The dreaded economic crisis has arrived. The Federal Reserve System policy of stimulating, then propping up the economy with inflationary money is reaping its ugly consequences. A quick glance at the headlines of the news media tells a sordid tale indeed-a nightmarish tale of unending economic sorrows.

The interventionist policy of the United States government, policies which governments worldwide adopted, has brought about predictable dire results-the results the logical economists predicted. Only one school of economics hit the nail on the head-the Austrian School of Economics. Its trade cycle theory, as elaborated by Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard and F.A. Hayek, thoroughly explains our current economic crisis. It demonstrates that every artificial boom must end in a bust.

Austrian economists practice the "Real McCoy" of economic reasoning called Praxeology. Praxeology is the science of human action and its better-known part economics. It starts it reasoning from a general premise that is know to be true and reasons to a particular instance of that premise. It is a deductive science.

Tragically, other schools of economics rely on "reasoning" from floating abstractions or on equations and computer models. It is evident that these methods have failed miserably. The most flagrant school of faulty economics, the Keynesian, believes that inflation is a means of supplying people with abundance and prosperity. Yeah, sure. I think instead that they are purveyors of "around the clock" nightmares.

The Bankruptcy of America

Ludwig von Mises stated an eternal truth in his magnum opus "Human Action", "The essence of the interventionist policy is to take from one group to give to another. It is confiscation and redistribution." The government's two favorite methods of extracting wealth from its citizens are taxation and inflation. And these they will relentlessly resort to until there is no more money to pick off the bones of the hapless citizen. Then it will be from "dust to dust" with the dust of our civilization finally blowing off into eternity.

Most government interventions gain the support of the masses because they are presented as "soak the rich" measures. However the day arrives when the amount of public expenditures cannot be financed by expropriating the most productive citizens of a society. Ayn Rand's prophetic book "Atlas Shrugged" explains what happens to the producers in a parasitical society-one that cannibalizes its best. Well, with our progressive tax system, that happened long ago. Our latest artificially created economic boom attracted charlatans and all forms of predators. Although some admirable and honorable entrepreneurs remain, most of the beneficiaries of the largess of the Federal Reserve System were people who are unfit to accumulate wealth under the honest social system of Laissez faire capitalism.

The artificial boom has collapsed. The bubble has burst. Now the masses are asked to carry the burden. The bailouts are on their backs-backs that are breaking under the prohibitive weight the political establishment is dumping on them. I'm sure it won't take long for the hapless masses to "shrug". After all, they are already carrying too much weight in the form of indebtedness-indebtedness that was encouraged by the very same establishment that is attempting to heap their own debt on them. How treacherous can you get?

The Chosen Path

Let's face it. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. It's amazing that any intelligent person could believe otherwise. However our system of democracy seems to be based on the belief that free lunches are a divine right. People vote for whichever candidate promises the most "goodies." H.L. Mencken stated that "An election is an advanced auction of stolen goods." People attribute Godlike powers to the state-not realizing that it is criminal enterprise-pilfering honest citizens through the flagrant means of inflation and taxation.

Another fact we need to face is that government interventionism is breaking down. What Mises calls the reserve fund is running on empty. The government runs huge deficits and its citizen are up to their eyeballs in debt. We have two choices remaining.

1. We continue down the path of government interventionism-the path of economic destruction. We ignorantly support government bailouts, government acquisitions of private companies, more inflation, higher taxation, more onerous government regulations, more restrictions on personal freedom etc. etc. We allow the destruction of Western civilization.

2. We choose the path of Laissez faire (unhampered) capitalism. We relegate the government to the position of "The Maytag Man." We abolish the Federal Reserve System and return to a 100% Gold Standard. We once again defend the individual's right to his life, liberty and property.

The great German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer displayed the following insight. He said that there were two paths to the acquisition of wealth.

1. The "economic means"-the production of goods and services and their voluntary exchange for the goods and services produced by others. This is the honest and just social system of Laissez faire capitalism.

2. The "political means"-one or more persons seize other people's products by the use of physical force. Instead of producing goods and services and trading value for value, a person or group of people plunder the fruits of another man's production. This is the dishonest social system of government interventionism.

The choice is before us. Which path do we embark upon? Laissez faire capitalism-the freeway of abundance and prosperity, or do we continue to blindly stumble down the path of government interventionism-the dirt road of abject poverty and misery.