Category: Economic Theory
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Abolishing Risk Destroys America and Your Wealth / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Axel_Merk
Our willingness to engage in risks drives our prosperity. We urgently need a public debate on risk, one driven by reason, not emotion. Without risk, individuals are bound to lose the purchasing power of their savings; corporations that don’t take risk will fade into oblivion; and governments that regulate away risks destroy the growth engine of their nation.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Civilisation Sweeping Towards Destruction, Economics Needs Moral Courage / Economics / Economic Theory
By: LewRockwell
It must be really painful to be an economist of the mainstream today, or, at least, it should smart to some extent. In a financial and economic calamity of the current scale, people naturally want to know who issued the warnings about the real estate bubble and its likely aftermath.
When private sector jobs have grown none at all in ten years, and when ten years of domestic investment is systematically undone in the course of 18 months, when housing prices in some sections of the country collapse 80%, and when formerly prestigious banks go belly-up or receive many billions in rescue aid, people want to know which economists saw this coming.
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
Risk and Uncertainty Implications for Economic Forecasting / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Peter_G_Klein
In a recent paper, "The Limits of Numerical Probability: Frank H. Knight and Ludwig von Mises and the Frequency Interpretation," Hans-Hermann Hoppe explores Mises's approach to probability and its implications for economic forecasting.[1]
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The 1934 Meeting of Roosevelt and Keynes / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Gary_North
Few historians or economists know that the most influential American President of the twentieth century and the most influential economist of the twentieth century had a meeting in June of 1934. This is recorded in a book by Frances Perkins, who served as Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor: The Roosevelt I Knew (1946).
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Death of Mauldin's Muddle Through Economy? / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Mike_Shedlock
The US government is on an unsustainable path. Deficits are soaring and the Obama administration is planning massive tax hikes.
Moreover, businesses have little reason to hire already because of massive overcapacity. Add increasing health care costs to the list of reasons for businesses not to hire.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Karl Marx Predicted Collapse of US Dollar in 1857 / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Pravda
The great October fall of the US dollar is turning into an avalanche. On Tuesday, the American currency lost nine kopeks in Russia and reached a new minimum mark this year - 29.5 rubles per dollar. Within six months (April through September) the dollar lost over 10 percent at the world foreign exchange trading, which marked the sharpest decline since 1991. Some experts believe that the American currency is close to collapse, which may lead to a new financial crisis.
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Mark_Thornton
In the wake of the downfall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the emergence of capitalism in China, I was asked to teach the comparative-economic-systems class at Auburn University for the summer term in 1989. My only exposure to the topic had been as an undergraduate student, where my teacher was a Cold War–era professor who concentrated almost exclusively on the Soviet Union. His implicit message was to fear the Soviet Union, which would soon come to smother the American dream.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
WSJ Inane Understanding of Economic Theory / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Paul_L_Kasriel
Increase Employment the Same Way You Increase Home Sales - Every month in its survey of economists' forecasts, the WSJ asks various inane questions. In its latest survey, one of the questions had to do with what the government could do to increase employment. Now that health-care "reform" appears to be on its way to being a done deal, the D.C. issue du jour is employment stimulus. Various kinds of employer-tax incentives are in the initial stages of being proposed. Of course, the editorial board of the WSJ, which has never encountered a tax cut it did not encourage, is lobbying for a cut in the Social Security payroll tax. Good idea if the WSJ editorial board also argues for an equal cut in Social Security benefit payments. Fat chance of that occurring - i.e., a cut in Social Security benefit payments.
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Monday, October 12, 2009
Is the Stock Market a Leading Economic Indicator? / Stock-Markets / Economic Theory
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inquiring minds are pondering the question "Is the Stock Market a Leading Indicator?"
Please consider the following two charts.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Refuting Keynes, Line-by-Line / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Gary_North
If I were a young man, I would not share this. I would implement it. It would become the foundation of my academic career.
The Austrian School of economics, more than any other, is built on the idea of the centrality of entrepreneurship. Ludwig von Mises explained the principle profit and loss in terms of some forecasters' ability to foresee consumer demand, and then plan to meet it at a total cost below the sales price. Successful entrepreneurs gain profit as a residual. Unsuccessful entrepreneurs gain losses.
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Wednesday, October 07, 2009
The Fed's Schizophrenic Monetary Economists / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Gary_North
If monetary theory is accurate, it is a subset of general economic theory, which must also be accurate. Monetary theory is not an independent theory of human action that is divorced analytically from a general theory of human action.
Only the Austrian School of economics believes this and adheres to it in practice. All other systems of economic thought segregate monetary theory from general economic theory.
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Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Marx and Lenin Revisited / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
"Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks." Karl Marx
If Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin were alive today, they would be leading contenders for the Nobel Prize in economics.
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Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Paul Krugman Would Fail as a Businessman / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Eric_Englund
Recently, I traveled to Idaho to meet with several customers over a two-day period. As a surety bond underwriter, I predominantly deal with small-to-medium sized public works and commercial contractors. My objectives, for each meeting, were to gain a better understanding of local market conditions, to see if a viable business plan was in place for each contractor, and to determine which clients would survive this vicious economic downturn.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Unemployment Economic Theory and the U.S. Dollar / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Howard_Katz
Gold made a quick dip to the $990 area on Friday and then whipped around to close above $1,000. We cannot completely rule out one final pull back to $960. However, the U.S. dollar is in free fall. So any dip in gold will be very brief.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
An Engineer's Solution for Sustained Economic Growth / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Steve_Morra
Sustained or increased economic chaos is the likely result of the public solutions offered for the worldwide macro-economic decline as of late 2009. Comparing simple historical economic data with public rhetoric, the solutions offered promise further economic decline past recession into depression and beyond for the vast majority of our micro-economic futures. It is time to publicly look at the “Golden Goose” in technical history to find a realistic solution with sustained economic growth.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Financial Markets and World Economy Fingers of Instability / Stock-Markets / Economic Theory
By: John_Mauldin
Fingers of Instability
Ubiquity, Complexity Theory, and Sandpiles
Stability Leads to Instability
A Stable Disequilibrium
3 Billion and Counting
"To trace something unknown back to something known is alleviating, soothing, gratifying and gives moreover a feeling of power. Danger, disquiet, anxiety attend the unknown - the first instinct is to eliminate these distressing states. First principle: any explanation is better than none... The cause-creating drive is thus conditioned and excited by the feeling of fear ..." Friedrich Nietzsche
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
What Is Money? / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Gary_North
This question divides economists even more than it divides voters. Voters do not think much about this question. Economists think about it throughout their careers. They do not agree with each other regarding the answer.
The problem is, about half of American economists who specialize in monetary theory and banking policy are either on the payroll of the Federal Reserve System or sell their services to the FED on a piece-rate basis.
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Sunday, September 27, 2009
Reflections on the Great Inflation Deflation Debate / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Mike_Shedlock
Last week I was in an inflation vs. deflation debate on Financial Sense with Daniel Amerman. The debate was moderated by Jim Puplava. It is a credit to Jim that he is willing to entertain both sides of an argument even though he himself is an inflationist.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Paul Krugman's Identity Crisis, Lying to the American People / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Benjamin_Lee
Anyone who reads Paul Krugman, our latest "Nobel Prize-winning economist," knows that Krugman believes inflation is not a threat to the economy at all. He is a regular defender of large fiscal deficits and expansionary monetary policy, claiming that they are the road to salvation from our so-called deflationary spiral. (We'll ignore the fact that this "deflationary spiral" involves six straight months of price increases and regular complaints from Mr. Krugman himself about skyrocketing costs in health care.)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Government Spending, Money For Nothing / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Charles_Maley
Someone stole all my credit cards, but I won’t be reporting it. The thief spends less than my wife — Henny Youngman
Milton Friedman was a great American economist and statistician among other admirable things. He is best known among scholars for his theoretical and empirical research.
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