The US unemployment rate stood at 4.3% in July against 4.4% in the month before. The number of unemployed stood at 6.981 million – an increase of 4,000 from June. A relatively low unemployment rate is considered by most experts as an important factor for economic growth. This way of thinking based on the view that a reduction in the number of
Various statistics that governments produce on a regular basis carry the label “seasonally adjusted”. What is the meaning of this label? According to popular thinking the data that is observed over time (labelled as time series) is determined by four factors, which are: The trend factor The cyclical factor The seasonal factor The irregular factor
The Bernanke-Yellen bubble is impacting many sectors of the economy. Agriculture land, motor vehicles and auto loans, banking, bonds, contemporary art, corporate stocks, higher education and student loans, mergers and acquisitions, ocean shipping and cruise lines, social media, technology, housing, real estate, and land markets have been
Nobel prize winning economist Robert Shiller recently revisited the Housing Bubble in an article published in the New York Times (“How Tales of ‘Flippers’ Led to a Housing Bubble,” May 18, 2017). He is troubled by the lack of consensus on what caused the bubble-bust that left the world mired in the financial crisis. He states: “We need to
We’ve been playing two games to mask insolvency: one is to pay the costs of rampant debt today by borrowing even more from future earnings, and the second is to create wealth out of thin air via asset bubbles. The two games are connected: asset bubbles require leverage and credit. Prices for homes, stocks, bonds, bat guano futures, etc. can only
Another week of Trump monopolizing the news cycle, first with a typo and then by exiting the Obama administration’s Paris Climate Agreement. Rejecting the international agreement is not only a victory for American self-determination , but will improve the lives of the billions who were going to bear the real costs of another layer of government
Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 20, no. 1 (Spring 2017) ABSTRACT: The aim of this article is to demonstrate how monetary disorder spawns asset price inflation. This is re-interpreted here according to modern usage as meaning an empowerment of irrational forces in asset markets. The author blends insights from behavioral finance research
Economists have long played semantic games with business cycles. In particular, they try to downplay the significance of the crisis and to obfuscate its cause. First of all, bubbles and economic crises are initially denied and then usually not named until after they end and particular sectors of the economy are revealed to be what Lionel Robbins
Uh-oh. Chairman Yellen assured us today that she does not believe that there will be another financial crisis “in our lifetimes.” You may recall another perfectly timed assurance by a high-powered economist: The stability of the economy is greater than it has ever been in our history. We really are in remarkable shape. ... The United States is at
Beyond the behavior of speculators or OPEC—which some consider a cartel, if there is anything we can learn is that the fall in oil prices responds to the forces of supply and demand. On the demand side, lower economic activity throughout the world, specially in China, has lowered the price of oil. Projections by the International Energy Agency
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.