Pot Freedom Is Advancing Rapidly
Introduction: Mark Thornton is Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, with articles published often in the Mises Daily. He serves as the Book Review Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics and was a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Libertarian Studies. He has served as the editor of the Austrian Economics Newsletter and as a member of the graduate faculties of Auburn University and Columbus State University. He has also taught economics at Auburn University at Montgomery and Trinity University in Texas.
Mark served as Assistant Superintendent of Banking and economic advisor to Governor Fob James of Alabama (1997-1999) and he was awarded the University Research Award at Columbus State University in 2002. His publications include The Economics of Prohibition (1991), Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War (2004), The Bastiat Collection (2007), and The Quotable Mises (2005). Mark Thornton is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and received his PhD in economics from Auburn University.
Anthony Wile: When we talk with you a year from now, what do you predict the “obvious question” will be then? Five years from now?
Mark Thornton: The future is never obvious. When I finished my dissertation in 1989, I believed that medical marijuana, recreational marijuana, decriminalization of hard drugs, and legalization of hard drugs would start in 10 year increments. That turned out to be a good guess.
Next year at this time we will be facing the presidential decision. Right now we have the outsiders like Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Dr. Carson getting tremendous support in the polls. By next year it could be another Bush vs. Clinton decision.
I would guess that for next year the stock markets are down significantly and that unemployment is rising rather than falling. The general public around the world is already at the disgruntled stage. The social mood is decidedly negative. It’s a powder keg with many fuses sticking out of it. So I am very optimistic that positive things could come out of all this.
One thing that has already started is the realignment of political parties in the US. Looking back five years from now I hope that we can see that we avoided WWIII, survived the World Currency War, and that the world has become much more politically decentralized.
Anthony Wile: Thank you.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Bell.
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