Booms and Busts

Why do we have booms and recessions? This paper to explores the Austrian explanation of the business cycle and applies that theory to the recession of 1990-1992.

From The Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 3, 1989.

With regard to Tullock’s “major objection” to the theory, his argument (pp.

Recorded at Mises University 2004.

Recorded at Mises University 2004.

Doug French writes about the condo boom in Las Vegas.

Recorded at Mises University 2004.

Las Vegas is one big bubble, writes Doug French. Sin City's brand name has never been hotter.

The 1920s had difficulties, but the depth of the Great Depression was in 1931. Any theory of boom-bust events must ask why so many entrepreneurs made terrible errors in a cluster. Why do busts hit capital goods industries harder than they do consumer goods industries?

FDR’s stated New Deal purpose was to keep work weeks short and to extend minimum wages which were extremely high. But, production is what makes demand possible and what increases purchasing power, not federal mandates.