"Evidence in economics is messy---and political. Trust logic instead."<p>The problem is, Rothbard's logic is also every bit as political as, say, Marx's logic.<p>You're talking to someone who was a confirmed libertarian, Austrian sympathizer, and Ayn Rand enthusiast from roughly the age of 16 to maybe 20 or so. I know the arguments and I know inside and outside the kind of thinking they come from, which is simply put, a tendentious effort to justify one particular political ideology over another. That is the exact opposite of what any science should aspire to, even economics. And that is the sin Rothbard is guilty of, a sin he relentlessly accuses others of in order to distract from his own guilt.<p>This is not to say he in specific, or the Austrians in general, were totally bereft of good ideas--just that their ideas should not be taken as proven unless tested. You're suggesting the scientific equivalent of "the code looks reasonable so there's no need to test it".