Business Cycles

"The Paul Krugman of 2009 completely disagrees with the Paul Krugman of 2003."

The Fed's present monetary policy appears to be ineffective. Despite massive pumping by the US central bank, commercial bank lending displays sharp declines.

We may not even be fortunate enough to have any market readjustment at some time in the future. Instead, spurred on by people who have lost all sense of economic reality, the government may take complete control of the economy. Then, true enough, there will be no depression and unemployment in the accepted sense; but the alternative is not pleasant to contemplate.

The possibility of an insolvent central bank, however, bypasses the question of whether the central bank should be abolished and concludes that it will, in certain instances, abolish itself as insolvency renders it helpless.

Indeed, if this book, rather than Keynes's General Theory, had been the point of departure for subsequent study of macroeconomic fluctuations, the world almost certainly would have been a much, much happier place.

Rothbard has in addition a carefully worked out theory, Austrian economics, to guide him.

Recorded at Mises University 2009.

Recorded at Mises University 2009.

The Free Market 27, no. 8 (August 2009)

Recorded at Mises University 2009.