Booms and Busts

Ships aren’t cheap to purchase. But when financing is abnormally cheap and expectations of future business are rosy, it stands to reason that shipping companies would put in a raft of orders.

Thanks to the great Tatsuya Iwakura, who has translated numerous books by Austrian economists into Japanese, The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays, edited by Richard Ebeling, is now available as a Kindle book in Japanese.

Recessions are good for an economy because they involve a resolution process, but a big recession for this boom town could be great for the world economy.

Joseph Salerno reviews James Grant's new book The Forgotten Depression — 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself in the spring 2016 issue of The Independent Review.

We're constantly being told by the mainstream financial media that saving money will destroy the economy. In truth, only saving — which is nothing more than refraining from spending — can repair the damage done by years of easy money and reckless spending.

While the declining trend growth in money supply is bad news for bubbles, it is actually great news for wealth generators.

Dr. Mark Thornton on The Scott Horton Show. 

The world's largest container ship just entered a US port. Just in time for record low levels in the Baltic Dry Shipping Index, which is a measure of how much ships can charge.

It is high time to turn to Rothbard in the search for advice. His recipe for dealing with depressions and how to avoid turning a recession into a depression is of timeless relevance.

This little known chart is the Fed's attempt to anticipate a recession in the US economy. The reading from last November is only 3.84%, but that is higher than all but 3 months when a recession did not immediately proceed.