Financial Markets

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.

Forget Modern Portfolio Theory: investing in stocks is just like investing in a business, says Frank Shostak.

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

Those unfamiliar with Wall Street are naturally skeptical of this business of short selling. How can one sell what one doesn't own? Some may remember Daniel Drew's clever ditty "He who sells what isn't his'n must buy it back or go to pris'n." Interestingly enough, Drew was himself a famous short seller.

Roger Garrison answers the question: why does news of strong economic growth often precipitate a fall in stock prices? 

Neither the Fed nor Wall Street can undo the ill effects of past monetary expansions, says Frank Shostak.

The meltdown on Wall Street can't be corrected through intervention; if it is headed down further, it needs to run its course.

A stock price is not an objective rendering of value, but merely an opinion about the present and future worth of a company--and opinions can be wrong.