Terms  |
Definitions |
| Failure of Government |
1) “Politicians legislate price supports to enrich farm voters. Lobbies extort tariffs to block cheap food imports and subsidies to underwrite food exports at prices that destroy competitors in poor countries. Conservationists have agitated to set aside productive land and pay farmers not to grow. And now green energy advocates push ethanol quotas and tax credits that divert food into fuel,” observes Adam Lerrick. 2) “The Fed’s balance sheet is getting corrupted with junk that others won’t buy or lend against. All this to keep the housing market propped up at a time in which the market is screaming, about as loudly as it can: THERE’S BEEN AN OVERINVESTMENT IN HOUSING. What the politicians propose to do about our economic problems has been consistently more troubling than the problems themselves,” observes Robert Robb.
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| Fascism |
Socialism with shareholders. See Paulson, Henry.
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| Fearmonger |
The end is near!!!! And, if you believe that, for a measly $500,000, Gary North has some primo property that he’d like to sell you in beautiful Beatty, Nevada. Perfect for digging your bunker! (FYI: North has been running this same scam for 30 years. First he was a foreign policy expert who knew all about the Russians, then he was a doctor who knew all about AIDS, then he was a computer programmer who knew all about Y2K and, now that he’s discovered Austrian Economics, he’s an investment guru who knows all about currency speculation.) See Alarmism.
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| Federal Reserve |
If I printed money, it would be illegal. (Darn it!)
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| Feldstein, Martin |
“The dysfunctional state of the credit market means that many individuals and businesses are unable to get credit. Lowering interest rates will not stimulate demand for those who cannot get credit.” See Answer, The.
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| Feminism, Radical |
See Marxism.
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| Fiduciary Money |
Money Certificates created in excess of the commodity money (gold) for which they can be redeemed. For countries that have abandoned the gold standard, all of their money certificates are fiduciary. See my Simplified Exposition.
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| First-Unit Demand |
The value (in money) of the first unit of a phenomenon. It is described in Axiom Three of my theory. (This is the axiom that is an extension of Mises’ Regression Theorem.) See my Simplified Exposition.
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| Food Riots |
If reality TV takes its next logical step into killing people for sport, we will have achieved both aspects of the 1987 Running Man movie’s dystopian vision, and ten years earlier than predicted. (Of course, lest I be accused of alarmism, I should point out that the food riots – so far – are in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; not Bakersfield, California.) See Failure of government.
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| Fool's Gold |
What the dollar is backed by – the assets of the Federal Reserve, composed mostly of AAA-Rated Securities, which are about as marketable as the chocolate-covered cotton balls that Milo Minderbinder was trying to foist on people in Catch 22. “The Fed’s balance sheet is getting corrupted with junk that others won’t buy or lend against,” observes Robert Robb.
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| Franklin, Benjamin |
“Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” – 17 February 1776. (I was born on February 17th and these were the first words out of my mouth, which came as quite a surprise to my parents, who were expecting something more along the lines of “mama” or “papa.”) See Dynamite.
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| Freak-Out Factor |
“Exhibits A and B are soaring gas and food prices, which hit a very tender lobe in consumer psychology. Each of those things alone represents a very small portion of the overall economy, but to many consumers they’re a proxy for the whole economy going down the drain,” says Rick Newman. If you’re pushing your car to a gas station on an empty stomach, gas and food prices aren’t a small part of your economy. I think consumers are smart enough to know when to freak out about their personal finances without waiting for Mr. Newman’s snide advice.
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| Free Lunch |
There’s no such thing. For instance, the money for John McCain’s summer gas-tax holiday comes from funds for maintaining highways and bridges. But the need for repairs is still there. He’ll either raise the gas tax after the election or risk having the bridges fall down. Anyway, encouraging people to burn a lot of gas before the election (and draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) will just postpone their acquiring fuel-efficient vehicles and will create shortages after the election. If Americans put McCain in the White House because they appreciate the summer vacations in their gas hogs that he paid for, it’ll serve them right if they freeze to death for lack of heating oil when the snows come after the November election. See Waste.
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| Freedom |
Isn’t free. But invading and occupying countries that never attacked us isn’t the price. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance against tyrants. See Bush, George.
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| Friedman, Milton |
An “economist” famous for claiming that assumptions don’t matter. Apparently, neither does credibility. See my Socratic dialogue, Socrates and Hume at Billiards.
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