Public debt

Global Demography, Fiscal Collapse, Government Spending and Debt

AUSTRIAN ACADEMY 2023: Demographic changes and increasing public sector over-indebtedness are making the welfare state increasingly unfinanceable. Can such fiscal overstretch be sustainable? A stocktaking from a British perspective.

A Society Living on Credit Creates Inflation and Financial Crises

A new financial crisis is on the horizon. The culprit is not a lack of regulation, but our monetary system that is based on credit, and a society that lives at the expense of the future.

Socially Unjust Inflation: Why Recessions Are Inevitable and Salutary

Inflation is profoundly socially unjust. Its causes lie above all in an expansionary monetary policy, and this must be stopped. If policymakers want to prevent the inevitable recession that will follow, they will only make the problems worse.

The Inflation Problem: Short-, Medium- and Long-Term Solutions

In principle, it is the task of central banks to anticipate and combat inflationary risks. But since central banks failed to recognize inflationary pressures for a long time and then downplayed them as temporary, they can no longer contain inflation in a hurry. What solutions are feasible?

The ECB Faces a Predicament, the Euro an Impasse

With the now obvious failure of the ECB’s inflationary low interest rate policy, things are now also bad for the euro. The “whatever it takes” approach to saving the euro has reached a point where a reconsideration is necessary.

The Governments Were Financed Through by the Printing Press, And Now We Have Inflation

The rise in inflation does not fall from the sky. Inflation means general devaluation of money, not an increase in individual prices. It is the result of the money glut of the last several decades. Avoiding the dramatic consequences could make things uncomfortable.

Do We Need a ‘Great Reset’, or More Capitalism?

For many, capitalism needs to be reinvented. And yet it proved to be robust, innovative and enormously successful, especially during the pandemic. Thus, the idea of a “Great Reset” merely serves familiar anti-capitalist prejudices.

Inflation Is Always and Everywhere a Monetary Phenomenon, Even in Pandemic and War

Damaged supply chains and war are boosting prices, but they are not the only real cause of rising inflation. The problem is the central banks’ expansionary monetary policy.

The Green (Self-)Deception: Neither Progressive nor Socially Minded

The Greens in Germany are masters at absolving themselves of responsibility for stagnation and failure to modernize. Yet it is primarily they who are responsible for this. They are neither socially minded nor progressive.

What Does the Coronavirus Crisis Teach Us about the Labor Market?

The Covid-19 crisis threw many out of work, many suffered accordingly, and labor markets were also damaged. Depending on the situation, some governments fared better than others. In any case, policymakers can learn a few things from the pandemic.

Paper Money Tricksters: From John Law to Today’s Central Banks

Today’s money experiments follow to the letter the procedure of one of the greatest money tricks in history: the paper money experiment of John Law in France 1716-1720.

Low Interest Rate Policy Cripples the Economy and Reduces Prosperity

Japan’s low interest rate policy began 30 years ago, about 15 years earlier than in the EU. But three decades of low interest rate policy meant three lost decades for Japan. In an interview with Stefan Beig, economist Gunther Schnabl explains why the low interest rate policy is so damaging to prosperity.