Phil Duffy on the importance of learning macroeconomics

[T]he chickens will come home to roost during [Trump's] second administration if he's elected.  There's no question about that in my mind.  And that's why I think there has to be a fundamental change in thinking amongst the non-progressives, if you will, in the citizenry.  They have to understand macroeconomics and they're going to have to learn macroeconomics in a hurry or we are headed for real disaster.

~ Philip Duffy, The Law Matters interview, 24:20 mark, August 28, 2020

Tom DiLorenzo on Lincoln's economic ignorance regarding protectionist tariffs (in his own words)

LINCOLN WAS ECONOMICALLY IGNORANT OF THE BIG ECONOMIC ISSUE OF HIS DAY: PROTECTIONIST TARIFFS

“[A] tariff of duties on imported goods . . . is indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American people.” (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I, p. 307.)

“[B]y the tariff system . . . the man who contents himself to live upon the products of his own country, pays nothing at all.” (CW, Vol. I, p. 311).

“All carrying . . . of articles from the place of their production to a distant place for their consumption . . . is useless labor.” (CW, Vol. I, p. 409).

“I was an old Henry Clay tariff whig. In old times I made more speeches on that subject, than on any other. I have not changed my views.” (CW, Vol, III, p. 487).

“The tariff is to the government what a meal is to a family . . .” (CW, Vol., IV, p. 211).

“I must confess that I do not understand the subject [the economics of tariffs].” (CW, Vol. IV, p. 211).

~ Tom DiLorenzo, "The Real Lincoln in His Own Words," LewRockwell.com, June 5, 2013

Walter Block endorses Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson

People instinctively are anti-market.  And it takes an effort of will, or understanding, or knowledge of the sort that Henry Hazlitt so magnificently supplies [in Economics in One Lesson] to pierce through this ignorance.

Walter Block, interview with Jeffrey Tucker about Economics in One Lesson, (9:04), 2008

Thomas Piketty on insane Greek sovereign debt interest rates

Austerity can be justified, but 8 percent interest rates on a debt that amounts to more than 100 percent of gross domestic product is just crazy. They will have to restore their public finances and then pay back this huge debt at the same time — and Greek debt amounts to so little when you compare it to what was needed to bail out the banks [last year]. Not only is this not going to help growth, it’s going to end very badly, politically speaking. Taxpayers cannot accept this in the long run.

~Thomas Piketty, professor and founder, Paris School of Economics, as quoted in "Deflation Could Stall Efforts to Revive Greece in Debt Crisis", NYT.com, May 2nd, 2010

French economics professor on virtue damning debt-burdened Greece

How can Greece grow out of its debt if there is deflation? Deflation increases the debt burden, so we are following this virtuous circle that is bringing us toward hell. Economics has nothing to do with virtue, which can kill an economy.

~Jean-Paul Fitoussi, professor of economics, Institut d’Études Politiques, Paris, France as quoted in "Deflation Could Stall Efforts To Revive Greece in Debt Crisis", NYT.com, May 2nd, 2010

Murray Rothbard on economic ignorance

It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

~ Murray Rothbard, Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, and Other Essays