Many economists and pundits have predicted an economic collapse in the “not to distant” future. Some predict a deflationary collapse, while others predict an inflationary one. The common thread among these people is the belief that a collapse in imminent. We can use Austrian analysis and determine just who is correct.
Creative destruction has become again, a popular term to explain the dislocation of workers in western labor markets. Although first coined by Karl Marx to describe how capitalism would be destroyed by the bourgeois, Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950), an Austrian economist, (not part of the Mengarian Austrian Economic School) modified the meaning to be understood as the…
A country dies slowly. Those living during the decline of Rome were likely unaware that anything was happening. The decline took over a couple of hundred years. Anyone living during the decline only saw a small part of what was happening and likely never noticed it as anything other than ordinary. Countries don’t have genetically…
Over 100 years ago, in 1903, Italian economist and scholar Amilcare Puviani published his book, ”The Theory of Fiscal Illusion.” The Italian scholars at that time were profoundly curious about the effects of government on young democracies. They asked the question, “How could politicians best use the power of the purse to pursue their projects…
The recent passing of Nobel Laureate Gary Becker had me reflecting on some of his work. Specifically, his thought on how time is our most scarce resource. In his Nobel lecture he begins by explaining that economics impacts more than just the financial decisions that people make. Economics, when properly applied, allows the student to study…
Janet Yellen recently gave her first press conference as the new Fed Chair-person. Being the stalwart Keynesian that she is, emphasis was given on the Fed’s targeted inflation rate. One of the problems here being in how modern economists define inflation. Over the course of history inflation has gone through a type of metamorphosis as…
The Austrian School of Economics has been at the forefront of price theory. Beginning with Carl Menger, the founding patriarch, through others such as, Böhm-Bawerk, Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, Lachmann, Kirzner and more have advanced the theory of prices. It is generally accepted that prices are a function of supply and demand. But, there’s more.
The Blue Collar Economist 