In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, the economics profession suffered a blow to what reputation it had. But unlike most of his colleagues, Mark Thornton was vindicated by 2008. Mark has been a voice of sanity at times when the wild interventions of the Federal Reserve have caused otherwise sensible people to lose their minds.
This collection serves the valuable purpose of defending the market economy against the conventional view that freedom has failed us and we need still more controls. We had plenty of rules and bureaucrats on the eve of the financial crisis. A lot of good that did us. Pretty much none of them saw any problems on the horizon.
Maybe we should consider a real free market, with sound money and market interest rates, and abolish the giant bubble machine once and for all. Read Mark Thornton and you’ll entertain this and other forbidden thoughts.
From the Foreword by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
Mark Thornton is the Peterson-Luddy Chair in Austrian Economics and a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute. He is the book review editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, and has authored seven books and is a frequent guest on national radio shows.
Mark Thornton joins Sound Money Matters to discuss how runaway government debt and inflation undermine working families—and how gold and silver could help restore monetary discipline. He also examines the risks behind the AI boom and practical steps toward currency competition, including removing tax barriers to using precious metals.
Mark Thornton joins Wall Street Bullion to discuss what gold and silver reveal about declining confidence in the dollar, how government debt is squeezing the private economy, and why the AI boom could be vulnerable to a bust. He also examines the risks of central bank digital currencies and the case for sound money.
As debt, inflation, and war erode trust in Washington, Mark Thornton argues that real reform must come from the bottom up—not from the political establishment.
The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century
by Mark Thornton
Mises Institute, 2018
hardback edition: 978-1-61016-683-6
paperback edition: 978-1-61016-684-3
large print edition: 978-1-61016-685-0
epub edition: 978-1-61016-688-1
Online edition, June 2018.
