There is no ready-made answer in Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT) to the multi-trillion dollar question now looming over the global economy and markets. Is the present virulent asset price inflation disease likely to enter any time soon its final phase of bust and recession? Will this happen even though the Federal Reserve has flip-flopped on even token steps toward policy normalization and leading foreign central banks (i.e., the Bank of Japan, ECB, and Bank of England) to pursue experiments with negative interest rates and novel forms of mega-balance sheet expansion?

This week the Bank of England continued the global trend of lowering interest rates when they announced a new historically low rate of .25%, along with an additional round of quantitative easing.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new employment data, with the BLS reporting 225,000 new jobs created, according to the Establishment Survey. A survey of economists by Bloomberg had predicted an increase of 180,000 jobs, so this report beats expectations. The press, not surprisingly, is gushing over the good economic news. 

It’s hard to believe that Mises University 2016 ended just last week. While most of the Mises U lectures are available for free, it’s impossible to capture the true essence of Mises U from these alone. 

Luckily, Mises University left such an impact on the students who attended that many have felt compelled to share their experiences. 

Libertarians are often skeptical about the idea of class struggle. This is no surprise, given how closely associated it is with Karl Marx. However, Marx did not originate the theory of class conflict, which was actually developed by the French liberals in the 19th century. In fact, it was classical liberal intellectuals in France, England, and the United States who spearheaded the early development of class theory.

For most experts, deflation, which they define as a general decline in prices of goods and services, is bad news since it generates expectations for a further decline in prices.

As a result, they hold, consumers postpone their buying of goods at present since they expect to buy these goods at lower prices in the future. This weakens the overall flow of spending and in turn weakens the economy.

Hence, such commentators hold that policies that counter deflation will also counter the slump.

As a Luxembourgish citizen who for the first eighteen years of his life has seen one prime minister and one prime minister only, I can tell you that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s tough talk isn’t worth the least bit what the media makes it seem.