Ludwig von Mises on mass unemployment providing recruiting ground for radical political movements

Permanent mass unemployment destroys the moral foundations of the social order.  The young people, who, having finished their training for work, are forced to remain idle, are the ferment out of which the most radical political movements are formed.  In their ranks the soldiers of the next revolution are recruited.

~ Ludwig von Mises, Socialism

Eric Hoffer on mass movements

A movement is pioneered by men of words, materialized by fanatics and consolidated by men of actions.

~ Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951)

Felix Zulauf on Trump, Brexit and the anti-establishment political movement

When you look at the current political landscape in Europe and also in the U.S., you see that more and more political parties and politicians are popping up that were not part of the establishment before.  For instance, in the U.S. it was a big surprise for most that Donald Trump took the lead in the Republican Party eventually, and probably become the nominee by the Republican Party.  It was a surprise by many that Bernie Sanders did as well against the established Hillary as he did. And I think this is a reflection of people being completely dissatisfied by the establishment for all the economic reasons I explained before.

The same in Europe.  For the last few years we have seen new parties popping up all of a sudden.  In Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, in the Netherlands, in France and so on.  And those are all parties - be they left or right - that are against the establishment.  So the established parties are losing ground big time and that is because people want change.  They are dissatisfied with the results of politics over the last 20 years, and they want change.

And I think you have to look at the Brexit question in the same way.  The British will vote on whether they want to be part of the European Union or not.  As you can see, the European Union was designed to function as a Greater Europe entity, but it only functions well when the sun shines.  When it starts raining and problems prop up, it stops functioning and all hell breaks loose.  And it proves again that the smaller and entity is, the better it works and functions.  And the bigger it is, the worse it gets.  And I think the EU has overstretched it because they want to define every little part of everyone's life, and that is just too much.

~ Felix Zulauf, interview: "Monetary Policies, Outlook of Markets and Gold," Korelin Economics Report, June 3, 2016

Bill Laggner and Kevin Duffy on the coming political backlash

Barron's: Speaking of a backlash, we now have Goldman managers toting guns to protect themselves from populist rage. At what point will society demand some sort of change from the government?

Laggner: A client sent me an e-mail the other day in which the tea-party demonstrators are getting a higher approval rating than the Democrats or Republicans. There is a backlash building, and that's a very good thing. But it's a process. As the arrogance level of central bankers or the money-center banks continues to grow, 2010 and the mid-term elections will be very exciting.

Duffy: Last year, 70% of the people were opposed to the bailout. And so far, through these massive interventions, government has been able to stabilize the financial system. But you have this divergence between the real economy and the political economy. People are still hurting. Consumer confidence has not rebounded like investor confidence has. If we are right, and we are heading for the next leg down, that's when I think all bets are off. If the political economy and some of those who got bailed out are back asking for another bailout, that's when the backlash really starts to heat up.

~ Bill Laggner and Kevin Duffy, "Shorting the Economic Recovery," Barron's, December 28, 2009, by Robin Blumenthal

Leonard Read on the libertarian movement

Once an individual who would advance liberty has settled on self-perfection as correct method, the first fact to bear in mind is that ours is not a numbers problem. Were it necessary to bring a majority into a comprehension of the libertarian philosophy, the cause of liberty would be utterly hopeless. Every significant movement in history has been led by one or just a few individuals with a small minority of energetic supporters.

~ Leonard E. Read