Along with Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig , Ben Bernanke was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics today. The three have written extensively on the need to bail out the banks in times when the economy is in corrective mode, generally after a long period of monetary injections. Bernanke was Chairman of the Federal Reserve when he pushed for the
As we enter the holiday season stock owners have been the big losers of 2022, but jobs are still plentiful and nominal wages are rising rapidly. The Wall Street Journal reports “Stiff Demand Drives Gains in Jobs, Wages” (December 4). Faced with a stagnant stock market, nothing bolsters confidence more than the plethora of job openings, seemingly
Austrian economists have a well-developed theory that explains the boom, bubble, bust, and recovery. A good introduction to the Austrian theory of the business cycle can be found in Larry Sechrest’s article “ Explaining Malinvestment and Overinvestment .” Larry wrote the article to provide a pedagogical device for economics students, but academic
Adapted from The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century . During the 1980s Japan was feared as an economic and technological powerhouse. Most observers attributed their stock market bubble and high growth rates to easy monetary policy, management style, and government managed
Is the current housing market in a bubble that is ready to pop? If so, what is the source and magnitude of the market distortion. The topic of a possible housing bubble has been a topic of discussion lately, especially before Fed officials went on the warpath against Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation. I have been asked about this issue and
Days after Netflix reported bad earnings and an “unexpected” hit to their subscriber base, CNN announced that it had pulled the plug on its own brand-new streaming service, CNN+. Despite arguments to the contrary from the parent company, the CNN+ adventure turned out to be a costly mistake that attracted few subscribers and a paltry number of
Mark Thornton, adjunct scholar on the Mises Institute and economic advisor to the Office of the Governor, Alabama, writes the following response to an editorial in the Investor’s Business Daily on Japan. IBD correctly argued, with regard to Japan’s economic problems, that flooding the market with newly credited money is no solution. However, in
In the Austrian school’s theory of the business cycle, the “boom”—even though it sounds good—is the cause of the business cycle and all its attendant problems. The “bust”—even though it sounds bad—is the recovery where all the problems of the business cycle are put right. The Austrian view is shared by many economy and stock market professionals
Signs of a “new era” in housing are everywhere. Housing construction is taking place at record rates. New records for real estate prices are being set across the country, especially on the east and west coasts. Booming home prices and record low interest rates are allowing homeowners to refinance their mortgages, “extract equity” to increase their
If you watch Lou Dobbs’ show you would think that illegal immigration is the biggest problem facing America today — worse than government inflation and the Fed, standing armies, the military-industrial complex and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and government spying and suppression of our rights. Immigration, illegal or otherwise, is not the problem per
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.