Financial Bailouts and the Philosophy of Frédéric Bastiat

11 Pages Posted: 12 May 2014 Last revised: 21 May 2014

See all articles by Robert W. McGee

Robert W. McGee

Fayetteville State University - Department of Accounting

Date Written: May 12, 2014

Abstract

Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French thinker who did most of his writing in the last six years of his life. One of his major contributions to economic thought was his application of opportunity cost to a wide range of economic policies. The present paper uses the Bastiat approach to analyze the economics of bailouts and concludes that bailouts always and everywhere result in negative-sum games and necessarily violate the property rights of some individuals. A bibliography with links to other Bastiat studies is also included.

Keywords: Bastiat, Keynes, multiplier, bailouts, Broken Window Fallacy, utilitarian ethics, property rights, plunder, French liberals, opportunity cost, rent seeking

JEL Classification: B1,B21,B22,B31,B41,B53,D23,D3,D61,D63,D72,E12,E2,E51,G28,H1,H2,H23,H5,H81,K11,L,P14,P16

Suggested Citation

McGee, Robert W., Financial Bailouts and the Philosophy of Frédéric Bastiat (May 12, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2435748 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2435748

Robert W. McGee (Contact Author)

Fayetteville State University - Department of Accounting ( email )

Fayetteville, NC 28301
United States

HOME PAGE: http://robertwmcgee.com

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
112
Abstract Views
1,573
Rank
441,712
PlumX Metrics