Re: “Central planning” in Venezuela: the Soviet experiment speaks to this issue. Although it is counterintuitive to many, there was no central planning in the USSR. The Soviets attempted a moneyless economy during War Communism (1919-21) and quickly retreated. What came after was state capitalism. The USSR had money, wages, profits, etc..—all things a planned economy was supposed to dispense with. The famous polymath Michael Polanyi described the USSR as “polycentric planning”. GOSPLAN was basically a rubber stamp organization and there was no sense in which it was planning the economy other than in terms of very general directives. All of this applies to Venezuela.
Great choice! I’ve enjoyed many of Austin’s essays, and I’m looking forward to seeing his contributions to Boyd.
A match made in market Heaven. Looking forwards to more “market fundamentalist” takes!
Good choice.
Don't let it go to your head. :) I will remain vigilent for any deviation from Radical Centrist® https://thomaslhutcheson.substack.com/ standards. :)
Austin is great. Very excited about this!
Re: “Central planning” in Venezuela: the Soviet experiment speaks to this issue. Although it is counterintuitive to many, there was no central planning in the USSR. The Soviets attempted a moneyless economy during War Communism (1919-21) and quickly retreated. What came after was state capitalism. The USSR had money, wages, profits, etc..—all things a planned economy was supposed to dispense with. The famous polymath Michael Polanyi described the USSR as “polycentric planning”. GOSPLAN was basically a rubber stamp organization and there was no sense in which it was planning the economy other than in terms of very general directives. All of this applies to Venezuela.