Bachelor thesis on ABCT
Rick Habraken of The Netherlands sends us his bachelor thesis on the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle. Outstanding paper!
Clay
Is China’s Economic Growth Real?
The following points appear frequently in mainstream media commentary on China:
Green Baptists Preach Salvation by Breaking Car Windows
Who could claim that buying up drivable used cars at prices far in excess of their market value, for the purpose of destroying them, will be beneficial for the economy or the planet?
Meltdown‘s Monetary Heresy
As the dollar continues its descent, the prospects for sound money are alive, but much more so are the prospects for a new fiat currency. The decision makers regard the money machine as their right arm.
Cook to Save Money
In the current economy, most people are trying to make cuts in their home budgets. One of the first places frugal Americans begin is with restaurant expenditures. Many people have become almost completely dependent upon others to prepare all of their meals. If you are looking to save some cash and consider yourself helpless in the kitchen there is hope. It is not necessary to attend Le Cordon Bleu to be able to save money by preparing meals yourself. When learning any new skill it is best to start with a few basics and eventually build upon them.
The Usual Suspects
The easy-money policy has distorted the production cycle and encouraged an oversupply of residential building. Even experienced developers said they had miscalculated the demand for housing units.
Inexcusable Unintended Consequences
Does the fact that the adverse consequences of a policy are unintended excuse them? Under what circumstances is “I didn’t mean it” a sufficient excuse or apology, with no further actions required?
Prove that would have been invented without patents!
In an email someone mentioned to me a particular key invention from a few decades ago, which was responsible for a number of other high-tech innovations that we now enjoy, and asked me to “show us how any of that could have happened if there were no patents.” My response is below.
Why is the burden on me to show how it could have happened without patents? The question is itself question-begging, as it assumes the patents played a causal role, which must be either explained away or for which a substitute incentive effect must be found.
Our Corporate Oligarchy and the Road to National Socialism
It was common on the Left to intimate that George W. Bush was like Hitler, a remark that would drive the National Review crowd through the roof but which I didn’t find entirely outrageous. Bush’s main method of governance was to stir up fear of foreign enemies and instigate a kind of nationalist hysteria about the need for waging war and giving up liberty through security.
You Can’t Print Production and Prosperity
It’s hard to imagine that the monetary policy talk can get any nuttier, but we’ve likely only just begun. After all, despite the Fed’s 140 percent balance-sheet increase and zero interest rates, the bankruptcies just keep on coming.
