The Far-Right and Austrian School Crossover

Followers of the Austrian School are now most frequently associated with libertarian political perspectives that emanate from such bodies as the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Austrian economists maintain that inflation is by definition always and everywhere simply an increase in the money supply.....as the real value of each monetary unit is eroded, loses purchasing power and thus buys fewer goods and services.

So says Wikipedia. Nevermind that crop failure would lead to a rise in prices? Anyway,

U.S. congressman Ron Paul is a firm believer in Austrian school economics and has authored six books on the subject.[source] Paul's former economic adviser, Peter Schiff, is an adherent of the Austrian school.

So how does this crossover into the far-right? Well, Wiki says:

Given that all major economies currently have a central bank supporting the private banking system, money can be supplied into these economies by way of bank-created credit (or debt). Austrian economists believe that this bank-created credit growth (which forms the bulk of the money supply) sets off and creates volatile business cycles (see Austrian Business Cycle Theory) and maintain that this "wave-like" or "boomerang" effect on economic activity is one of the most damaging effects of monetary inflation.
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Austrian School economists therefore regard the state-sponsored central bank as the main cause of inflation, because it is the institution charged with the creation of new money. When newly created currency reserves are injected into the fractional-reserve banking system, private financial institutions generally choose to further expand the level of bank credit, which multiplies the inflationary effect many times over.

This is the exact same position of Ron Paul - no surprise. However it is also the position of some of Ron Paul's more dubious supporters, namely Alex Jones and Mike Rivero. More worryingly, Rivero and Jones take this "libertarian/Austrian" view and mix in a populist appeal from anti-semites such as Eustace Mullins and other various purveyors of "The Secrets of the Federal Reserve."

In Rivero and Jones' world these two views co-mingle, providing a crossover point from libertarianism into anti-semitism and fascism, and vice versa. At one moment the Federal Reserve is an organ of the Protocols of Zion - The Jewish World Conspiracy!! - but the next moment the Fed is merely a technical structural flaw in obtuse and academic debates supplied by an obscure free-market fundamentalism about moneysupply and inflation.

The scholarship of the economics viewpoint is used to sustain credibility in the anti-semitic and conspiratorial view. Similarly the libertarian wing (Ron Paul supporters and Misesians) find themselves with a ready audience for their (obscure) anti-centralbanking critique amongst the far-right. Jones and Rivero blend these two views together almost seamlessly and thus form a crossover point for the two groups. Which partly explains why we find Ron Paul supported at Stormfront, Mises.org, Prisonplanet and Whatreallyhappened.com etc.

The interesting thing about all this to me is how it illustrates people can occupy the same ground politically, and be almost indistinguishable from others whom hold seemingly quite different overall political positions. In this case, how a relatively highly obscure argument about inflation and money supply from The Austrians can sit alongside pungent populism, anti-semitism and nationalism from the far-right.

Though it does throw up contradictions, of course: eg, Rivero's recent critical remarks to a frequent poster on the issue of the minimum wage. Despite his enthusiasm for RonPaul over the years, and his anti-socialism, Rivero disagreed with one of his regulars who posted some typical neo-liberal screed about how the minimum wage hurts, and hurts the poor the most. (It was argued that minimum wage helped cause illegal immigration -- Rivero disagreed.) Intriguingly, Rivero the RonPaul supporter totally disagreed with RonPaul's view. So why does he appear to support Ron Paul? The contradiction is Rivero's - Ron Paul surely opposes the minimum wage on grounds it is state interference with the market, which would be the coherent position of someone holding RonPaul's views. Rivero is inconsistent.

I find it very annoying that people like Mike Rivero and Alex Jones never have to justify their positions to critics. Rather than ever having to answer for their contradictions they simply sit on high, cut-off from any criticisms, hearing only constructive words and constant acclaim. It can only add to their apparently monumental self-belief which is already pretty sickening.

How can Jones and Rivero claim neo-liberalism is a central part of their fabled NWO arch enemy's world domination plan, whilst at the same time support Austrian-School economics sych as those of Ron Paul? They never have to explain. Meanwhile, Rivero exploits the ambiguity, posing at one moment as the anti-socialist "libertarian" populist, the next moment posing as some class warrior concerned only for "the people's welfare". Rivero nor Jones never account for the antagonism between these positions. One moment they blame the state itself for everyuthig, the next they say the state isn't doing enough. [See the Gulf oil disaster, for example]

My take on it is that Rivero's position is actually that of an opportunist - a fascist opportunist. Why? Because no other possibility can cover Rivero's position. Rivero needn't even view himself as a fascist for him to be one.

To take this one example -- fascism had no coherent economics, and nothing was essential to fascist economics - except perhaps the exclusion of Jews from economic *and all sorts* of life in Nazi Germany. [In fact, such a policy is an unspoken yet logical outcome of Rivero's position of Jewish world conspiracy, the supposed "over-representation of jews" in American industry, commerce, media, finance etc. Rivero frequently publishes expressions of such complaints - but never anything explicit on what to do about it (anti-jewish legislation - what else?) For such legislation, one absolutely requires official definitions of jew and non-jew....hence essentially racial legislation - RAC-ISM.]

Here's Eustace Mullins on the Federal Reserve - presenting a quite different argument to that of the Austrians, but one that's made to appear identical and complementary in Jones And Rivero's hands:

American history in the twentieth century has recorded the amazing achievements of the Federal Reserve bankers. First, the outbreak of World War I, which was made possible by the funds available from the new central bank of the United States. Second, the Agricultural Depression of 1920. Third, the Black Friday Crash on Wall Street of October, 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. Fourth, World War II. Fifth, the conversion of the assets of the United States and its citizens from real property to paper assets from 1945 to the present, transforming a victorious America and foremost world power in 1945 to the world’s largest debtor nation in 1990. Today, this nation lies in economic ruins, devastated and destitute, in much the same dire straits in which Germany and Japan found themselves in 1945. Will Americans act to rebuild our nation, as Germany and Japan have done when they faced the identical conditions which we now face--or will we continue to be enslaved by the Babylonian debt money system which was set up by the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 to complete our total destruction? This is the only question which we have to answer, and we do not have much time left to answer it.
SOURCE

All that happened because of the effect of central banking on inflation! Apparently. The Austrians and Mullins are not really saying the same things - even though they co-exist on this ground.

That quote is from Mullins' foreword to his book, "The Secrets of The Federal Reserve" which was burned after publication in Germany 1950. The full book is at the link which directs to apfn.org - The American Patriots Friends Network. The book appears alongside recordings of Ron Paul.

Here's an illustration of the apparent contradictions and yet shared position - here's a picture from that APFN website:


Amazingly this same website APFN elsewhere promotes Mullins and others views on the Federal Reserve by shouting about the fact the Federal Reserve is privately owned:

The Federal Reserve Is A PRIVATELY OWNED Corporation
By Thomas D. Schauf
SOURCE

Interestingly - and completely unsurprisingly - that same article appears at rense.com

So, is APFN (and Rense's) complaint that the Fed interferes with money-supply and inflation (as the Austrians/Ron Paul says) or do they believe it is because it is privately (and Jewish-)owned - as Mullins and the anti-semite conspiracists believe?

I mean, it's pointless changing the money supply stuff if what matters is its ownership - by Jews. And it's pointless "solving the jewish problem" of ownership if the issue is really about money supply and inflation.
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Here's Alex Jones' Prisonplanet speaking of Mullins whilst trailing an interview with "the great man":

Mullins was the grandfather of the movement to expose the Federal Reserve as a private run for profit scam raping the American people and sinking America into endless debt.
SOURCE

The Austrians do *not* believe the Federal Reserve is an issue because it is "privately run for profit"! Do Alex Jones and Mike Rivero agree with Mullins' view OR that of the Austrians? They never get asked.

Here's a Stromfronter's view of Mullins:

I see Eustace Mullins as a great contributor in the fight against the perfidious Jew and the Masonic occult sociopathic conspirators. He is a treasure and a true visionary. Anyone WN (White National) in Virginia might want to visit and encourage him.
SOURCE

Hardly an economics issue, is it? Over at PRisonplanet, in an article lamenting Mullins' death, we read:

"Legendary author of hundreds of books and pamphlets demolishing the lies of warmaking mainstream media, historian Eustace Mullins died Tuesday. ....Mullins compiled a well-researched corpus of works that detailed the passage down through time of a hereditary group of banker killers who have essentially ruled the world from behind the scenes since ancient times.

“Eustace Mullins' .... meticulous research eventually uncovered virtually every political secret of the last 400 years,” said Internet essayist John Kaminski of Mullins’ passing.

“It’s a pity so many people are afraid to believe what Mullins told them, because it was much more of the truth than has ever been seen in our schools or our media,” Kaminski added.
SOURCE

John Kaminski eh? At Prisonplanet? Lamenting the passing of Eustace Mullins? Must be because of the Austrian economics, huh?
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Concrete illustration:

Neoliberalism is an approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that minimise the role of the state and maximise the private business sector. The term "neoliberalism" has also come into wide use in cultural studies to describe an internationally prevailing ideological paradigm that leads to social, cultural, and political practices and policies that use the language of markets, efficiency, consumer choice, transactional thinking and individual autonomy to shift risk from governments and corporations onto individuals and to extend this kind of market logic into the realm of social and affective relationships.[1]

In the 1970s some Latin American economists began using "neoliberalismo" to designate their program of market-oriented reforms. By the 1990s, however, the term "neoliberalism" had become a pejorative to classical liberal critics, who dismissed it as a catchphrase invented by academic radicals to denigrate the ideas of Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek.

Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1992) is probably the single most influential individual economist or political philosopher to shape what is now understood as neo-liberalism, although he is best regarded, and considered himself, as a classical liberal. Hayek's own theoretical direction sprang out of the so-called Austrian School established by Carl Menger, Eugen Boehm-Bawerk and Ludwig von Mises during first decade of the early twentieth century.
WIKI

Austrian school - neoliberalism - Ron Paul. Right?

And yet here's some Prisonplanet quotes on "neo-liberalism" (Alex Jones' Prisonplanet supports Ron Paul, remember!):

---the so-called economics of 'neo-liberalism' including wholesale privatization of anything that moves, the new world order and corporate capitalist totalitarianism.

---Iceland Pushes Back Against Neolib Bankers

---Neolib Policies and Argentina’s Economic Collapse:Central to the collapse was the implementation of neo-liberal policies which enabled the swindle of billions of dollars by foreign banks and corporations.
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