Booms and Busts

Pundits often blame tight money for economic downturns. But what about the loose money policies that created the unsustainable boom in the first place? John Cochran explains.

President Bush stands accused of using his supposedly superhuman powers to drive us into recession. William Anderson wonders whether he will also be accused of casting spells to bring down the Dow.

There is no “new economy” any more than the “New Economics” of the 1960s had solved the problems of the business cycle, as its promoters had claimed. Bill Anderson explains why.

What causes an economic downturn? The business press keeps getting it painfully wrong, writes Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Real "credit crunch" is threatening on the horizon, writes Hans Sennholz, and it could gravely encumber the American economy.

Cheer up. A drop in stock prices doesn't destroy wealth, say Robert Murphy and Gene Callahan. It only reveals a change in the marketability of one line of production against another.

The slip in stock prices has unleashed hysterical calls for massive goverment intervention. William Anderson suggests a better solution: laissez-faire.

The eminent position of the American dollar in world trade and finance undoubtedly justifies a modest trade deficit, writes Hans Sennholz. But not one this large.

The dot-com shakeup reminds us that both profit and loss have social and economic merit and should be allowed to take their market-driven course, says Lew Rockwell.

The Austrian Theory has come under fire; Gene Callahan responds in defense.