Robert Higgs - Delusions of Power: New Explorations of the State, War, and Economy

Delusions of Power

Copyright 2012 by The Independent Institute

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by electronic or mechanical means now known or to be invented, including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Nothing herein should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Institute or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Higgs, Robert.

Delusions of power : new explorations of the state, war, and economy / Robert Higgs.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-59813-045-4 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-59813-052-2 (hardcover)

1. Power (Social sciences)--United States. 2. United States--Military policy. 3. United States--Economic policy--20th century. 4. United States--History, Military--20th century. 5. United States--Politics and government--20th century. 6. Politics and war--United States--History--20th century. 7. War--Economic aspects--United States--History--20th century. I. Title.

JK271.H57 2012

355'.033573--dc23

2011027480

For David and Mary Theroux

amicus certus in re incerta cernitur

The following articles were first published on LewRockwell.com and are Reprinted with Permission by LewRockwell.com: War Is Horrible, but , (September 16, 2006); Blame the People Who Elected Them? (November 26, 2007); Truncating the Antecedents: How Americans Have Been Misled about World War II, (March 18, 2008).

The following articles were first published by The Freeman and are Reprinted with Permission: How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japans Attack on Pearl Harbor, (May 2006); What Did FDR Know? Robert Higgs replies [to a letter from Bettina Bien Greaves], (July/August 2006); Wartime Origins of Modern Income-Tax Withholding, (November 2007); Nixons New Economic Plan, (January/February 2009); Review of The Pearl Harbor Myth: Rethinking the Unthinkable, by George Victor, (May 2008); Review of Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, by Patrick J. Buchanan, (July/August, 2009); Review of New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDRs Economic Legacy Has Damaged America, by Burton Folsom, Jr., (September 2009).

The following articles were first published by The Independent Institute in The Independent Review, The Newsroom, or The Beacon and are Reprinted with Permission: Who Was Edward M. House?, (Winter 2009); Benefits and Costs of the U.S. Governments War Making, (Spring 2005); Military-Economic Fascism: How Business Corrupts Government and Vice Versa, (Fall 2007); Caging the Dogs of War: How Major U.S. Neo-imperialistic Wars End, (Fall 2008); Recession and Recovery: Six Fundamental Errors of the Current Orthodoxy, (March 5, 2009); To Fight or Not to Fight? Wars Payoffs to U.S. Leaders and to the American People, (Summer 2011); Derek Leebaerts Magic and Mayhem, [a review essay on] Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy from Korea to Afghanistan, by Derek Leebaert, (March 6, 2011).

The following articles were first published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and are Reprinted with Permission under a Creative Commons license: Democracy and Faits Accomplis, in Property, Freedom, and Society: Essays in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, (2009); A Revealing Window on the U.S. Economy in Depression and War: Hours Worked, 19291950, Libertarian Papers (2009); If Men Were Angels: The Basic Analytics of the State versus Self-Government, Journal of Libertarian Studies 21 (Winter 2007).

Reprinted with Permission of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University: A Dozen Dangerous Presumptions of Crisis Policy Making, Mercatus on Policy, (April 2009); The Political Economy of Crisis Opportunism, Mercatus Policy Series (October 2009).

Reprinted with Permission: Cumulating Policy Consequences, Frightened Overreactions, and the Current Surge of Governments Size, Scope, and Power, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 33, no. 2 (Spring 2010).

Reprinted with Permission: Review of Is War Necessary for Economic Growth? Military Procurement and Technology Development, by Vernon W. Ruttan, Economic History Services, Copyright 2006 by EH.NET.

Reprinted with Permission of Springer Science Publishers: An Economic Analysis of National Reconstruction at Gunpoint: Review essay on After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy, by Christopher J. Coyne, Review of Austrian Economics 21, no. 4 (2008). Copyright Springer Science.

Reprinted with Permission: Sheldon Pollackss Interpretation of War, Taxation, and the U.S. State, Review essay on War, Revenue, and State Building: Financing the Development of the American State, by Sheldon D. Pollack, Journal of Policy History 23 (2011). Copyright Cambridge University Press.

Review of Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex, by James Ledbetter, Journal of Cold War Studies. 2012 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Journal of Cold War Studies Vol. 14, No. 2, Spring 2012.

Reprinted with Permission, unpublished speeches and papers by Robert Higgs: The Song that Is Irresistible: How the State Leads People to Their Own Destruction, (2007); The Economics of the Great Society: Theory, Policies, and Consequences, (2011); Do Arguments for Slavery and Arguments for Government (as We Know It) Appeal to the Same Rationalizations?

22 Review of War, Revenue, and State Building: Financing the Development of the American State
by Sheldon D. Pollack

23 Review of New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDRs Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
by Burton Folsom Jr.

24 Review of Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World
by Patrick J. Buchanan

25 Review of The Pearl Harbor Myth: Rethinking the Unthinkable
by George Victor

26 Review of Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex
by James Ledbetter

27 Review of Is War Necessary for Economic Growth? Military Procurement and Technology Development
by Vernon W. Ruttan

28 Review of After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy
by Christopher J. Coyne

29 Review of Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy from Korea to Afghanistan
by Derek Leebaert