John D. Mueller

Getting the history of economic theory wrong inevitably leads to inferior modern theory, particularly regarding morality and economics.

To speak partly American, partly Wall Street and partly Catholic: the current monetary system violates the first principle of American political economy, qualifies as what Pope John Paul II called a “structure of sin,” and acts as a machine that creates bad apples both in Washington and on Wall Street.

Despite its apparent attractions it is time to retire the neoclassical theory of public choice and re-adopt the Founders’ theory of American public choice.

President Obama will have succeeded, and any candidate of either party contending for the presidency in 2016 will succeed or fail, in precise proportion to these classic and successful principles of American public finance.

President Obama and any 2016 presidential candidates will succeed or fail precisely in proportion to their adherence to these four principles of economic sanity.

Evidence going back to at least AD 1 shows that longevity, fertility, education and income are interconnected. And this connection allows us to predict the demographic results of the alternatives presented in last Tuesday's U.S. presidential election.

How has Tocqueville's 1835 prediction about Russia and the U.S. fared? And why is Russia's birth rate, after sinking as low as 1.2 children per couple, sharply improving, while America's birth rate, after remaining near the replacement rate of 2.1 children per couple for the past decade, sharply declining?

Several practical policies could improve the Spanish and American birth rates, lower their unemployment rates, and render their real estate markets less vulnerable to boom-bust cycles.

Mark Twain remarked that "Wagner's music is better than it sounds." Similarly, Daniel K. Finn's "Nine Libertarian Heresies Tempting Neoconservative Catholics to Stray from Catholic Social Thought" is better than it reads–like a draft introduction to 'The Catholic Economist's Guide to How to Make Enemies and Fail to Influence People.'

By discussing "The Demographic Winter (How We Got to Where We Are)," we are asking, in effect, why so many nations are acting against human nature.

Without reforms of the same magnitude as Congressman Ryan proposes, there will be no way to prevent a sharp decline in the U.S. birth rate, and thus a decline in the relative size of the U.S. population and economy.

Without reforms of the magnitude Congressman Ryan proposes, there will be no way to prevent a sharp decline in the U.S. birth rate, and thus a decline in the relative size of the U.S. population and economy.