In July 1940, when Ludwig and Margit von Mises made their way by bus from Switzerland across German-occupied France , the bus driver had to proceed very carefully and make many detours via back roads to avoid German checkpoints. If you would like to play with a fascinating exercise in counterfactual history, imagine how history would have gone had the Germans arrested Mises and his wife, placed them in indefinite detention, and perhaps ended up killing them in some horrible concentration camp.

This week’s quote(s) highlights why an explanation of a general boom-bust pattern of economic must be a monetary theory of the trade cycle. The first key is to clearly distinguish between fluctuations, which are a normal and indispensable part of the market process, and cycles, which are extra-market; the result of interventions into the market order.

Mark Thornton and Mises in today’s Wall Street Journal in “Letters to Editor” responses to Alan Blinder’s Easing Angst About Fed Easing which originally appeared March 13 in the print edition. A15.

Mark’s commentary (2nd letter in the link above):

Many of you maybe celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a cool glass of Ireland’s iconic beer: Guinness.

Someone who uses Twitter under the handle @Numba1TSwiftFan and goes by TaylorSwiftForeva is a fan of both Taylor Swift and Austrian economics.

When big time celebrity blogger Perez Hilton tweeted “Taylor Swift keeps winning,” TSF responded, “Couldn’t agree more!She is being vindicated just like the Austrian economists.” Perez “retweeted” the response, putting it in the feeds of 6.3 million Twitter users. (Thanks to James Miller.)

David Howden reviews Daniel Kahneman’s book /Thinking, Fast and Slow/. Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics, but is a psychologist. Its a very interesting review and Howden shows us the weakness in Kahneman’s analysis.

On Squawk Box:

Host: The question of the morning: Do you want to break out the phrase again, irrational exuberance?

[Excerpted from Theory of Money and Fiduciary Media edited by Jörg Guido Hülsmann, which celebrates the centennial of the great work by Ludwig von Mises, known in English-speaking countries as The Theory of Money and Credit.]