On October 25th, an audience of financial managers and CEOs, politicians, central bankers and Nobel Prize-winning economists at The Economist’s Buttonwood Gathering were treated to an unusual experience: a live rap battle between John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek. Following a presentation by Nassim Taleb, the lights went down in the auditorium and Fear the Boom and Bust blasted … [read more]

In this EconStories mini-documentary, economist and Hayek scholar Lawrence H. White provides an overview of the Mises/Hayek “Austrian” theory of Boom and Bust. Part one focuses on the unsustainability of a boom driven by artificially low interest rates and credit expansion by the central bank (the Fed) beyond the supply of genuine savings. Lawrence H. … [read more]

Are Austrian economists a broken clock that’s right twice a day (when there’s a bubble that busts)? Why do entrepreneurs continue to be fooled by manipulation of interest rates by the central bank? In this EconStories mini-documentary, part III in our first series on the Mises/Hayek theory of boom and bust, Lawrence H. White addresses … [read more]

Is our prosperity derived from a continual circular flow of spending? Is it impossible for a society to increase it’s total savings? Can deficit spending by a government step in to replace private activity in order to maintain full employment and restore lasting economic growth? What is a liquidity trap and what does it mean … [read more]

So the boom turns to bust. What now? In this EconStories mini-documentary, economist and Hayek scholar Lawrence H. White offers his view on a Hayekian response to the bust phase of the Boom and Bust cycle and responds to the charge that F. A. Hayek was a “liquidationist.” Lawrence H. White is a professor of … [read more]