The forthcoming global crisis
byThe global economy is now in an expansionary phase, with bank credit being increasingly available for non-financial borrowers. This is always the prelude to…
Ludwig von Mises on Collectivist Fallacies and Interventionist Follies
byFor more than a century the world has been caught in the grip of social engineers and political paternalists determined to either radically remake…
Does the central bank determine interest rates?
byAccording to mainstream thinking, the central bank is the key factor in determining interest rates. By setting short-term interest rates, the central bank, it…
Ludwig von Mises and the Real Meaning of Liberalism
byLiberalism has become one of the most widely misused and abused words in the American political lexicon. It represents, some say, politically “progressive thought,”…
Is Chinese growth about to falter?
byThe IMF revised Chinese growth forecasts higher in July – were they premature? Retail sales, industrial output and fixed investment have slowed The Real…
Benn Steil: How We Know Eurozone Monetary Policy is Working Again
byIn 2013, I showed that the ECB’s monetary transmission mechanism had broken down in the crisis-hit periphery countries. ECB rate cuts were not being passed on…
Here we go again…
byAs world stock markets continued to climb to cyclical – if not all – time highs, it became almost the norm for industry talking…
Does the rising price of industrial metals herald the beginning of the next commodity super-cycle?
bySuper-cycle theory In a 2012 paper for the United Nations/DESA – Super-cycles of commodity prices since the mid-nineteenth century – Bilge Erten and José Antonio Ocampo…
Further thoughts on Gibson’s paradox
by“The paradox is one of the most completely established empirical facts in the whole field of quantitative economics.” – John Maynard Keynes “The Gibson…
Money multiplier is really about credit out of “thin air”
byAccording to traditional economics textbooks, the current monetary system amplifies the initial monetary injections of money. The popular story goes as follows: if the…