Booms and Busts

There is no doubt that investments in artificial intelligence are increasing, but is this due solely to its economic promise or is it part of a financial bubble?

The temptation to think of China as an economic juggernaut needs a reality check. While China’s government-dominated economy has many impressive building projects, there are underlying malinvestments that the government continues to subsidize, leading to future problems.

The temptation to think of China as an economic juggernaut needs a reality check. While China’s government-dominated economy has many impressive building projects, there are underlying malinvestments that the government continues to subsidize, leading to future problems.

According to Milton Friedman, the Great Depression happened because the Federal Reserve followed a “tight” monetary policy. The truth is that the Fed's loose monetary policy during the 1920s created the conditions for a crash and subsequent depression.

Mark Thornton asks whether precious metals are coiling for a breakout as fiat money, Fed policy, global flows, and market manipulation put pressure on gold and silver.

Mark Thornton traces today’s tangled web of paper money, debt, war, and AI malinvestment—from John Law’s Mississippi Bubble to the Fed’s latest distortions.

Mainstream economists believe that a market economy is by definition internally unstable. Austrians argue that the instability comes from outside intervention. Thus, Austrians can explain what is happening while others simply describe the events.

Mark Thornton argues the AI data-center bond boom is the latest techno bubble—cheap-money malinvestment dressed up as a new era.

World War I wrecked European finance and opened the door for the dollar to displace the pound. Patrick Newman follows Thomas Lamont and Paul Warburg’s ambitions for an imperial banking system, the Fed’s first inflationary boom and bust, and the 1920s high tide of the Money Lords.

Patrick Newman shows how liberty-minded reformers, once holding the levers of power, were pulled toward favoritism of their own.