We're being told to blame the current market volatility and emerging crisis on oil prices, China, and a "strong dollar." To find the real causes, though, we must look at central banks and at past mistakes and malinvestments.
Fear is in the air. Central bankers are warning of crisis, and while mainstream economists fear the falling prices that are on the horizon in our post-boom world, Austrians know that deflation and recessions are both inevitable and necessary.
Barron's is writing about skyscrapers and the Skyscraper Curse. They also quote me on the subject.
Following the discovery of the Americas, Spain began a 300-year period of booms, busts, war, and mercantilism. Only in the eighteenth century did the country begin to find prosperity through liberalization of trade and private property.
More credit expansion to keep the current easy-money induced boom going is only delaying the inevitable.
Jeff Deist and Joe Salerno discuss monetary policy and gold on the heels of yet another GOP presidential primary debate.
You may have heard about the Swiss referendum to end fractional reserve lending by Swiss commercial banks. It's a fascinating development, and another example of how average Swiss people can use the federal referendum process to force both the central legislature and the 26 cantons to consider citizen proposals—merely by gathering 100,000 signatures within 18 months.
Populism was in the air this week as ranchers in the Western US opposed the spread of federally-owned lands, and reformers in Switzerland look to a referendum on fractional reserve banking.
Jeff Deist and Claudio Grass a fascinating development for Austrians and libertarians.
