Business Cycles
Vanity Fair Says It’s a Bubble!
Review of Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression by Douglas A. Irwin
Peddling Protectionism is a real gem. Irwin does not mince words, and he ably tosses aside misconceptions of Smoot-Hawley and replaces them with objective economic analysis.
When I Was Six
Murray Rothbard told us that liberty is what allows human flourishing, that liberty requires private property rights and the non aggression principle (NAP), and that this nation was conceived in liberty.
The “Missing Element” in Modern Economics
While I have a high regard for what Austrian economics gets right that other economic schools do not, I consider myself a “Neo-Scholastic” economist, a term which I will try to explain.
How Keynes Almost Prevented the Keynesian Revolution
In 1925, Winston Churchill, in spite of massive wartime inflation of the pound sterling, restored the gold standard at the old pre-war exchange rate. This set off a chain of events that led to the 1929 crash in America, and the rise of Keynesianism.
Asset-Price Inflation Enters Its Dangerous Late Phase
Asset-price inflation is being ignored as pundits focus on consumer goods. But if we look at asset prices, the carry trade, and commodities, we have reason to believe that the current boom is entering a stage similar to what we saw in 2007.
The Unseen Consequences of Zero-Interest-Rate Policy
The old tricks of conventional monetary stimulus — low interest rates — no longer work, so we've entered the untested waters of zero-interest-rate policy.