Malinvestments and Interest Rates

Dr. Mark Thornton is interviewed on the RT program, “Boom Bust“. He discusses malinvestments stimulated by artificially lowered interest rates.

Quotes discussed in the interview:

“The lowering of the rate of interest stimulates economic activity. Projects which would not have been thought “profitable” if the rate of interest had not been influenced by the manipulations of the banks, and which, therefore, would not have been undertaken, are nevertheless found “profitable” and can be initiated.” -Ludwig Von Mises in The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays, Page 28

“The crisis and the ensuing period of depression are the culmination of the period of unjustified investment brought about by the extension of credit. The projects which owe their existence to the fact that they once appeared “profitable” in the artificial conditions created on the market by the extension of credit and the increase in prices which resulted from it, have ceased to be ‘profitable.’” -Ludwig Von Mises in The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays, Page 30

You can find the original interview video here.