Mises Search

The fall 1999 issue of the Austrian Economics Newsletter features an extended interview with Frank Shostak , now available on line. Dr. Shostak is chief economist of Frank Shostak is chief economist at Ord Minnett Jardine Fleming , Sydney, Australia, one of the largest brokerage houses in that country, and serves on the editorial board of The

These days, most economists agree that the Federal Reserve System tends to expand the US money supply. But in recent years, banks’ share of total financial assets has been declining. In 1980, it stood at 37%, while in 1999, the share fell to below 24%. Does this decline suggest that a major contributor to the expansion of money supply (which

[This article ran in the The Asian Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2000. Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.] The performance of the Malaysian stock market this past year would appear to have vindicated Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s economic policies -- including his controversial decision to impose limited capital controls in

Many economists believe that the shape of the yield curve is a good predictor of economic activity. The recent “inversion” of the yield curve (which displays the relationship between interest rates and the term to maturity of identical fixed income securities) is said to sound the alarm that US economy might be heading for difficult times. The

At his Humphrey-Hawkins testimony, chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was asked whether the Fed attaches any significance to the money supply data. The Fed chairman replied that he regards money as an important variable but admitted that he has difficulty in establishing what part of liquidity constitutes “money.” In short, Greenspan

In his book Irrational Exuberance , Robert Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale, attributes the observed stock market mania to investor’s psychology. Shiller believes that stock market players are driven by impulse and herd behavior. The attempt to explain the present stock market behavior by means of these factors presents investors as

The Federal Open Market Committee, the executive arm of the US central bank, has voted to raise the federal funds rate and the discount rate by 0.5%, to 6.5% and 6% respectively. In its press release, the Federal Reserve said, Increases in demand have remained in excess of even the rapid pace of productivity-driven gains in potential supply,

The recent softening in some economic indicators prompted market players to conclude that the Fed is unlikely to pursue its tighter interest rate stance further. The reason for this view is that slower economic activity will cool off consumer demand and, consequently, the rate of inflation as measured by various price indices will follow suit.

In proscribing the biggest corporate breakup since AT&T--and the most significant government intervention in high-tech to date--US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson harshly rebuked the software giant for stifling computer-age competition. This ruling seems to be heavily influenced by the meaning of what market competition is all about.

“Electronic money is merely a device for storing information concerning debits and credits. It cannot acquire independent purchasing power; it cannot become money itself.” Many economists and financial commentators believe that in the unregulated market of the internet economy, new forms of money can be created that bypass central-bank and