Booms and Busts

The world's largest container ship just entered a US port. Just in time for record low levels in the Baltic Dry Shipping Index, which is a measure of how much ships can charge.

It is high time to turn to Rothbard in the search for advice. His recipe for dealing with depressions and how to avoid turning a recession into a depression is of timeless relevance.

This little known chart is the Fed's attempt to anticipate a recession in the US economy. The reading from last November is only 3.84%, but that is higher than all but 3 months when a recession did not immediately proceed.

I have lived in Auburn, Alabama, for more than three decades and have never seen a Super Sized Construction Crane. Last week, two were erected in the middle of town.

Rothbard's book is considered the standard on the subject of the 1819 crisis, yet the NY Fed authors seem reluctant to speak his name.

Even the Fed, which has for years been describing the economy as "expanding at a moderate pace," and which a few months back was saying it was "hawkish," has, through Janet Yellen's testimony today, been forced to admit that a rate cut may again be on the horizon.

Congressman Jeb Hensarling mentions Hayek's Fatal Conceit regarding the Fed bureaucracy's ability to manage money and interest rates. 

Peyton Manning Just Save the Super Bowl Indicator?

Apparently Quicken Loans is thinking like John Maynard Keynes and Paul Krugman. They can create their own bubble and multiplier effect. It's magic!

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.