Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751) was a leading minister in the Tory government of 1710-14, prime minister for four days at its end, then after the Hanoverian succession spent the rest of his life mostly under attainder and moving between opposition, journalism and exile. At the end of his life, disgusted with political developments […]

Austrian economists’ explanation of the 2007-08 financial crisis, that it resulted from a mountain of “malinvestment” in housing and the debt related thereto, in the United States, Britain, Spain and several other countries, is now generally accepted as correct. Unfortunately the actions, monetary, fiscal and regulatory, taken to resolve that crisis have had the effect […]

I discussed last week how Ben Bernanke’s easy-money policies could be reversed, should Mitt Romney win the Presidency and wish to reverse them. It is only fair, therefore, to discuss the other possibility: should Barack Obama be re-elected and (ignoring his fiscal and regulatory policies, which in any case would be modified by Congress) allow […]

Mitt Romney has now said he would not reappoint Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Fed. What a relief! (Or maybe not; I still reckon Obama has a 50-50 chance of winning in November, and he will now presumably get Bernanke’s help, including a dose of QEIII at either the September or October Fed meetings, […]