No one can argue about the current moribund economy, complete with falling stock prices, nonexistent profits, layoffs, airline bankruptcies, and exploding federal and state budget deficits. People certainly have argued about the cause of this downturn (Democrats and their socialist allies insist that the relatively small, backloaded tax cuts of
In recent weeks, the stock market has staged a mild rally. Though the most recent unemployment numbers are well over six percent, Republicans, as well as a few market analysts, are claiming that the long overdue economic recovery has arrived. While I wish that were the case, the facts demonstrate otherwise; this is not a recovery, but simply an
The recent announcement that Edward C. Prescott and Finn Kydland had received the 2004 Nobel Prize in economics has put business cycle theory front-and-center again in economic discussion. Whether or not one agrees with all of what Prescott and Kydland have said—and Austrian economists do not—does not cloud the larger importance of this subject
After a recent article I wrote dealing with the Austrian Business Cycle Theory, I received the following e-mail: You have knowledge of the Von Mises business cycle and can predict booms and busts. Go long on the booms and short on the busts and you’ll soon make a bundle. You must all be rich. If not, why not? If you are not all rich, why is that?
In February, 2001, I saw the end of the credit-filled boom , as the stock market went bust, and predicted recessionary times, which soon followed. It seems, however, that Washington, D.C., is one great big toga party, and if it is true that Blutarsky of “Animal House” became Senator Blutarsky (as the film’s credits tell us at the end), perhaps
In a recent column, Paul Krugman tries to explain the “Bush bust.” Instead of clear, cogent economic theory, we are fed a mass of contradictory ideas, a bit of political partisanship, and explanations that simply make no sense. When one attempts to apply economic theory in order to explain certain events, one is reminded of Carl Menger’s dictum:
As a long-time critic of the part-time economist and full-time political partisan Paul Krugman, I would be remiss if I did not give him at least some credit for being able to point out the obvious: Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme really is a prototype for the modern US economy. Yes, Krugman is right, but, alas, I am also required to add that a
The lead story of the March 9, 2009, edition of Newsweek says it all: “Stop Saving Now!” Writer Daniel Gross declares, For our $14 trillion economy to recover and thrive, hoarders must open their wallets and become consumers, and businesses must once again be willing to roll the dice. Nobody is advocating a return to the debt-fueled days of
Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. It has been a long time since I read anything by Paul Krugman, and seeing his most recent column simply reminds me why I’ve not missed anything. As both an extreme Keynesian and political partisan, he long ago abandoned economic analysis for something economists should recognize as nothing
De vez en cuando reviso mi portafolio de inversiones para ver cómo va. (Últimamente me mantengo al margen de las acciones, pero eso se debe a mi situación personal y no debe tomarse como un consejo de inversión). Los portafolios son colecciones de diversos instrumentos financieros que uno mantiene, y uno siempre espera que su valor vaya en la
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.