The Birth of Korean Cool, by Euny Hong, Picador Press, 2014

Three weeks from today, on Thursday, March 12, the Austrian Economics Research Conference begins in Auburn, Alabama.  There’s still time to get a reasonably-priced airline ticket to the Atlanta airport and join us in person. We’ll also be broadcasting the named lectures. Click here for registration information. 

Mises Daily Thursday by Frank Shostak: 

The FOMC released  its minutes from the December meeting, yesterday. The main thrust of the minutes were this: 

1. The economy is strong.
2. So a 0% to .25% target rate for the federal funds rate sounds about right. 
3. 2% CPI inflation or bust! 

Here’s the full text. 

Says HousingWire: 

I always have mixed feelings about quoting Alan Greenspan. He’s a smart guy, but it’s hard to know if he’s making an observation that he really believes to be true, or if he has some other motive. His usual motive — as explored by Frederick Sheehan in his book on Greenspan — is self promotion.

Many economists and other analysts have recognized that the recovery from the U.S. economy’s most recent contraction has been unusually weak—weaker, for example, than any other since World War II. But analysts have disagreed in characterizing the current recovery, which according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the semi-official arbiter of business-cycle chronology, began in mid-2009 after a contraction that had continued for ten quarters. Some aspects of the economy, such as real GDP and consumer spending, have recovered their pre-recession highs and continued to increase.

Our own Carmen Dorobăț has translated Joseph Salerno’s essay “Ludwig von Mises as Social Rationalist“ into Romanian. 

Here is the original article in English from the Review of Austrian Economics 4 (1990).

Mark Thornton talks about The Washington Post‘s attack on Austrian Economics, Rand Paul, and Audit the Fed.

Mark’s interview begins at 19:00.

For the head of the Federal Reserve Board Janet Yellen — and most economists — the key to economic growth is a strengthening in the labor market. The strength of the labor market is the key behind the strength of the economy. Or so it is held. If this is the case then it is valid to conclude that changes in unemployment are an important causative factor of real economic growth.

This way of thinking is based on the view that a reduction in the number of unemployed persons means that more people can now afford to boost their expenditures. As a result, economic growth follows suit.