I think the point Brucester is fastening on, and that Austrians in my experience want to ignore, is shouldn’t a better or more correct understanding of how the economy works lead to better success in investing and entrepreneurship? And I think he has a point. Theory has to prove its merit in practice, plain and simple. If you take two people with an equal ‘knack’ for investing and one has incorrect views as to how the market works and the other doesn’t, the latter should be more successful. I understand the problems with positivism and prediction in the market, but for practical purposes I do think that a correct theory should lead to better predictive power overall even if the reality of the world means that predictive power will never approach 100%. If the theory is correct the predictions based on it should still be better on average than those based on faulty theories.
So the question arises, what Austrians have tried to make practical use of the theoretical base? For example, has anyone ever attempted to create a better set of econometric indicators, such as the Mprime money supply figures I read about, or the AMS figures, or has anyone tried to get a near real time implimentation of Reisman’s manipulation of GDP statistics to make them fit a Hayekian view of the economy as productive vs exhausted spending? Doesn’t Sean Corrigan use Austrian principles to guide his advice? How does he do compared to other investors?
Those are questions that eventually need to be answered. For one, you can’t theorize all day and never put your cards down on the table. Second, if it works it’s a publicity and respect getter for Austrian theory.
I dont bother with traffic rules, i just drive by rules i think would be better for humanity and i nearly never crash.
Honestly, i cant believe some of what is written on this forum. The austrian school may be headed by some pretty hefty intellectuals but i guess the nature of internet forums attracts all kinds of bums and a school cant be juged by its followers.
I think you guys are really on the ball here on this forum. Interesting topics and considered responses.
I am not ashamed to confess my own ignorance and I am eager to learn new things. I missed my chance at scholarship but it don’t seem to have hurt me none… Whoever it was that said “you can’t teach and old dog new tricks” never had an old dog or was teachin’ the wrong tricks.
xahrx post about Corrigan was one of those “what the H*** did he just say” things for me, but after I re-read it a few times the import of what he was saying began to soak in. I appreciate that kind of insight and I’ll pursue the orignal intent of this topic in that vein.
(Un)fortunatly it doesn’t work like this in most cases. You can try this with simple commodities, but more structured, complex goods and services require a different strategy.
Of course you still will have to aim for a profit, but you need to be realistic. You’ll need to keep your suppliers happy, just as you’ll need your customers satisfied. Suppliers must want to supply to you. Because you are getting them sales/contracts and you pay on time. The same accounts for customers. They must know, they’ll get value for money via you.
If a supplier feels he didn’t get a fair price, he will hesitate to do business with you in the future, and a customer that feels he’s been ripped of, will not refer you to new customers. And believe me, most people buy from you not because your advertizing was right, but their friends and relatives agree that buying from you is worth the effort.