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Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 263 of Jacob Viner [2]‘s 1968 International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences article, “Mercantilist Thought,” as this article is reprinted in the 1991 collection, edited by Douglas Irwin, Jacob Viner: Essays on the Intellectual History of Economics [3]:

Mercantilism was essentially a folk doctrine, evolved in the light of prevailing historical circumstances and values by simple inference from the apparent facts. It was a doctrine of practical men not given to subtle economic analysis.

DBx: And so mercantilism remains today.

I reject a word that is today often used: “neomercantilism.” I reject this word because there is nothing neo about today’s mercantilism. Mercantilism remains in 2018 what it was in 1718 and in 1618: an intellectually comical, if politically dangerous, mash-up of superficial observations, misunderstanding of terms, and illogical inferences, all hermetically sealed off in the minds of its advocates from criticism, reason, and reality. Mercantilism is the result of a profound failure to observe wisely and to reason consistently.

Mercantilism is a dumpster of fallacies.

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