In his book Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, Philip Mirowski correctly diagnoses many problems with neoclassical economics. The reader soon notices, however, that Mirowski doesn't know the difference between Austrian economists and neoliberals.
The crash of 1929 came after a decade of interventionist politics following world War I. "Free markets" were blamed anyway. Decades later, we pursue even more interventionism, and when it fails, we blame "free markets" all over again.
I’d like to think Mises would have spared a few minutes of his precious time “exploding the fallacy”—an often used expression in his writings—of Bernanke’s most recent musings.
The European Central Bank is continuing with its negative interest rate policy, but it's not having the desired effect. Instead, the central bank is just filling the void by buying up government debt with newly created money.
It is hardly a relief for British households that £100 worth of consumer goods will now cost them around £99.90, when other prices in the UK economy are experiencing a rapid inflation.
Joseph Salerno's paper "A Modest Proposal for Reining in the Bernanke Fed" is now in the Top 10 in downloads on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) in the category of "Response to Financial Crisis." (no kidding!) SSRN is the primary depository of working paper in economics and the social sciences. You can download Joe's paper here for free.
Europeans have long been fearful of the prospects of price deflation, but now that it has arrived they have embraced it.
