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The Federal Reserve has been increasing the money supply at an explosive rate. The federal budget, deficits, and the trade deficit are record levels. Governments, both foreign and domestic, have locked down people, restricting production and consumption. How should this be viewed by an economist? There is clearly chaos in the economy, and hardly a

In late September surgeons successfully attached a kidney from a genetically modified pig to a human body, establishing a “proof of concept.” This is a large step in alleviating a massive shortage of cadaver or donated human body parts for those often desperate people in need of a transplant. Given the functionality of these pig parts and the

ABSTRACT: This retrospective, covering half a century, is a personal history of modern libertarianism. It provides some historical perspective on the growth of libertarianism and its impact on society, especially for those who were born into an existing libertarian movement, including political and academic paths. As outsiders, Austrians and

Austrian economists have a well-developed theory that explains the boom, bubble, bust, and recovery. A good introduction to the Austrian theory of the business cycle can be found in Larry Sechrest’s article “ Explaining Malinvestment and Overinvestment .” Larry wrote the article to provide a pedagogical device for economics students, but academic

Adapted from The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century . During the 1980s Japan was feared as an economic and technological powerhouse. Most observers attributed their stock market bubble and high growth rates to easy monetary policy, management style, and government managed

We now turn our attention to what happens with an increase in the money supply, rather than an increase in savings. This is critically important. The mercantilist idea that increasing the money supply increases prosperity was exposed as an error centuries ago by Richard Cantillon.  However, modern mainstream economists, including the monetarists,

[ This article is a selection from The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century .] The 1960s and 70s were precarious times for the Austrian school. Ludwig von Mises was very old, retired, and would die in 1973 at the age of ninety-two. Friedrich Hayek was also retired and ensconced at

The nickel, the once popular US five-cent coin, is known for its nickel content (25 percent nickel and 75 percent copper). It originated as a type of fiat money in that its intrinsic metal value was far less than the purchasing power stamped on it. The final act in the illustrative monetary career of the nickel is expected to be extinction, as

Is the current housing market in a bubble that is ready to pop? If so, what is the source and magnitude of the market distortion. The topic of a possible housing bubble has been a topic of discussion lately, especially before Fed officials went on the warpath against Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation. I have been asked about this issue and

Thomas Piketty A Brief History of Equality Harvard University Press, 2022 Thomas Piketty’s  Brief History  is the fourth installment of his assault on economic inequality, following as it does the best-selling  Capital in the Twenty-First Century  and  Capital and Ideology . The third,  Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire,