Macroeconomics

While J.M. Keynes likely is the most influential economist of our age, his economics were that of inflation, statism, and outright central planning.

Milton Friedman and the Monetarists believed that fluctuations in the money supply caused the boom-and-bust business cycles. Their solution—keeping money growth slow and steady—would still lead to business cycles.

An economy is no longer evaluated by what it produces, but by what it spends.

While Cantillon used the effects on family life to illustrate monetary theory, Degner lingers to employ sound monetary theory to trace out the effects on the family.

Keynesian orthodoxy claims that cuts in government spending mean less “aggregate demand,” and less “aggregate demand” leads to recessions. Economic experience, however, shows us this is a false theory, something Austrian economists have known for a long time.

Modern macroeconomic theory claims that government spending, taxation, and monetary creation is essential for economic growth. Austrian Economists, however, note that government stifles the economy.

Far from being a true measure of economic health, GDP is a misleading economic statistic that implies consumer and government spending grow the economy. When government spends, GDP increases.

Bob responds to flawed arguments about trade deficits.

It‘s obvious that a new influx of money will not immediately bring about changes in enough prices to significantly alter a price index. Even so, there are immediate effects of the new money.

I have long argued that Austrian economics should be developed not as an alternative to the current academic discipline of economics but as a replacement for it.