Booms and Busts

Does the construction of world’s largest skyscraper equal economic collapse?

A recent report commissioned by the prime minister of Iceland calls for limits on the money supply through ending fractional reserve banking and deposit insurance. Unfortunately, the report also calls for nearly unlimited control of the money supply by the central bank.

The Economist declares there is no such thing as a Skyscraper Curse and they have the mainstream empirical evidence to support that declaration.

Paul Krugman is desperate to believe that the French economy is doing quite well. That would prove that Krugman's anti-austerity crusade must be on the right track. Unfortunately for Krugman, and for France, things aren't going so well.

Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a huge spending binge, and among the new projects is what is to be the world's tallest skyscraper. Is this a warning sign of a new financial crisis?

Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 10 April 2014. Includes an introduction by Jeff Deist.

Brazil’s government has long been devoted to the idea that more government spending will create more economic prosperity.

Not only are stock markets near all time highs, the amount of margin debt is also at all time highs. Margin debt is money borrowed to leverage the purchasing power of portfolios.

The Fed and Washington politicians tell us how well the economy is doing, but the problems of the last financial crisis remain, and if we look closer, we find stagnant wages, ageing equipment, and lenders looking to scrape the bottom of the barrel.