We have today a hybrid of two forms of banking — loan banking (non-inflationary) and deposit banking (inflationary if not 100% reserve holdings). The cause of booms is the credit expansion by central banks that is not backed by pools of private savings.
The longer the inflation-driven boom continues, the worse the inevitable clearing bust must be. Austrian policy is to leave everything alone to permit all the adjustments needed. Keynesian policy is to keep inflating. Theirs is a crisis of interventionism.
The tenth and final lecture from Fundamentals of Economic Analysis: A Causal-Realist Approach.
Joseph Salerno is academic vice president of the Mises Institute, professor emeritus of economics at Pace University, and editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.
