The Devil’s Dictionary of Economics
Search For: (All Definitions Starting with the Letter: A)
Definition Total: (12)
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Definitions |
| AAA-Rated Securities |
The new word for what used to be known as sub-prime mortgages or, more colloquially, as worthless crap. See Fool’s Gold.
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| Action Axiom |
The “foundation” of Austrian Economics. Quoth Hans Hoppe, “This axiom, the proposition that humans act, fulfills the requirements precisely for a true synthetic a priori proposition. It cannot be denied that this proposition is true, since the denial would have to be categorized as an action – and so the truth of the statement literally cannot be undone.” Clearly, the action axiom is a platitude. Hoppe could just as well have said, “This axiom, the proposition that economists use word processors, fulfills the requirements precisely for a true synthetic a priori proposition. It cannot be denied that this proposition is true, since the denial would have to be written on a word processor – and so the truth of the statement literally cannot be undone.” See Section XIV of my 2004 paper.
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| Affirmative Action |
The antithesis of all that is good in America. Affirmative action is an embarrassment to those of us who did it the natural way, without asking for charity from anyone. (Unlike Barack Obama, I checked “White, non-Hispanic” on every school or job application that I ever filled out.) See US of KKK-A.
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| Aggregate Utility |
Price times stock. See my Simplified Exposition.
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| Alarmism |
While the problems that we face are serious, getting all gloomy and doomy doesn’t help. We have survived recessions and – Dare I say it? – depressions before, and civilization emerged mostly intact. Even if the dollar loses its status as the world’s reserve currency, I don’t think that we’re going to be donning loincloths and foraging for food a decade from now. (At least I hope not, because I don’t look good in a loincloth.) See McPherson, Guy.
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| Answer, The |
In Section VI of my 2004 paper, I write, "credit limits are more important than interest rates and there are many people who cannot get credit at all. Interest rates only affect how much money is being transferred. They do not affect who gets it." Recently, Alan Zibel confirms that, “lenders [who must satisfy Fannie and Freddie] are demanding bank statements, big cash reserves and second appraisals before they approve a loan to refinance a home. Mortgage rates are hovering around 6.6%, about the same level as a year ago.” See The Question.
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| Apartheid |
What the Palestinians are living under. When a paramedic straps on an explosive vest and states in her farewell video that she wants only to “knock on heaven’s door carrying the skulls of some of her people’s oppressors,” that can only be called “bitterness.” See Carter, Jimmy.
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| Armies |
What crosses borders when goods are not allowed to.
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| Audacity of Hopelessness |
Why organizations like Hamas are dangerous. As Sun Tzu observed, when one puts people on death ground, they live. See Apartheid.
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| Austrian Economics |
Belief in the Subjective Theory of Value and, simultaneously, belief that (to quote Robert Murphy), “the consumer’s good is always the 1st order, regardless of how far back we push the analysis, even if we go back to axes carved by prehistoric men.” See Doublethink.
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| Average Period of Production |
Murray Rothbard writes, “The prices of capital goods change like a lever being pivoted on a fulcrum at its center; the prices of consumers’ goods fall most, those of first-order capital goods fall less; those of highest-order capital goods rise most, and the others less.” But he does not define “center.” Unlike Rothbard, I do know where this pivot point is located. See Section IV of my 2004 paper.
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| Axiomatic Economics |
The greatest invention since cheese. (Well, who do you think is writing this dictionary?)
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