The Austrian business cycle theory tells us that the injection of new money created through bank lending out of thin air causes an artificial boom; and that the slowdown of credit and money creation, let alone a decline in available loanable funds, turns the boom into bust. Recent bank lending data in the US show a noticeable slowdown in bank lending rates, setting in around autumn 2016. Does it signal trouble down the road?
Last weekend the left took to the streets to March for Science. Unfortunately, as Jonathan Newman noted this week, it was really a march for scientism by those who want to see bigger government. This is hardly a surprise, socialism has long relied upon propagandists seeking to disguise their desire for power under the false banner of intellectualism.
Of course the aim for public intellectuals like Bill Nye and Neil DeGrasse Tyson is the same aim of Antifa protesters in Berkley, shutting down debate with those they disagree with.
The BEA’s “advance estimate” release of Q1 GDP came in today at a very low 0.7%, indicating severe slowdown of growth. The growth rate was attributed to slowed consumer spending, downturn in inventory investment, and a slowdown among state and local spending.
The Colorado House of Representatives voted 56-7 on Wednesday to pass legislation mandating that “the state, a state agency, or an agency of a political subdivision of the state shall not knowingly assist or aid a federal agency or agency of another state in arresting a Colorado citizen for committing an act that is a Colorado constitutional right.”
[From the Austrian Economics Newsletter, Fall 1987.]
In the article “Rapid money supply growth does not cause inflation” written by Richard Vague at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, December 2, 2016, the author argues that empirical evidence shows that increases in money supply has nothing to do with inflation. According to Vague,
A very good visual correlation between the yearly percentage change in the consumer price index (CPI) and the yearly percentage change in the price of oil seems to provide support to the popular thinking that future changes in price inflation in the US are likely to be set by the yearly growth rate in the price of oil (see chart).
But is it valid to suggest that a price of an important input such as oil is a key determinant of the prices of goods and services?
The division of labor allowed people like Mel Kiper Jr. create a niche doing what they love: writing football draft reports.
If nothing else, the Chinese have a sense of history and destiny. They have had a glorious past, stretching back millennia, and once controlled most of the Asian heartland in the days of Genghis and Kublai Khan. But even then, China was essentially inward-looking, protecting her own cultural values. Trade with Europeans in the centuries following Marco Polo’s visit was mostly at the behest of European travelers, not the Chinese. She exported her art and culture to visitors, and did not import European values.
