them millions of dollars in his trust, but by the early 2000s, he wrote them a letter withdrawing his pledge and telling them why. They basically told him to take his money elsewhere, so he did! When he died a couple of years ago, he left most of his estate to Claremont McKenna, because they were the least illiberal he could find. They don't even care that donors are bailing! That's the power of ideology to trump all reason."
Too bad he didn't give his money to Chapman University or Hillsdale College!
You Can't Keep a Good Man Down
Over 400 students and alumni signed a petition demanding that the economics department reverse its decision, but nothing happened.
Fortunately, Dr. Djerdjian has landed on his feet by getting an adjunct position teaching at the UCLA Extension School.
He also created the first Carl Menger Institute, which will have classes in Austrian economics and an academic journal. To learn more, click here. It is worthy of your financial support.
I fear there is a trend to get rid of free-market professors from colleges and universities in the United States.
The Goldwater Institute reported last week that the University of Arizona dumped popular professor Dan Grossenback for his political conservative views.
Last Friday, the woke American Economic Association (AEA) sent an email rejecting a panel session at the upcoming AEA meetings on "50th Anniversary of F.A. Hayek's Nobel Prize in Economics," even though it had two women on the panel, Tawni Hunt Ferrarini and Barbara Kolm, who was willing to fly all the way from Vienna, Austria, at her own expense, to participate.
It will be interesting to see how many sessions on gender discrimination made the January meetings, something the AEA is now famous for. | | The REVOLT against electric vehicles has begun (here's how to play it) You may not have heard much about this in the Green Media…
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I'm all in favor of giving students alternative views, from free-market Austrians to socialist Marxists.
I once asked Milton Friedman, the famous free-market economist at the University of Chicago, if he wanted all his colleagues to be free-market fundamentalists, and he said, "Absolutely not." He said that Chicago always had Marxist professors there, starting with Thorstein Veblen.
You can't convince others of the virtues of free markets if you don't know the arguments against free markets.
Marx versus Mises at Rollins College
When I was at Rollins College, I taught Austrian economics and Eric Schutz taught Marxist economics. It was good for students to see both sides of the issues. We occasionally debated.
One day, I walked into Prof. Schutz's office (where he had on display posters of Karl Marx and Che Guevara) and held up an 1883 silver dollar, and said, "I'd like to give you this silver dollar as a gift if you can name the economist who died in the year this coin was minted."
He didn't hesitate: "Karl Marx!"
I responded, "That's right, don't ever forget it, he's dead!"
But he had a quick comeback: "Yes, Marx is dead, but I'm alive, and I'm teaching YOUR students!"
Unfortunately, in today's academia, more students are being exposed to Marx and John Maynard Keynes rather than Adam Smith and Ludwig von Mises. The balance is quickly disappearing.
What we need to see on college campuses is more Mises and less Marx.
And less Keynes and more Hayek.
My book, "The Making of Modern Economics," does just that.
'The Book the New Socialists Fear the Most'
I'm not afraid of teaching my students about Marx, Keynes and the other critics of free-market capitalism. As Benjamin Franklin said, "By the collision of different sentiments, sparks of truth strike out, and political light is obtained."
The Economic Freedom Index demonstrates in one simple bar chart why the Adam Smith/Mises/Hayek model of laissez-faire capitalism wins over the Keynesian and Marxist models of big government.
The evidence is clear: economic freedom works!
The truth will rise to the top, as I show in this picture of me in front of the Totem Pole of Economics:
I teach students the Totem Pole approach in economics. It's very different from the traditional political spectrum, with Adam Smith on the extreme right (representing laissez faire), Karl Marx on the extreme left (representing socialist central planning) and Keynes in the middle (representing big government). I use the Totem Pole approach, with Adam Smith at the top, Keynes in the middle and Marx low man on the totem pole. As the Economic Freedom Index demonstrates, the Adam Smith model is clearly better than either the Keynesian model of big government or the Marxist model of socialism.
In my bestselling book, "The Making of Modern Economics," now in its fourth edition, I compare the ideas of Adam Smith, Marx and Keynes, with chapters on Mises, Hayek and Friedman.
My chapter six on Marx explains why Marxism attracts so many students, and then gives a devastating blow to Marx's theories of exploitation, imperialism and inequality. This chapter alone has converted many Marxists into free-market advocates.
Then, I devote two whole chapters to debunking Keynesian economics, which one reviewer called "the most devastating critique of Keynesian economics ever written." | | How to know what to trade. With thousands of stocks in the market…
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I make Adam Smith and his "system of natural liberty" the hero of my book. Every economist is judged by whether they sought to improve upon the house that Adam Smith built (French laissez-faire, Austrian, Chicago and Supply-Side schools) or wanted to tear it down and build their own new model (Marxists, Keynesians and socialists).
To find out what's in each chapter, go here.
The reviews are in. Here's a sample.
"Mark Skousen is an extraordinarily dynamic and energetic scholar, entrepreneur, activist, speaker and teacher, a true believer in free markets and free enterprise. His 'The Making of Modern Economics' is excellent, a sure bestseller. All histories of economics are BS --Before Skousen!" -- Milton Friedman
"My students love it. Skousen makes the history of economic ideas come alive like no other textbook." -- Roger Garrison, Auburn University
"Mark's book is fun to read on every page. I've read it three times, and recommend it to all my friends." -- John Mackey, former CEO, Whole Foods Market
"Because of his interest in financial markets, Skousen is an economist obsessed with the real-world applicability of his economic ideas. He has written over 20 books, including 'The Making of Modern Economics', the best history of modern economics around." -- Greg Feirman, manager of Top Gun Financial
"I champion Skousen's book to everyone. I keep it by my bedside and refer to it often. An absolutely ideal gift for college students." -- William F. Buckley, Jr., National Review
"Mark Skousen has produced the single best book on virtually all of those who have had a significant impact in economics. It's a delight to read cover to cover." -- Richard Rahn, Washington Times
Routledge and Amazon charge over $50 for my book, "The Making of Modern Economics." But I offer a major discount -- only $37 -- at my website, www.skousenbooks.com. I autograph each copy and will mail it for no additional charge if mailed inside the United States. Order a copy today.
P.S. COSM Technology Summit, Oct. 31-Nov. 1, Bellevue Hyatt, Seattle, Washington: This conference is sponsored by George Gilder and the Discovery Institute. I'll be speaking on gross output (GO) and its significance as a critical supply-side statistic. For more information, go to https://cosm.tech/. To receive a $200 discount, use EAGLE-MS as the Promotional Code when registering.
Good Investing, AEIOU,
Mark Skousen
Doti-Spogli Endowed Chair of Free Enterprise, Chapman University
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FreedomFest | | The Russian Boom -- Is War Good for the Economy? By Mark Skousen
Editor, Forecasts & Strategies
"There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist must take into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen." -- Frederic Bastiat, "What is Seen and Not Seen," 1850.
Old myths die hard. Like an old penny, they keep showing up. One is the idea that "war is good for the economy." It reminds me of Bastiat's famous parable of "The Broken Window." A hoodlum throws a rock in a window. The outward effect is that it causes the business to replace the window, stimulating the economy. What is not seen is the store owner now without the funds to buy a new suit.
The latest example comes from the August 11, 2024 issue of "The Economist." Patrick Lane, the Senior Digital Editor, writes: "However much you sympathize with ordinary Russians, you might wish that two-and-a-half years after Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia would be paying a high economic price for its aggression, giving the dictator cause to think again. But no: it is thriving, thanks to a splurge of public spending -- not only on the war but also on welfare, pensions and more. The one cloud (or, for those wishing Russia ill, bright spot) is rising inflation. But with incomes rising faster than prices, Russians' patience isn't wearing out yet."
Governments can make the economy appear temporarily prosperous through big spending projects on war or public works, but ultimately such actions have unintended consequences -- rising prices, higher interest rates and lost opportunities in new technologies and, perhaps, even a boom-bust cycle… not counting the destroyed buildings and lost lives. There is no free lunch. | | | About Mark Skousen, Ph.D.:
 Mark Skousen is an investment advisor, professional economist, university professor, author of more than 20 books, and founder of the annual FreedomFest conference. For the past 40+ years, Dr. Skousen has been investment director of the award-winning newsletter, Forecasts & Strategies. He also serves as investment director of four trading services: TNT Trader, Five Star Trader, Low Priced-Stock Trader, and Fast Money Alert. | | | | | |
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