Uh oh, Mr. Bernanke, the natives are getting restless. Now it's not just Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, or foreign central bankers, but more and more American economists who are starting to openly challenge the second round of "quantitative easing."
When governments try to confer an advantage to their exporters through currency depreciation, they risk a war of debasement. In such a race to the bottom, none of the participants can gain a lasting competitive edge.
A so-called lowering of "real" interest rates by means of money pumping is basically an act of a diversion of real wealth from wealth generators to various nonproductive activities. Hence, contrary to popular thinking, the Fed's attempt to lower the real interest rate in fact leads to a higher real interest rate.
The justification given for "QE2," another round of quantitative easing, is of course the threat of deflation. But if we actually look for ourselves, we see that prices are not falling — not that it would be bad if they were.
"As a response to the actions of the Bank of England, the Currency School proposed a simple, yet powerful limitation on the bank: a 100-percent reserve requirement on the issue of new bank notes."
Discarding the possibility of a change in public labor policy, the only means of restoring equilibrium in the labor market is through a sustainable increase in aggregate demand for labor — an increase in private investment.
Contrast Austrian Welfare Economics with alternative approaches including Pareto Optimality and Kaldor-Hicks. Recorded at Mises Universi
In defense of tax loopholes and other things that horrify “mainstream” economists. Recorded at Mises University 2010.
Problems of international development aid and the domestic welfare state. Recorded at Mises University 2010.
