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The Predictive Power of Austrian Business Cycle Theory (in the right hands)

In a previous post, I asked (partially in jest) if I had gone into the wrong profession, because the performance of economists before and during this financial crisis has been so abysmal. It’s not even that we disagree on how to fix things; we can’t even agree on what’s wrong. (For example, Tyler Cowen and […]

Did I Pick the Wrong Profession?

Over at MR, wiseguy meter wrote: I have to say, this is like watching a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. ‘The Economy’ is surely large and complex, but it is surprising (to me, and other laypeople I’m sure) that economists can’t come to a consensus on even the theoretical prescriptions & proscriptions […]

Fractional Reserve Banking Explained

Loren Howe runs a vlog and asked the Mises Institute for help in understanding how modern banking systems create money. I thought his email raised some interesting questions, so (with his permission) I reproduce it here and hopefully provide decent answers. I run an online vlog with around 20,000 viewers who would be very grateful […]

Why No One Takes Economists Seriously

In a recent post, I tried to explain the undeniable fact that many laypeople act as if they are entitled to their views on the economy, in a way they would never dream of doing with regard to, say, quantum physics or heart surgery. A CNBC news story from today sheds light on this phenomenon: […]

Hayek on Meet the Press in 1975

Jeff Tucker (editor of Mises.org) posted this last week, but I just got around to listening to it today. Here is the mp3 of Hayek on Meet the Press in 1975. It’s pretty amazing to hear someone like Hayek being thrust into the media circus, and it’s also interesting how “modern” it all sounds. My […]

Incentives in the Drug War

Part of why I oppose the War on (Some) Drugs is the horrible incentives it gives police departments through seizure laws. (For some good examples, read Paul Craig Roberts and Lawerence Stratton’s The Tyranny of Good Intentions, which I review here.) My wife tipped me off to the photo below:

Don’t Worry, God’s In Control

For this Sunday’s deep thoughts, I just want to remind everyone that if you believe in an omniscient, omnibenevolent Creator, then this has implications. You are acting inconsistently with this belief if, say, you are constantly worried about the future. Note that there is a difference between preparation and worry. God appears to have designed […]

Think Before Acting

Regarding the earlier thread, where we are discussing a climate scientist’s handling of the alleged halt in global warming: It only occurred to me a couple of days after posting it, but isn’t it crazy that one of the climate scientist’s responses is that some of the temperature series show a warming? Specifically, he said: […]