Austrian Business Cycle Theory: Answering the Critics

This page accompanies my video “Yglesias Doesn’t Understand Ron Paul (or Economics)”:

The video is a response to this Yglesias article in Slate.

What is Austrian economics? Check out this essay and this essay for some background.

For a basic overview of the Austrian theory of the business cycle, watch this video, which someone excerpted from a lengthier speech of mine:

For a more systematic overview, continue with these resources:

Meltdown by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
America’s Great Depression, 5th ed. (html here, .pdf here) by Murray N. Rothbard
“My Reply to Krugman on Austrian Business Cycle Theory” by Robert P. Murphy
Sound Money and the Business Cycle” by John P. Cochran
Banking and the Business Cycle” (mp3 audio) by Joseph T. Salerno
Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle (a graphical representation of the Austrian theory) by Roger W. Garrison

For the Carilli/Dempster article mentioned in the video, on why entrepreneurs would still make dubious investment decisions even if they did understand Austrian business cycle theory, click here.

For why Yglesias is wrong about the timing of the housing collapse and the recession, see Robert P. Murphy, “Can Austrian Theory Explain Construction Employment?

For economic cycles before the Fed, see our resource page on that topic.

For more videos and resources, follow Tom Woods on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!

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